Preparedness
Supervisors find it disheartening to
work with un(der)prepared students.
Just like any other professionals, supervisors like to work with people who come prepared and with great ideas. However, our student research projects that informed this series of posts brought up what we and our colleagues have experienced many times: there is a sizable share of students that does not dive too deep into topical preparation before engaging a thesis project. Of course, there is some sense to this: why not mitigate the risk of preparing differently than the supervisor would have preferred? You cannot do too much wrong if you don’t do too much.
In The Student’s Research Companion, we discussed the role of preparedness when meeting with a supervisor in terms of the resonance students are going to get from their (potential) academic mentors. Academics are a busy crowd of people – “busy” indicating the obviously limited time and, more importantly, “people” indicating the ability to win their attention and support given the right signals. If a busy potential thesis supervisor gets the sense that the investment of their effort will result in a productive, purposeful exchange, they will be more willing to support. Thus, the biggest reason for preparing the initial (and every subsequent) contact with a supervisor has not only to do with making these exchanges efficient and effective, but also desirable in terms of palpable progress. Showing preparation will drive a supervisor’s motivation to invest time and dedication to the project’s success and make future collaborations in post-grad programs more likely. It seems to be an important and helpful reminder that supervisors are most fittingly considered research peers that may help a project along greatly, but do not have any obligation to do so. Well-prepared meetings and other exchanges go a long way in oiling those experiential and relational wheels of support. In a nutshell:
Instead of seeking and offering a meeting or a call,
let’s rather seek and offer well-prepared and
effective opportunities for project progress.
A first step towards more prepared exchanges is to reconsider meetings, emails, and calls in the context of a research project as a possible mean of progress rather than a mean of communication. Especially when time is of the essence, it pays to know one’s goal, the possible and impossible routes to get to that goal, to make a clear proposal, and find support or the suggestion of an alternative route. Coaching students to consider time with their supervisors as critical opportunities to advance can help keep the amount of un(der)prepared chats low. Second, it helps to signal appreciation for inspiring, topically well-informed, and thought-provoking presentations and exchanges. While progress and productivity of the first step are useful drivers of efficiency and sense of flow, only fascination of topics and findings provide sense to the journey. An efficient journey without any sense and substantial, shared meaning would be missing the point of research. Once we reconsider our touchpoints to be something in which preparation is self-evident, merely having a chat about a project in most cases will subside. This will, in turn, free up those resources that will be needed for more critical cases
How do you encourage students to prepare? Possibly, you even prefer students to come with a free and open mind to discuss ideas and approaches? For which kinds of meetings do you see advantages in preparation? Where is it more useful to jointly develop ideas on the spot?