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Leading with Purpose
The Power of Values in Research
Dr. Andrea Byrom
What is the importance of values in research programmes and leadership?
Great question. What are values?
To me, they are the principles and standards that I live by. They are intuitive, but at the same time you feel it immediately when the mahi doesn't align with those intuitive principles that you hold close.
Values and principles are absolutely essential in research. Everything from the ethics of how we treat animals, how we treat te taiao, to how we treat and interact with other people - those ways of working are all inherent in the way we do research. I think it is a myth that researchers are somehow objective and divorced from the mahi. It is the exact opposite! We do the work because we are naturally curious and invested in understanding the natural world. Within that wider context it therefore goes without saying that everything is connected and that if we operate with integrity and hold true to our values, we will do better research and create greater positive impact for the world around us.
I think values are even more important when it comes to research leadership. Again, it's not about treating other how you would like to be treated in return, and how you operate with integrity in an increasingly chaotic and divided world. Holding your head up high and sticking to some basic principles help guide you in doing the right thing and in leading by example.
What are your core leadership values, how did you bring them to BioH?
1. Treat others as you would like to be treated, with respect, trust, and openness to new ways of seeing the world.
2. Operate with integrity. If you go off track on your personal moral compass, acknowledge, front up, apologise, and have the brave conversations.
3. Do what is right for te taiao and for Aotearoa, not what is popular or expected.
4. Make time to deeply understand others' research. That's how you can make meaningful connections across disciplines, and genuinely champion and celebrate their mahi and their success.
5. Take time to explain why you've made a decision. People might not like the decision, but they will respect you for being honest and clear, and for setting expectations.
6. Be human and be real. Share doubts and failures with trusted colleagues. It gives perspective and sparks ideas about what to do next and how to do it better.
7. Build a leadership team that will challenge you, and test and probe your ideas. Don't surround yourself with 'yes people' - it won't help you grow and learn. Choose 'yes, and...' people who will stretch your thinking in new directions.
8. "Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum" - is a play on a Latin phrase for 'don't let the bastards grind you down', written by Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale. There will always be nay-sayers and sceptics. Don't let them shake your values or your purpose, don't let them erode what you are working for.
9. Do not be afraid to focus on strategy, not process. Bureaucracy can kill inspiration, innovation and creativity and too many leaders just go through the motions of compliance. Have a vision, create a strategy to get there, and lead with strategic intent.
10. Let Te Tiriti guide your leadership. My final one, one of the greatest lessons I learned, thanks to the amazing Mel Mark-Shadbolt, is that Te Tiriti o Waitangi is not just a document. It's a touchstone for how we in Aotearoa can demonstrate leadership in our day-to-day mahi, nationally and globally. Putting the articles of Te Tiriti into everyday practice is something worth striving for.
How did I bring these leadership values into BioH? For some of these values, I think I just did them instinctively. Others I had to learn to model more visibly, so others could see and emulate them. As a strong introvert, that visibility didn't come easily, it took some bravery to put myself out there. But over time, it made our programme stronger, and it made me more confident that this values-based approach was the right one.
What benefit did the BioH values bring to the programme?
I think the main thing the values did was brought a very diverse group of people together who operated with the values at the core of everything they did. It really taught me a lot about diversity actually - how people from very different backgrounds and disciplines who were culturally and demographically very diverse could all operate with a common vision and purpose because there was such diversity of thought, yet they all held the same values.
Being honest, it also meant that BioH did not attract people who held different values from us and that was a good thing too. There is simply no point in trying to build a large transdisciplinary programme of work with people who do not share the same underlying values and principles. It would fall apart.
And finally, because we chose to articulate our values only in Te Reo, it spun off a whole lot of conversations about Te Ao Māori, and what BioH was aiming to achieve in terms of seeing te taiao and te tangata as all being interconnected. The values really drove the types of research done in that sense.
How important is leading by example?
Quite simply, if you do not model the ways of working you wish for others to aspire to, why would they follow? I think quite often we do not realise the value of something until we see it in practice. That certainly happened in BioH - suddenly a whole heap of researchers could visualise new ways of working differently, creating impact from their research and really being connected to the communities and industries they were working for. Leading by example - through forging new connections, building new relationships and negotiating new investment into the research - was vital for the success of BioH.
What are the BioH lessons that PROs could benefit from?
There are two things missing for me in the current PRO formation. The first is having a vision and a strategy. It seems instead to be very driven by structure and bureaucracy. I hope that once the new PROs are formed, their boards and senior leaders will be given the breathing space to be more visionary and get some organisational design thinking into the mix. These are things we did in BioH - had a strong vision, a great strategy to achieve it, and we were purposeful and intentional in the design of the research teams to hopefully create impact and deliver on that vision.
The second thing that is missing for me is a genuinely Tiriti-centric way of operating. It means that we are not getting the diverse perspectives from some of our best and brightest Māori leaders and scientists - not to say that those involved are not valiantly trying to inject Tiriti based ways of working into the process, but there seems to be little consideration of co-governance or co-leadership in quite the ways that we did in BioH. In my experience, co-governance and co-leadership are not things to be afraid of but rather something to be celebrated because they bring that diversity of thought to our processes and systems, and they are mechanisms to achieve a more holistic and well-rounded research programme that will serve the communities of Aotearoa better in the long run - economically, socially AND environmentally.
Who are some of the leaders you admire and why?
Matua Kevin Prime - Former Chair of the Kāhui Māori for BioH and visionary Ngāti Hine kaumatua and mātauranga knowledge holder. Huge mana, quiet and kind presence, connected to his whenua in Tai Tokerau and demonstrating how such connections can be forges in a contemporary context.
Paul Ward - Founder and Project Lead at Capital Kiwi in Wellington. Quietly-spoken, leads by example, inspires others, speaks his mind and his work has created huge impact on the ground. People in Wellington have Kiwi in their backyards, how cool is that?
Tina Ngata - Indigenous Rights Activist and Environmental Champion from Ngati Porou. I don’t think Tina has any idea just how many people she’s inspired with her particular brand of activism yet pragmatic ideas for de-colonising Aotearoa.
Paul Kavanagh - Southern Lakes Sanctuary Trust. A true champion for what Predator-Free NZ should really look like, has built relationships with businesses in the Wānaka-Whakatipu area and brought communities, runanga and local government together to achieve the goal.
Grant Robertson, Former Labour Finance Minister and current VC at the University of Otago. Comfortable in his own skin, happy to elevate others above himself, and a steady hand on the tiller. Classic example of servant leadership.
Chris Finlayson - Former National Minister of Treaty Settlements, now a KC. Most recent efforts to support Ngāi Tahu in their claim that the Crown has not upheld rangatiratanga in freshwater management in the quarter-century since Ngāi Tahu settlement are inspirational. His book ‘He Kupu Taurangi – Treaty Settlements and the Future of Aotearoa New Zealand’ is a must-read.
Rebecca Macfie - Journalist and Author. Writes about people from all walks of life whose situations might not otherwise be noticed. Her book ‘Tragedy at the Pike River Mine’ is a must-read for anyone interested in governance, and governance failures, in Aotearoa.
Hinemoa Elder – Brain Researcher at Starship Hospital and the University of Auckland. A quiet advocate for smart ways to deal with inequities in the health system. Her attention to pay inequities in the health sector workforce also resonates with me. Her leadership as a researcher is under-acknowledged.
In the end, values are not a soft add on - they're the foundation of meaningful, lasting research impact. When we lead with values, we create better science, stronger teams, and deeper connections to the people and places we serve.
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