Somebody's food - paper published! - Some tips

 We finally did it!

Our project work has been published in an article for the Journal of the Operational Research Society.  It has been a great learning experience to have organised and led this process.  If I can offer some tips to authors who want to get their work published after a research project, they will be:

1) Draft whatever you can and send it.  Looking back, the very first draft version of the paper does not resemble much of the final one.  Yes, we included some diagrams at the beginning (we wanted to show some data), but even they were very preliminary versions.  We put the first draft out there and asked for feedback from co-authors (not every one contributed in the same way).  We started the process as a new stage after the project funding ended.  And asked for help, which we got in unexpected ways.  

2) Try to use the help you get in the ways it comes.  Some co-authors were good at refining the writing of ideas and adding their own.  Others were too specialised.  I had to find a way of accommodating their contributions.  I also had to adapt my schedule to theirs.   And wait patiently.  One of the co-authors wrote only a few paragraphs but they were unique in the way that they helped us position the paper in the current literature and discussions.  Another used the language of her discipline (not systems thinking).  So we had to find ways to translate contributions.  Often, we mean very similar things.  

3) Make decisions.  As much as I waited patiently for contributions, I had to shape the content of the article to what I thought was important and to meet deadlines!  Gradually, the scope of what could be changed had to be reduced and some contributions were reduced or lefr for the next paper.  Reviewers assume that there is consensus among co-authors.  So should you as lead author.  

4) Involve practitioners.  We had a project group with practitioners, so we asked for their feedback.  Like academics, they are very busy people and moved onto other projects if not their day to day job (which is not to write papers!).  They said though that the main benefit of their involvement was not the paper but the learning that came with it.  This and other insights (they have helped disseminate the paper in their networks, and they have praised it with their peers in front of me!) are definitely worth considering.  

5).  Enjoy and use it! The paper was published online a few months ago.  Am still over the moon with it!  I keep talking to people about it and it has brought me other possibilities for future research.  Whilst I decide what to do next, am contacting people who I think can benefit from knowing about it.  Not a big network in terms of numbers.  

Sadly, I have to fight back the urge to think of the next paper in a better ranked journal.  Luckily I have got busy with other commitments, but hey, I keep looking at this paper.  I am hope the joy lasts for longer ! 

Somebody's food - lessons learned for project work

Our project "somebody's food" has come to an end.  And there are very interesting learning lessons to take forward.  

It was a great experience to be working with other academics and practitioner.  At some point during the project, we had to stop and reflect about our own goals to be pursued.  Also because myself as a PI was trying to move forward without much success.

Coming from different disciplines (engineering and management) and backgrounds (media, technology venturing), it transpired that our goals were about a) ensuring successful adoption of a technology  (anaerobic digestion) whilst also b) making sure people were going to use it.   And c) supporting our university campus managers who needed to meet specific targets (i.e. reducing single plastic use or food waste).  

Some of these goals were not explicit at the beginning of the project.  They gradually emerged.  And had to be managed.  One element that helped in this regard was to design a future campus vision, where all these goals could coexist.  And so we did, following a suggestion from our industry partner.  We included a slightly different goal instead of implementing anaerobic digestion: composting, its supporting processes and behaviours.  In preparing the vision, it also helped that we had an implicit common ground that became more prominent:  The circular economy or CE.  This is a kind of paradigm that suggests transforming business practices to eliminate if not reuse waste emerging from them.  

At this point in time, we have shared our vision with several campus managers.  There is a wealth of activity to meet waste reduction targets and generate awareness about waste.  We keep updating our vision to consider new possibilities and also the feedback received.  

What a year this 2023 has been!

 Finally, some time to write this blog about 2023.

It has been a great year, full of ups and downs.  On the up, it is great to have seen my latest book been published.  My encounters with ritual and systems thinking, yielding valuable insights that I hope will inspire others.

I found a great creative writing group, in which I have felt at home.  At times though it has been my own fear of not fitting in that has stopped me from being fully present there.  But overall, this group has helped me value my feelings and ways of expressing them.  Together with my other well being groups, I have become more accepting of who I am, something that seems to becoming difficult (or easy?) as years go by.  I have been giving myself permission to be more artistry and poetic.  Coming from an engineering background, and also an anxious background, it is a daily permission I need to give to myself. No need to replay tapes about the past too much, specially my old anxious reactions.  There is always choice. Difficult to believe, more difficult to put in practice!  I will try not to control the outcome of what I say or do.  

The children are growing up.  Accepting that they are becoming independent, and unique persons on their own has also been a challenge.  They keep surprising me. Sometimes I wonder if or how I am one of the people who see them grow, guiding them whenever possible.  Life gives us unexpected turns and things.  Perfectionist by heart, permission accepted not without fear.  Creativity can come to the rescue of souls like mine.  It won't do the homework for me of having to accept things as they are, but could help me make the best of such things.  

Our world is in wars.  They look unjust, unfair, as if ruled by pernicious Gods.  We are not in ancient Greek times anymore.  We are supposed to be rational and just, after all these years since.  But we still act as if we want myths to be re-lived.  But hey, we are also more creative, and our creativity is also fuelled by artificial intelligence (AI).  Possibly the most searched and discussed topic nowadays.  Again, whether we make reasonable or good use of it is up to us.  

My book on ritual and systems thinking (again it is me still excited about it!) has helped me to understand a bit more how we need ritual, its features of opaqueness and redundancy, its uncertainty of outcome, how we can use ritual to better feel at home in the face of uncertainties, and how we do not need to rationalise them too much (even if there are now claims about the well-being benefits of ritual).  We are part of societies that perpetuate certain rituals.  And we are not to take ourselves too seriously.  Not even in the face of this or other pandemics.  We can be resilient, we just need to unload unnecessary fears I think.  

The year 2024 comes in a few days.  A friend has just told me how uncertain it looks.  Yes it does.  I can only wish for one thing: Let us try to just be here and now.  Hope is still there, it has been.  Maybe this is what our end of year with a very important birth is about.