Researcher Development Programme (RDP) course timetable

Why this course might make a difference
While the first year report is arguably the first step in completing your PhD, the process of taking this first step can be fraught with uncertainty, particularly if you’re still ‘finding your feet’.

Whether you are feeling confused about the first year report – or just want to become a more effective writer – the overall purpose of this course is to help you improve the writing both of your first year report and of your research in general.

Previous Participant Feedback:

“It helped me benchmark my progress against others, understand my specific challenges and get motivated to just write now, perfect later.”

“It really got me started on writing and gave me a better sense of where I was and where I was heading with my first year report and PhD overall.”

“To hear what are the expectations for the first year report, and what it should be included there.”

The first step toward confident leadership is assured and well-balanced self-leadership. Are you really aware of how you lead yourself every day? This workshop aims to inspire you to be a self-leader by developing strategies to extend your awareness and confidence to take action and design the professional outcomes you are looking for. We will encourage you to think about how to recognise patterns of your own behaviour that might hold you back so that you can have the understanding and tools to communicate yourself and your perspective with awareness and confidence. This will create a firm foundation on which to build your leadership of others.

This workshop leads onto Postdocs: Leading Others. We recommend that you do these workshops after having first completed Postdocs: An Initial Guide to Leadership.

Outcomes

• Explore and experience your skills, strengths, abilities and style in detail within your individual context.
• Consider how to extend your own self-leadership on a daily basis through a variety of strategies.
• Apply self-knowledge, awareness and techniques to your repertoire of leadership skills.

Aimed at first-year PhD students, this course is designed to get you thinking and working effectively on writing your end-of-first-year-report. How to start? What is expected? How do you make it work for you? These and many other important questions, hints and tips will be addressed in this half-day session.

Outcomes:

• Understand the standard form and function of the first year report
• Start planning the structure of your report
• Experience the benefits of editing and receiveing feedback on writing

While there might be a simple ‘cure’ for procrastination – just get started on the things you’re putting off – for many of us, this simple ‘cure’ is not necessarily easy.

Why this course might make a difference
The overall purpose of this intensive, practical workshop is to help you manage your procrastination.

Outcomes:
With this aim in mind, specific outcomes of the course include:

Raising our awareness of:

• What procrastination actually is
• Our reasons for procrastinating and our habits when we do so
• Our rationalizations when procrastinating
• Two key steps to overcoming our procrastination
• Practical strategies and tips

Previous feedback:
“It helped me realize some deep reasons that cause me to procrastinate.“

“It made me think of all the ways in which I procrastinate and gave me several tools and ideas to help me improve my focus.”

It’s that time of year: the report is looming on the horizon and the reality of writing is here!

Aimed at first-year PhD students, with little or no academic writing experience. This course focuses on helping you develop good writing habits and become a more efficient writer. It is designed to get you thinking and to get working effectively on your end-of-first-year report / Certificate of Postgraduate Studies.

Please note, this is a beginners course, so if you already have experience in writing for academic purposes, this course might not be for you.

Outcomes:

• Understand the form and function of the first-year report
• Start planning the structure of your report
• Experience the benefits of editing and providing feedback on writing

Giving presentations is an essential skill for a researcher, be it in your deparment, at a major conference, or in your next job interview! You know your subject but sometimes issues of performance and clarity stop you being your best. Perhaps you can't project your voice, perhaps you are terrified of the Q&A, perhaps you feel your slides let you down, or perhaps you just don't know what to do to get better.

This is a highly interactive workshop that requires you to throw yourself into the activities. Everyone will be involved as we apply some of the material from the online Presentation and Performance toolkit and try it out in a safe and supportive environment.

The workshop is especially designed for those who feel less confident with the performance aspects of giving presentations. If you are comfortable standing up and talking in front of others then we recommend starting with the online materials.

Aimed at first-year PhD students, this course is designed to get you thinking and working effectively on writing your end-of-first-year-report. How to start? What is expected? How do you make it work for you? These and many other important questions, hints and tips will be addressed in this half-day session.

