Tag: Hakuna Matata

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Soft skills development

Time Management with Jeanine de Bruin

One of the significant advantages of being a PhD student or Postdoc is the flexibility to plan your own agendas. However, this may pose challenges for time management, which is essential for reaching your goals. In a workshop tailored specifically for PhD students and Postdocs, we explored strategies to optimize time utilization and minimize stress levels.

The workshop, given by Jeanine de Bruin, began by defining time management and identifying factors influencing our schedules and stress levels. Delving into Steven Covey’s time management quadrant, we gained insights into effective prioritization regarding email management, supervising students, holding meetings, writing and reading articles, and much more. Drawing on Jeanine’s expertise, we collectively devised personalized agendas, integrating practical tips to tailor schedules based on individual preferences and work styles. At the end, we shared our resolutions for the upcoming period that we want to apply in our researcher’s life!

After the workshop, participants shared their newly acquired insights over a drink, enabling supportive thoughts and comments and allowing participants to connect with other researchers.

or more information on Jeanine de Bruin and her contributions, visit Hakuna Matata’s website at https://hakunamatata.nl/

“It gave me insight in one of my biggest pitfalls: having a too big task to oversee. And it gave a practical solution: divide a big task in smaller pieces. Sounds simple, but for me it was one of the most enriching experiences of 2023.”

Anonymous participant

“Interactive. Tips and tricks how to properly time manage and deal with work stress”

Anonymous participant

“Jeanine manages to teach a lot without tiring the audience. Also like the interactive exercises.”

Anonymous participant

Categories
Soft skills development

Supervising Students by Jeanine de Bruin from Hakuna Matata

As a Postdoc or PhD student, one of your tasks may include supervising students. While we all have been students before, taking on the role of supervisor can be new and give you the feeling of being lost. This does not benefit you or the student that you are supervising. Fortunately, the workshop given by Jeanine de Bruin aimed to give us some practical tools to become more comfortable with the role of being a supervisor.

The workshop gave several insights about better communicating with your student. We first learned about the importance of discussing expectations between you and your student – a process that goes both ways. Also, we discussed and practiced the concept of situational leadership, which is crucial for guiding students according to their skills and motivation. Finally, the last part of the workshop was about giving feedback in a deliberate, meaningful way without offending each other.

After the workshop, we were able to share our newly learned practical tips over some nice drinks!

You can find more information about Jeanine de Bruin at Hakuna Matata’s website https://hakunamatata.nl/home/over-hm/46-jeanine/

“Concise information in short time”

Anonymous participant

“It helps researchers in many levels”

Anonymous participant

Categories
Soft skills development

Marketing your research by Lennart Wesel from Hakuna Matata

As researchers we are passionate about what we are doing, but presenting our research with unfamiliar audiences in a clear and engaging manner in online and offline settings can be a very challenging task. How do you avoid sounding too complex, but at the same time not downplaying the value of your research to the lay audience?

In this 3-hour workshop, the PhD candidates and Postdocs performed a number of interactive exercises, which combined group work, writing, and abstract thinking. They did a self-presentation in a speed-dating format, reflected on the core values of their research, practised writing a researcher’s bio for the website, and created a lay story of a scientific paper for LinkedIn.

These exercises helped the researchers to get out of their comfort zone, activate creative thinking, and come up with non-trivial ways of presenting their research.

You can find more information about Lennart Wesel on his website https://expertexpert.nl/

“It was a real workshop. Nice activities. And not too much talking on ‘how it should be done’ but rather let us work and find out.”

Anonymous participant

“Very practical and useful expertises that get you results, not just vague fundamental concepts with no way to apply them to your own situation.”

Anonymous participant

“What we work on during the workshop we can reuse in real life.”

Anonymous participant

Categories
Soft skills development

Scientific storytelling for grant writing by Marieke Hohnen

Writing grant proposals is challenging. Your readers are not specialists in your topic, you have to show why your research is interesting, and you have limited space. This requires specific writing skills. 

In this 2.5-hour workshop, Marieke Hohnen from Hakuna Matata taught participants how to engage readers by writing memorable introductions and avoiding common pitfalls. Together with the group, Marieke talked about the aspects of grant writing that they need to keep in mind, such as avoiding technical concepts or being direct and concise when expressing ideas. After this, PhDs and Postdocs from different disciplines worked in pairs sharing what motivates them about their respective research topics. Finally, Marieke gave individual feedback to each person. In the last section of the workshop, participants worked on integrating these comments into their documents to develop stronger proposals.

You can read more about Marieke Hohnen at: https://mariekehohnen.com/en/

“I liked that it was personalized (we got to practice right away / feedback) and overall information and tips were very clear and useful!”

