TPS - Meeting notes on The Turing Values

# TPS - Meeting notes on The Turing Values ## Mention an example of a work task where you have demonstrated one of the Turing's values in action? ### Transparency/reproducibility * I'm very proud of all the Turing Way work around transparency / reproducibility and inclusion - also all of TPS was designed around the Turing Values so data safe haven and AutSPACEs are also very much aligned! * Documentation Harmonisation work - looking at transparency (both process and outputs) * Working on building an inclusive community with AutSPACEs through enabling wide range of participants to give input in their perferred ways * Publicly archiving notes and internal processees of transparency * Trying to embrace inclusivity and transparency re AIM Conference 2024 with the first town hall for the AIM community ### Transparency/respect: * For PitchFest I've been trying to bring all the RAM team onboard and make this a fun and engaging opportunity for all of us to participate and shape the event. So transparency, trust, respect. ### Trust/Transparency: * Making sure that there are resources to support research teams to have a clear understanding of progamme progress on things like AI UK & stakeholder engagement so they can trust their work will be included/highlighted ### Inclusivity * Involving autistic people in research, making sure they are very much a part of the conversation about research and it's aims and methods. I feel this is part of integrity and transparency, as well as inclusivity. * So many parts of TTW align with these aims by default. But most recently, our work around accessibility in the project and decentralisation of the project. * Trying to embrace inclusivity and transparency re AIM Conference 2024 with the first town hall for the AIM community * 2024 LDW (very exciting!) which is all about inclusivity - making data science and AI accessible to everyone. My team are looking at activities we can bring to this that really speak to that, but in a fun and unusual way. * I generally have a think of how to include diverse groups and underrepresented regions in events that I organise. As it is not possible to spend too much time on this I try to reach out beyond my networks ### Leadership * Worked on MarRi UK where despite not being a domain expert ### Respect * The description under "respect" jumped out at me - not sure "respect" is the correct title for that but I think it describes a lot of the work we all do with regards to pushing for team science, inclusion, transparency * Finding a way to champion all the roles and contributions made during the course of a UKRI TAS Hub project, ranging from RAs to graphic designers. ------------------ ## Discuss how you feel about the value and how useful it is as a guiding principle for the institute. ### BR1: Trust > We create an environment where we have trust and can be trusted Notes: * Hard to distinguish between trust, integrity and respect * Different opinions on these values: * So vague - there's no organisation that wouldn't want these as values * Important because trust is an essential foundation * It is hard to measure * It seems like an essential value: this is fundamental. * Operationalisation is lacking - how do they show up in everyday life and how the institue is organised needs more work * Broad and generic - but needs specifics * Something as basic and important is really hard * It's hard to build but very easy to break - it requires a constant maintenance * When the trust is destoryed it is impossible to have a constructive working relationship; * Lots of different dimensions to trust * being reliable, * feel safe to say what you think * growth mindset * accepting criticsm not feeling personally attacked * possible to be vulnerable and critique * being able to discuss things * competence - trust someone to do things well or having confidence in them following up in their actions/doing what they say they're going to do * you can have trust even if someone has a negative reaction * consistency * bleeds into the respect side of things * trust that people will ask for help of needed - you have a relationship where they can communicate * communicate when there's changes I need to know - even if infrequent; helps relationship ### BR2: Respect > We all have different roles, priorities and challenges but our shared purpose is the same Notes: * Useful policy to point people towards if they're not following * It is one thing to tell people not to be disrespectful (minimum we should do) but there are lots of different ways to show respect... * Shaping us towards the positive aspect of the value (focus often on the negative aspect, when we do not meet the value) * Important to remember this isn't just about how we treat each other within the Turing, but making sure we respect and value external colleagues who come in with very different roles and expertise, such as suppliers and other contractors * Difference between respecting people as individuals and respecting their roles, expertise and what they bring to the table * Positive aspect of how it is written in ATI's values * Being cognisant of senior colleagues and their priorities, pressures, etc. and respecting their time - they aren't just there to serve us * Important to be explicit about the value others have brought to a project, and thank others when you feel you have been shown with appropriate respect * Parting question: respect requires intention, or only behaviour? #### BR3: Transparency > Everyone should understand the how and the why of our decisions and actions Notes: * Hasn't been a challenge because the teams I have been working with so far have been quite small, so easier to keep track of what everyone was doing . * Important to be transparent and acknowledge limitations of your own work to help others build on it. If people were more tansparent in their ability or not to provide information that could help decision