Outcomes:

• Understand the standard form and function of the first year report
• Start planning the structure of your report
• Experience the benefits of editing and receiveing feedback on writing

How can you make the most of your postdoc years at Cambridge? What does a strategic postdoc look like? What could you be doing now to be more strategic, intentional and agentive during your time at Cambridge?
This workshop explores how to navigate the research landscape, how to think and act strategically, and how to develop mental and emotional discipline for coping with the demands of the competitive research environment. We will explore the career journeys of former postdocs and see that there’s no one recipe for success, but there are common ingredients. This workshop is for postdoctoral researchers who want to get to and be prepared for the next step in their careers, whether that’s within academia or beyond.

Outcomes:

• Begin to take charge of your own career path
• Understand the many actions you could be taking now to achieve a career within or beyond academia
• Consider the important link between mental and emotional health and career advancement

Feedback:

“It encouraged an overall view of thinking about my career and what I want out of it and what I am good at. It also covered examples of people who stayed in academia as well as those who did not, so that I was able to consider the pros and cons of more than just one route.”

“I'm right at the start of my post-doc and it helped me to think about what I wanted to get out of the next few years in terms of my career.”

It’s that time of year: the report is looming on the horizon and the reality of writing is here!

Aimed at first-year PhD students, with little or no academic writing experience. This course focuses on helping you develop good writing habits and become a more efficient writer. It is designed to get you thinking and to get working effectively on your end-of-first-year report / Certificate of Postgraduate Studies.

Please note, this is a beginners course, so if you already have experience in writing for academic purposes, this course might not be for you.

Outcomes:

• Understand the form and function of the first-year report
• Start planning the structure of your report
• Experience the benefits of editing and providing feedback on writing

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings? Do you gain a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you in identifying how to further utilise your voice and gain greater awareness of how you present yourself, so that you can develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

It will focus on your own specific requirements, but could include anything from practical points about elocution, ideas for how to hold the attention of a room, or new confidence in speaking up as an emerging leader in your research field.

Outcomes

• Greater awareness of your voice and body, and how you come across to others
• Practical techniques to help you communicate effectively, with impact
• Improved confidence with public speaking and presentations

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings? Do you gain a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you in identifying how to further utilise your voice and gain greater awareness of how you present yourself, so that you can develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

It will focus on your own specific requirements, but could include anything from practical points about elocution, ideas for how to hold the attention of a room, or new confidence in speaking up as an emerging leader in your research field.

Outcomes

• Greater awareness of your voice and body, and how you come across to others
• Practical techniques to help you communicate effectively, with impact
• Improved confidence with public speaking and presentations

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings? Do you gain a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you in identifying how to further utilise your voice and gain greater awareness of how you present yourself, so that you can develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

It will focus on your own specific requirements, but could include anything from practical points about elocution, ideas for how to hold the attention of a room, or new confidence in speaking up as an emerging leader in your research field.

Outcomes

• Greater awareness of your voice and body, and how you come across to others
• Practical techniques to help you communicate effectively, with impact
• Improved confidence with public speaking and presentations

When opportunities come along, do you feel confident about working with people to get what you need? This course gives you a practical insight into the application of professional communication to everyday life, learning how to persuade and influence others effectively. Improving your listening and communication skills is advantageous for both your personal and your professional life.

This workshop is led by Richard Mullender, an external trainer who formerly worked for the Metropolitan Police as a hostage negotiator, and then as Lead Trainer at the National Crisis & Hostage Negotiation Unit in Scotland Yard. By looking at everyday scenarios as well as life-or-death negotiations from his professional experience – e.g. with terrorists for the release of hostages or with someone threatening to commit suicide – Richard demonstrates how to listen for ‘levers’ that help you to persuade and influence, and to secure the best possible outcome.

