We discovered a few common themes between our ideas while performing the SKS exercise. One thing that we both wanted to start doing was meet with our group more. Because our project is not actively doing work this semester, it is not necessary for us to meet in a professional capacity. We want to meet with our group even if there is no work to be done. Doing this will improve intergroup relationships and help prepare us for working together during fieldwork. It will also allow us to update our team members on work done during class. Something else we would want to start doing as an extension of these meetings would be to start meeting in person when possible. As the world recovers from the COVID pandemic and more amenities open up, meeting in person would be a powerful improvement to team synergy and mental health. Especially since we need to be COVID 19 vaccinated to go to Sierra Leone, meeting in person becomes more possible every day. We will reach out to our group members and try to set a meeting time to accomplish this change.

One thing that we determined that we want to keep doing as a team is putting forth effort into the blog posts, which require us to think differently about our project and our place in it. Working as a team on the posts also improves team synergy. Blog posts often require us to write down plans and motivations of the project. By writing down our goals and how to achieve them, we advance our project and give ourselves a better idea of our place in it. The blog post on gaining institutional review board approval was also very relevant to our project and required us to learn about and summarize the process. IRB approval is something we will work on in the near future, and writing down how we can go about the process will help. Future blog posts will probably ask us about Sierra Leone and our fieldwork. The more that we plan for our fieldwork, the better, and future blog posts can help with this. It would be easy to put the bare minimum amount of effort into every post, however that does not benefit our overall project. Although more work can always be put into these posts, we are satisfied with the work that we do and plan to maintain the current level in the future. 

One thing that we want to stop doing as a team is work in isolated teams. Partly because of the pandemic and partly because of the nature of our project, our work last semester and over the summer before it divided the team into subgroups. This meant that we were able to work more efficiently, but it also meant that communication between the two subgroups was limited. In the future, when dividing into smaller groups, we want there to be more communication between them. This could be accomplished through more consistent overall team meetings or more frequent check ins with our faculty advisor. Doing this will be especially beneficial if we go to Sierra Leone. While working in the field, we will most likely have to divide ourselves into groups and go to different locations. Ensuring proper communication between groups will be very important. Taking the steps described above will go a long way towards improving teamwork within our project.

Build Your Collaborative Plan

At a team meeting, recall the critical success factors of your best Team Experiences from your Individual Profiles as you discuss your Goals (small g and BIG G), Roles, Procedures & Relationships, using the prompts you see below.  Document your discussion and agreements by filling in this Collaborative Plan Template, removing each prompt as you respond to it, or using the blank template that follows as a guide. The template expands: use as many pages as you need.

• Watch Guy Kawasaki’s talk “The Art of the Start“
• Write down at least 10 solid takeaways from the video

1. Guy Kawasaki uses humor appropriately to enhance his presentation. When humor is used incorrectly, either by offending viewers or reducing their respect for the speaker, it can detract from a presentation. Kawasaki’s humor often was used hand in hand with his past experiences, improving his credibility. This is something we can try to incorporate into our own mid-semester presentation.
2. Kawasaki makes the very profound statement that successful companies are those that start out trying to make meaning instead of making money. He expands on this, saying that if you make meaning then money will follow. However, if your goal is only to make money, you will not attract the people needed achieve either outcome.
3. Kawasaki makes the point that starting companies should develop a mantra instead of a mission statement. This should be a few words, unique, and should capture the attention of employees and customers. Mission statements are often complex and difficult to understand, and they do not capture the passion of a project.
4. An important part of getting going is to find soulmates that compliment your passion and your strengths and weaknesses. Getting a project going requires teamwork, and the members of our team should add to it instead of just being a part of it. This creates balance in both knowledge and work atmosphere.
5.  Kawasaki makes the point that we should niche ourselves to be successful. We need to differentiate ourselves from others with similar goals. For both business and our project, selling ourselves as unique will be essential to our success. As Kawasaki describes, a more unique product is more valuable to the customer.
6. 10-20-30 rule. We should have 10 slides in a presentation. The slides should be presented in 20 minutes. The smallest font used should be 30 point. This helps you know your presentation and ensures you are not just reading off a script.
7. The key influencers in an organization are the workers, not the higher level management. Designing and implementing products with these people in mind is essential to success.
8. Test drives are important for selling a product. Allowing test drives tells people that you think they are smart enough to try your product and smart enough to buy it. Find ways to test drive products to boost sales.
9. Your business model should be specific, simple, and you should ask a variety of types of people about your business model.
10. Set milestones that are significant but realistic.

1. Does your work require IRB approvals…right now? At a later stage? If Yes, articulate your detailed IRB strategy. If No, explain why you don’t need IRB approval and identify situations when you might need IRB approval.

Because we are doing work that involves intervention or interaction with people to obtain data for research purposes, our work is considered human subjects research. The basis of our trip to Sierra Leone is to collect data for the development of our screener from the local people. If we hope to go to Sierra Leone this summer, then we will need IRB approval sooner rather than later. Even ignoring the (hopefully) upcoming trip, we would eventually need IRB approval anyway,  as we plan to develop our screener and use it on actual people while still gathering data. To cover our bases, we will most likely want to apply for a full committee review of our research. An expedited request may also be possible for our research, but we will need more information before committing to that process.

To submit an application for IRB approval, we must submit a New Protocol via IRBNet. The link for the lehigh page with instructions for this process can be seen below. 

https://research.cc.lehigh.edu/irb-submit-new-protocol

This application process will essentially involve creating a new project on IRBnet and filling out the application form before attaching it to our submission package. We will also fill out any relevant supplemental forms and attach them. The submission package must also be shared with all team members (faculty and students)  so that they can digitally sign their approval for the submission. The relevant faculty member (Dr. Kristi Morin) should select their role as the principal investigator when signing the submission package. All others should select a different role from the list provided. After every team member has signed the submission package, we can submit it. We should make sure when submitting it that we list the Lehigh University IRB as the reviewing board. Once we have submitted our application, the Research Integrity Office at Lehigh will conduct a pre-review of our submission and inform us of changes or additional materials required before the IRB reviews it. Any further steps in the process for IRB approval will depend on the board’s decision while reviewing our application. This entire process should take 4-6 weeks and we should plan accordingly. 

