1. Designing a Research Package
Team Leader Training
Designing a Research Package
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2. Designing a Research Package
Bob’s team is just beginning work on preparing a research package for the next few years. He asked team members to submit ideas to him within the assigned topic area, and they have generated several. From this, he sees a couple of promising ideas. Not only do these research ideas align with his interests, but they would seem relevant to the military as well. Unfortunately, he also sees a couple of small problems. First, the research ideas/approaches are only tangentially related to each other. In other words, they don’t really fit together as neatly as he might like. Second, both are relatively small in scope, lasting only a couple years in total. Despite these reservations, he presses on. He informs the team that these are the ideas around which he’d like to form a research package proposal. He takes these two and add another that he has come up with just to fill out the program, and then he takes the research package to his chief.

3. Question & Answer Session
Q1. What do you predict his chief’s reaction will be to his new research package proposal?

4. Question & Answer Session
Q2. What other methods might Bob have considered for generating a coherent research program?

5. Question & Answer Session
Q3. What is the best way to incorporate his team into the research planning process?

6. Q4. What are the best practices in designing a research package?
Question & Answer Session
Q4. What are the best practices in designing a research package?

7. Designing a Research Package (Cont.)
Bob’s chief is not wild about the program, but allows him to go forward with it. He begins lining up support with potential sponsors and puts in his data collection requests. A year in, things are moving along and one of his research efforts is finished. He s the sponsors he spoke with the year before only to find that they have moved to other assignments or been deployed. The new military incumbents don’t seem to be interested in being briefed or reviewing the report.

8. Q5. What went wrong in this situation?
Question & Answer Session
Q5. What went wrong in this situation?

9. Q6. Where does Bob go from here?
Question & Answer Session
Q6. Where does Bob go from here?

10. Question & Answer Session
Q7. How might he regroup at this point to end up in two years with successful research products?

11. Designing a Research Package (Cont.)
This research package may have been doomed from the start. First, there was no identified transition path for the research products. Second, the way the package was developed left a lot to be desired as his team was not well integrated into the development process. He may also have ended up with less enthusiasm for the package as a result. He failed to maintain contact with sponsors. A team meeting with time allocated for brainstorming may have generated additional ideas solidified around a coherent theme.
Keep your mind on the big picture and how ARI develops a transition path for products. Set up clear and efficient processes for involving your team.

12. Designing a Research Package (Cont.)
The research package Bob put forward was not especially successful and his chief asked him to go back to the drawing board. It is now the following year. He believes he has learned a great deal since his last somewhat negative experience developing a research package. Throughout the past couple of months, he has been asking his researchers to note any promising studies that catch their interest and send ideas his way. Now that it is time to move forward, he decides that a fully integrative approach is what he needs. He decides ahead of time on a tentative direction for a research package. Next, he tries to organize the ideas that his team provided, grouping those similar enough to constitute a research package. He tries to find out if these topics are too similar to things ARI has done in the past by talking with his chief and some senior researchers in his unit. He also attempts to estimate how much each will cost.

13. Designing a Research Package (Cont.)
Finally, He sets up a group meeting, which his entire team attends. During the meeting he provides an overview and presents each idea that has been submitted. He solicits feedback on each idea and includes a brainstorming session for related ideas along the same lines. At the end of the admittedly long meeting, he has a series of experiments that cohere around a solid theme that could easily be briefed in a couple of minutes. He also takes this opportunity to set developmental milestone deadlines for the coming year.

14. Question & Answer Session
Q8. What did Bob do well?

15. Question & Answer Session
Q9. What did Bob do poorly?

16. Lessons Learned, Slide 1 of 4
It was good to begin the process early, asking researchers to note any promising studies that catch their interest over a couple of months. Most good ARI ideas, however, come from putting several items together. Did Bob assure that the researchers were reading Army planning documents, military journals, issue papers, and field manuals? If his researchers are reading the literature with an eye to solving current Army problems in their lane they will likely have much better ideas than just relying on articles that ‘catch their interest.’

17. Lessons Learned, Slide 2 of 4
It is not so good that he decided ahead of time on a tentative direction for a research package without involving his chief. His chief should be intimately involved with setting the initial tentative direction of the research package. Trying to organize the ideas that his team has provided, grouping those similar enough to constitute a research package, seeing if the topics are too similar to things ARI has done in the past, and estimating how much each will cost are all good things that help organize items and will make the group meetings more productive. It is a good idea for the chief to attend the meeting. There are several positive features of including the chief in the meeting: (a) researchers see for themselves that the chief is interested in their ideas, (b) the chief is able to see researchers’ effort, thus they get “credit” for their good ideas, and (c) everyone gets immediate feedback and direction without delay. And who knows? The chief may have a good idea of his or her own!

18. Lessons Learned, Slide 3 of 4
At the meeting, Bob provided an overview and presented each idea. Why not let the team members present their own ideas? It could be a worthwhile experience for them. Including a brainstorming session is good. Including some flexibility for new ideas or improvements on those already presented is a great way to involve everyone in the process.
The meeting may turn out to be a lengthy one, but the initial stages of program planning are very important and worth a lot of effort. Bob and his team will have to live with the decisions for a long time.

19. Lessons Learned, Slide 4 of 4
Invest time planning and executing processes for making decisions with long-term consequences.
Know what a good research package should look like.
Seek input from knowledgeable others.
Involve the chief early on.
Involve subordinates as well.
Provide direction which helps them learn how to develop ideas that contribute to ARI’s mission.
Create opportunities for your researchers to get credit for their ideas.
Take ideas different from your own seriously without losing sight of the need for a cohesive research package that your chief would agree is valuable in solving current Army problems.
Themes
ARI Knowledge; Breadth of Vision; Developing Subordinates;
Planning and Organizing; Setting Expectations