Outcomes:

• Be able to use communication consciously to persuade and influence effectively
• Recognize when others are using persuasive communication techniques
• Feel more confident in presenting yourself well to others and in gaining support

Aimed at first-year PhD students, this course is designed to get you thinking and working effectively on writing your end-of-first-year-report. How to start? What is expected? How do you make it work for you? These and many other important questions, hints and tips will be addressed in this half-day session.

Outcomes:

• Understand the standard form and function of the first year report
• Start planning the structure of your report
• Experience the benefits of editing and receiveing feedback on writing

Would you like to learn the skills and techniques of group coaching and see how it can support postdoc development, productivity and progression?

This workshop provides an opportunity to learn about and experience group coaching within a supportive, safe environment alongside other postdocs. We will use tools and techniques first introduced in Postdocs: Introduction to Coaching and Mentoring and Postdocs: Self-Coaching for Professional Development to support and facilitate you to coach others and be coached to progress your ideas. This workshop is intended for those wishing to set up peer group coaching in their own professional contexts.

This can be attended as an individual workshop but we strongly recommend that you attend it as part of a series starting with Postdocs: Introduction to Coaching and Mentoring and Postdocs: Self-Coaching for Professional Development.

Outcomes:

• Discover how the model of coaching in group situations can support postdoc development.
• Experience a short term group coaching situation.
• Identify when a group coaching situation could be useful in your specific context and how to set one up successfully for you and your colleagues.

Feedback:
“Thank you for the great course."

“[I found] the discussions [useful] about how to leverage successful group coaching and its hands-on examples."

When opportunities come along, do you feel confident about working with people to get what you need? This course gives you a practical insight into the application of professional communication to everyday life, learning how to persuade and influence others effectively. Improving your listening and communication skills is advantageous for both your personal and your professional life.

This workshop is led by Richard Mullender, an external trainer who formerly worked for the Metropolitan Police as a hostage negotiator, and then as Lead Trainer at the National Crisis & Hostage Negotiation Unit in Scotland Yard. By looking at everyday scenarios as well as life-or-death negotiations from his professional experience – e.g. with terrorists for the release of hostages or with someone threatening to commit suicide – Richard demonstrates how to listen for ‘levers’ that help you to persuade and influence, and to secure the best possible outcome.

Outcomes:

• Be able to use communication consciously to persuade and influence effectively
• Recognize when others are using persuasive communication techniques
• Feel more confident in presenting yourself well to others and in gaining support

Perhaps because it’s at the meeting point between the known and the unknown, research can seem to be inherently stressful; our good intentions to complete our research can in reality be fraught with setbacks. So how do we cope with these challenges?

Why this course might make a difference
The overall purpose of this two-hour practical workshop is to help you develop your resilience to cope with setbacks in your research.

Outcomes:
With this aim in mind, specific outcomes of the course include:

• Developing your knowledge of the ‘6 Cs’ of emotional resilience: Coping, Commitment, Challenge, Control, Community and (self-)Care
• Developing your application of these ‘6 Cs’

Previous feedback:
“I like the way the course was thought, it was a good mix of direct teaching, reflection and practical exercises. I think it is really well balanced as it gives you the possibility to reflect on what you are doing and what you could further improve.”

“Provided useful tools and perspectives for dealing with future set backs, and an interesting opportunity for introspection.”

“It highlighted the various support networks there exist to aid me in my PhD.”

Research can be fraught with the challenges of working with others - whether your supervisor or PI or your colleagues – and the challenge of asserting yourself appropriately.

Why this course might make a difference
The overall purpose of this practical workshop is to help you develop your assertive communication skills, to enhance your everyday interactions with others.

Outcomes:
With this in mind, the course seeks to help you develop:

• An assertive mindset
• Practical strategies for developing your assertiveness

Previous feedback:

“It was dynamic, provided a high level of interaction between trainer and trainees and presented very relevant and thought-provoking ideas.”

“It showed us ways to communicate more effectively with colleagues.”