2. Develop an outline for your mid-semester presentations. What supporting evidence will you provide for each point? How will you boost your credibility every step of the way?

Due to the amazing work of our team members in previous semesters, we have a strong basis to work off while developing our presentation.

• Introduction
  • Introduce ourselves and our team members
  • Tell our audience our overarching goal
    • 20% of children in Sierra Leone screened by year 3 (2022)
  • Describe who we are partnering with 
    • Focus on Sierra Leone Autistic Society and the University of Makeni
• Describe the problem
  • Misinformation, stigma, and danger of Autism in Sierra Leone
  • Lack of Autism research in non-Western countries
  • Describe model used in previous presentation
    • Consult with group member who designed it to better understand how to explain it
• Describe the work we are doing and why it is important
  • Describe timeline of plan (seen in districts graphic)
  • Metasynthesis findings (problems with current screeners)
  • Talk about work on feasibility of current screeners
    • Readability, cost, cultural sensitivity
• What have we been up to recently
  • Work has slowed due to need for field work
  • Currently looking for and applying for grants
    • Success of Davis Peace Project Grant
  • Last semester we continued to work on submitting papers and conducting meta synthesis of current research available on disabilities in Africa 

We will boost our credibility in multiple ways during our presentation. A large part of this will come from the presentation of our presentation, if you get my meaning. We should be passionate and clear while speaking about our work. This is our research and our goals that we are presenting, and acting like we own them will greatly improve our credibility in the eyes of our audience. Throughout our presentation, it is important to mention what we have accomplished in order to further demonstrate our credibility. Mentioning the papers that we have published/are working on publishing, the grants that we have successfully applied to, as well as the individual work done by Dr. Morin and our grad students will increase our credibility. A final way to improve our credibility outside our actual presentation of the material is to discuss our partnerships with organizations in Sierra Leone. Talking about our relationships and planned collaborations with other organizations will go a long way to establishing our credibility and helping create an image of our place within the larger picture. We hope to establish and maintain credibility throughout our presentation this semester.

1. Waking up to an alarm early in the morning and wanting to go back to sleep
2. Making a meal that you can share with others
3. Laughing with someone else over almost nothing
4. Listening to a new song and really enjoying it
5. Remembering the scene from “The Giver” where the protagonist sees colors for the first time
6. Drinking chocolate milk
7. Meeting new people
8. Talking to a random stranger while at an airport
9. Procrastinating
10. Oversleeping and then waking up not remembering where you are

My philosophy of engagement in regards to the work done during GSIF is to make a meaningful and lasting impact while building relationships between both myself and others and myself. I should engage because the kind of work we are doing matters. It matters to the people working on the project, it matters to the people that the project will help, it matters to the advancement of autism research, it matters to other people engaged in the GSIF program, it matters to Lehigh university, and it matters to many many more. When asked in these blog prompts why I was interested in GSIF, time and time again I’ve answered by stating that GSIF affords to opportunity to actually make a difference. Developing a screener to help diagnose children in Sierra Leone is a tangible and impactful goal. It would pave the way for expanded knowledge and services regarding autism throughout the country. I should be engaged, as should other involved in the project, because real people will be affected by it.

Engagement can happen in many different ways. People can engage from up close or afar, people can engage physically or mentally, people can engage voluntarily or for some sort of payment. I, and other people in GSIF, must engage in a way that ensures long term development. When working on my project, I should be thinking about the future and working on the project in a way that ensures long term success. GSIF is based upon making a lasting impact, and lasting impact cannot be achieved without actively working in a way that promotes it.

The GSIF program is highly interconnected. Outside of our individual project, we must engage with GSIF leaders, other groups within the program, the university, guests and speakers presented by the program, etc. We should engage with these groups in ways that are mutually beneficial. We should help other groups if they request it, while also relying on other groups to be prepared to help us should we need it. We should actively listen to and learn from guests, so that their time is not wasted and we actually gain something from their presentations. We should conduct ourselves with respect and integrity as members of Lehigh University, and in turn the school will provide us with resources we otherwise do not have access to. Our individual project also involves engagement with the people and government of Sierra Leone. Our ultimate goal is to help children in Sierra Leone, as well as educate people about autism. Our primary relationship should be with these children, with these people, as well as the teachers and healthcare workers that we will train to administer our screener. It is important that we engage with these people, or our project will mean nothing.

We should care about challenges, opportunities, and approaches that benefit our project. It is easy, when working on a project, to seek opportunities or approaches that ultimately do not benefit the work. We should ensure that every time that we pursue an opportunity or approach to our project, that we understand why we are doing what we are doing and how it will advance our project. No project is without challenges, and we should care about each challenge we face. It would be easy to give up when facing a challenge, or to believe that it is not worth the effort. We should approach each challenge with conviction and purpose. Although sometimes it may seem easier change our approach when facing a challenge, we should ask ourselves whether changing approach would benefit our project more than overcoming the challenge.

When the question of the epitaph was presented last semester, I answered that I did not know and that I believed that was ok. Not knowing what I want on my epitaph means that it could ultimately have anything. I still agree with this, I want my epitaph to stay a complete mystery. 2020 was a year that no one expected. It was a year of conflict and suffering and change. I think that year demonstrates, more than anything else, that life is full of the unexpected, both good and bad, and I want my epitaph to reflect that.