making * Transparency is a key issue. Though being open. A sine qua non condition to build trust and sense of belonging in the community. Communication and access to information are essential to ensure everyone can meaningfully contribute to decision-making, but it's very challenging. * Sometimes people do not want to share information that would help carry work further. * reasoning or rationale provided by individuals as to why they can't be transparent is helpful for decision making #### BR4: Inclusivity > We expect our Turing community to contribute to a culture that is inclusive and free of barriers Notes: * Potentially one of the more useful values - less vague than some of the others? * Corporate values don't end up being very useful * Difficult to enforce * Not co-created - not ongoing conversations * Question - is it better to have something than have nothing? * Are these used? * What would be the evidence of this value being put into practice and someone being held accountable to it? * Difficult to evidence! ### BR5: Leadership > Leadership is everyone's business; Turing leaders set the right tone and lead by example Notes: * AI **leadership** is a core part of the institute's mission * What are we leading on? and where? * Many leaders from Turing are from academia where there is not formal leadership training... which has implications on leadership quality * Leadership for whom? Is for externally or publicly facing or more internally facing, providing guidance & direction to the team * If embodying leadership is a value for each member of the institute... how do we enable that? * How to create the environment so that members of a team are empowered to act as leaders (e.g. make decisions) * Role of leaders: delegate, make decisions, share direction/vision/clarity * It's one thing to feel like I have freedom to engage as a leader, but another to feel like there is a clear opportunity to do so #### BR6: Integrity > We are all ambassadors for the Turing's mission of changing the world for the better Notes: * What does it even mean to change the world for the better? * The difficulty of being as reductive as possible * Integrity - how we do it: https://mathison.turing.ac.uk/page/2254?SearchId=380197 * How do we separate the values of the individual and at the organisational level? (i.e. 'aligning actions and principles') * Operationalising Turing's value: RCM team has done exercise to build guiding principles: https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/open-research-community-management#operationalising-the-turings-values-in-community-management * Easier to think about immediate implications or individual level * To grasp what integrity looks like, it might be easier to look at the level of different roles: * i.e. with Community Management, it could be inclusity and accessibility practices, enacting transparency on an ongoing basis. * with Project Management it is points for iterative developments: project meetings, check points and debriefing. * Debriefing/wash-ups/lesson learned process in teams/projects * Milestones evaluation and feedback for improvement * with community management it is about not working in isolation, allowing others to look at the work and giving feedback, actively involving community members in shared development through discussion and collective reflections ### Main room discussion *How could the Turing operationalise these values? Are there missing or duplicated values?* *Please help the team by adding notes as the discussion evolves if you have capacity to write and listen at the same time.* * Trust, respect and integrity all very similar * Low trust means you might not get accurate information * Critisism could actually be a sign of trust! People believe that there is a process of accountability behind the value! * Difference between being disrespectful and not showing respect - bad action vs pro-social action * Venn diagram overlaps between leadership and trust and leadership and integrity * Is leadership a value? * Is this something that everyone should embody? * Should there be formal training? * Is a research leader the same thing that this value is trying to capture? * How do you create space for everyone to participate in leadership? * Accountability for values * How do we operationalise skill building so everyone understands their responsibilities? * Leadership can be a very positive value - and some folks don't see themselves as leaders so that phrasing of "everyone has a role to play" is importand and useful * Open leadership * Variable adoption of the values across the Institute * EG: Programme management isn't as transparent as it could be - too siloed, lots of different templates * Needs funding and strategic (person time) investment to fix * Missing value: responsibility? * Agreeing to take on tasks that need to be done (rather than saying - that's someone else's job!) * Missing value: diversity? * In contrast to inclusivity * Missing value: accountability? * Expecting to be held to a particular standard * Missing value: sustainability? * Does the institute also care about keeping the lights on? Having enough money! * ATI specific values, not all of them have ot be universal. Values that represent or mission * Interesting the courage that is required to be honest about "unpopular" values * Is having a set of corporate values better than having nothing? * Everyone would agree with these and there is potential harm that comes from having to require people to conform... or not being able to enforce them! * "I sometimes wonder if an organisation's values should be something that is unique to them rather than just, we want to be good people going good things" * Everyone comes from different perspectivse and brings individual values - so there is a value to having the Institute write down what is preferred * Can we re-open some of the discussions or show case how the values are demonstrated across the Institute?