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings? Do you gain a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you in identifying how to further utilise your voice and gain greater awareness of how you present yourself, so that you can develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

It will focus on your own specific requirements, but could include anything from practical points about elocution, ideas for how to hold the attention of a room, or new confidence in speaking up as an emerging leader in your research field.

Outcomes

• Greater awareness of your voice and body, and how you come across to others
• Practical techniques to help you communicate effectively, with impact
• Improved confidence with public speaking and presentations

Leadership is a word that seems to be ubiquitous in universities these days, but keeping a handle on all its possible meanings is becoming ever harder: research leadership, team leadership, institutional leadership, thought leadership, educational leadership, ethical leadership, inclusive leadership…

Likewise, employers beyond academia repeatedly tell us that they’re seeking researchers who can be self-motivating, proactive, strategic; can build productive relationships with colleagues at all levels of seniority; are able to create consensus and shared understanding; know how to mentor and guide as well as take direction…

So, if leadership is being talked about everywhere and yet is also very hard to define, how can you as a PhD student identify your own leadership practice and your future potential?

This interactive workshop will combine practical insights with key leadership theories in order to explore the ways in which you’re already acting as a leader; to examine how ‘follower’ behaviours have a crucial role in shaping good leadership; and to consider leadership in a variety of contexts.

The session will be led by Jen Wade, a highly experienced trainer who has been leading her own business for more than ten years, working with a diverse range of organisations across the academic, public, and commercial sectors.

Outcomes:

• Review a range of definitions of, and styles of, leadership.
• Recognise your current strengths and future potential as a leader.

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings? Do you gain a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you in identifying how to further utilise your voice and gain greater awareness of how you present yourself, so that you can develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

It will focus on your own specific requirements, but could include anything from practical points about elocution, ideas for how to hold the attention of a room, or new confidence in speaking up as an emerging leader in your research field.

Outcomes

• Greater awareness of your voice and body, and how you come across to others
• Practical techniques to help you communicate effectively, with impact
• Improved confidence with public speaking and presentations

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings? Do you gain a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you in identifying how to further utilise your voice and gain greater awareness of how you present yourself, so that you can develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

It will focus on your own specific requirements, but could include anything from practical points about elocution, ideas for how to hold the attention of a room, or new confidence in speaking up as an emerging leader in your research field.

Outcomes

• Greater awareness of your voice and body, and how you come across to others
• Practical techniques to help you communicate effectively, with impact
• Improved confidence with public speaking and presentations

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings? Do you gain a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you in identifying how to further utilise your voice and gain greater awareness of how you present yourself, so that you can develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

It will focus on your own specific requirements, but could include anything from practical points about elocution, ideas for how to hold the attention of a room, or new confidence in speaking up as an emerging leader in your research field.

Outcomes

• Greater awareness of your voice and body, and how you come across to others
• Practical techniques to help you communicate effectively, with impact
• Improved confidence with public speaking and presentations

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings? Do you gain a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you in identifying how to further utilise your voice and gain greater awareness of how you present yourself, so that you can develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

It will focus on your own specific requirements, but could include anything from practical points about elocution, ideas for how to hold the attention of a room, or new confidence in speaking up as an emerging leader in your research field.

Outcomes

• Greater awareness of your voice and body, and how you come across to others
• Practical techniques to help you communicate effectively, with impact
• Improved confidence with public speaking and presentations

Do you get the results you want from your communication with others at work? Are you able to talk with confidence in meetings? Do you gain a high level of impact when speaking in public?

This individually focused and completely confidential one-to-one coaching session will help you in identifying how to further utilise your voice and gain greater awareness of how you present yourself, so that you can develop new approaches to your communication in a wide range of professional situations.

It will focus on your own specific requirements, but could include anything from practical points about elocution, ideas for how to hold the attention of a room, or new confidence in speaking up as an emerging leader in your research field.

Outcomes

• Greater awareness of your voice and body, and how you come across to others
• Practical techniques to help you communicate effectively, with impact
• Improved confidence with public speaking and presentations