Re-imagining excellence in science
Can we re-imagine excellence in science, not as a goal and destination but as a process we can engage in on a daily basis?
When we say scientific excellence, what does our brain associate that with? High-impact papers? Prestigious grants and awards? Always keeping busy? Someone who is working long days and weekends? A particular look, age, gender, ethnicity, or behavior?
What if we shifted our mindset and said that many roads could lead to impactful science. In fact, we do not know what road is most efficient. We know this road, but what about alternative ones? Where we focus on excellence as a process instead of as a result in the future.
What would scientific excellence look like as a daily process?
Arguably, our most important tool is our brain. Thus, excellence requires us to become excellent operators of this tool. Every brain is different, but some common traits and needs can be seen across the human population. To operate and manage our brain, we need tools and time to practice these skillfully. We need to understand and familiarize ourselves with how thought patterns work and how we can change them. The brain could be viewed as a network, and as an association and survival machine. When we think one thought, the brain starts looking for other thoughts, memories, and emotions associated within its network. This has many implications. No system is perfect, and things we might not have consciously chosen to be associated with each other could still become so. Thus, we need skills and tools to debug our network, remodel it to work to our advantage, and do routine maintenance.
The brain is also operating within a very important context - our body. Our experience of the communication between the brain and body is most often noticeable in feelings and emotions. When the body has an uncomfortable feeling, the brain wants to change that and takes action away from pain and towards what it thinks will lead to better feelings. When the body has a pleasant feeling, the brain takes actions toward what it thinks will bring it more good feelings. When this happens, and we are just operating on auto-pilot, we take actions that feel good in the moment but could be and feel very bad for us over time. By becoming aware and continuously working on our emotional skills and vocabulary, we turn off the auto-pilot and take control of how we undertake the journey, which is life.
Instead of working until exhaustion. Could excellence in science look like tuning into our mental and emotional energy capacity for the day? Then, we adapt tasks to use our capacity in the best way possible, also making sure we get rest to have more capacity the next day. What can we say no to? What are our fears around saying no? Can we test our assumptions around such fears, and find out how often they are true? Practicing self-reflection regularly: do I need more rest than I currently take? Perhaps challenging our unconscious assumptions that we get more done by working long hours, and instead explore if we can get more done by resting more. To continuously keep challenging our assumptions about what excellence in science look like, and get curious about the many diverse possibilities and people it could include. Reminding and accepting ourselves as human-beings, and stop trying to be human-doings (or robots).
Can we include well-being in the process of excellence?
Can we include self-care in the process of excellence?
Can we include adult development in the process of excellence?
Can we include the courage to ask simple questions we fear might "sound stupid", to continuously further our understanding in the process of excellence?
Can we include acknowledgment and acceptance of our internal life in the process of excellence?
Can we include Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion of all our emotions and thoughts in the process of excellence?
Can we start conversations with funding agencies: for more extended grant periods, generating more stable working environments in academia, valuing well-being and mentorship in the process of excellence?
Can we re-imagine what scientific excellence means to us?
I believe we can, and this new road of living scientific excellence
is part of the Coaching in Science Initiative vision.