Anonymous participant

“Exchange with other peers from different areas of research. Tips to improve the story for a grant application. I now see myself closer to be able to do so :)”

Anonymous participant

“It was very clear that Marieke has experience on grant application, and her practical approach made it much more useful compared to theoretical approaches”

Anonymous participant

Categories
Soft skills development

Time Management Workshop by Jeanine de Bruin

The academic journey can be seen by many as a marathon. PhD candidates, especially at the beginning of their career, often struggle with managing tasks and workload efficiently. In academia, many tasks are often required to be performed in a limited period of time and many can start feeling overwhelmed. 

This online workshop on “Time Management” provided by Jeanine de Bruin from Hakuna Matata (https://www.hakunamatata.nl) helped young researchers to understand how to assess the time needed for a task and how to set priorities. During the workshop, Jeanine also covered ‘how to deal with stress’, discussing the five origins of stress: 1) lack of concentration and focus, 2) no control over the situation, 3) reluctance for vague and difficult tasks, 4) having high expectations, 5) unclear assessment criteria. Participants learned techniques and tips to help with time management, and had the chance to share experiences with each other.

You can read more about Jeanine de Bruin at: https://www.hakunamatata.nl

“Very structured, nice balance between instruction and exercises in break-out rooms”

Anonymous participant

“I liked that we needed to actively participate and that we started to actually write short paragraph”

Anonymous participant

Categories
Soft skills development

Supervising Students by Jeanine de Bruin

PhD candidates and postdocs have many responsibilities besides working on their research. Supervising students is one of them. As young researchers, we are expected to know how to provide constructive feedback or how to negotiate expectations with bachelor or master’s students. This, of course, is not an easy task.

This offline workshop with Jeanine de Bruin of Hakuna Matata combined theory and practice. The goal was to give a solid foundation on relevant topics, such as influencing styles and strategies to provide direct and clear feedback. At the same time, Jeanine gave concrete tools to be effective while supervising students. These tools were discussed in a collaborative environment by PhD candidates and postdocs from different disciplines.

You can read more about Jeanine de Bruin at: https://hakunamatata.nl

“It was concrete and gave specific tips, being able to learn from my peers”

Anonymous participant

“The teacher and her style was really excellent”

Anonymous participant

“I learned a lot of useful tips and got to know many things I never paid attention to”

Anonymous participant

Categories
Soft skills development

Science Communication: how to effectively blog? by Marieke Hohnen

As PhD students and postdocs, we have to be able to present our research to different audiences. While we are used to talking about our projects to peers in conferences, sometimes we are faced with the challenge of discussing our findings with the general audience. Many questions appear in this process: How technical should we be? How in-depth should we go? The goal of this workshop was to learn the basics to write an effective blog post. During the 3-hour session, Marieke Hohnen from Hakuna Matata, presented the advantages of scientific outreach. Researchers from various disciplines learned about the multiple options on the web to write about their project. 

After the introduction, Marieke introduced the benefits of blogging. Relevant aspects, such as the audience (who are you writing for?) and the content of the post (what are you going to write about?), were discussed through group activities. Participants were asked to write the first lines of their post and provide feedback to each other. Finally, Marieke gave tips for starting (or continuing) their writing journey.

You can read more about Marieke Hohnen at: https://mariekehohnen.com/en/

“Very structured, nice balance between instruction and exercises in break-out rooms”

Anonymous participant

“I liked that we needed to actively participate and that we started to actually write short paragraph”

Anonymous participant

“Marieke has a lot of knowledge and she was able to keep my attention!” (translated from Dutch: “Marieke heeft erg veel kennis en ze kon goed mijn aandacht vasthouden!”)

Anonymous participant

Categories
Soft skills development

Presentation Skills by Marieke Hohnen

Speaking in front of an audience is an essential part of being a scientist. Presentations can be formal or informal, the amount of time that you are given can vary, or, especially in these times, you might have to speak in front of a computer screen. Regardless of the setting, talking in public can be scary. But it is also a skill that you can practice and improve, and even learn to enjoy!

During this 3-hour workshop, Marieke Hohnen presented some of the tips and tricks to prepare and give a convincing (online) presentation. Participants from different disciplines worked in breakout rooms to practice different exercises. They also gave each other feedback to create strong openings and closings for their presentations.

You can read more about Marieke Hohnen at: https://mariekehohnen.com/en/

“I really took very important tips with me”

Anonymous participant

“Dynamic, engaging, well facilitated”

Anonymous participant

“I liked meeting and talking to other people than the ones I usually talk to”

Anonymous participant

Categories
Soft skills development

Supervising Students by Jeanine de Bruin from Hakuna Matata

Supervising and one-to-one support is an important part of professional learning. As a supervisor, how do we assure good guidance, structure and provide guidelines for communication during student projects? In this workshop Jeanine provided different styles to effectively guide students. How to deal with intercultural differences in communication, how to deal with project expectations and how to give constructive feedback were just some of the topics covered in this workshop!

https://www.hakunamatata.nl/

“It is very specific for your work and responsibilities as a PhD student, and that helped a lot. I always find practicing with colleagues a bit uncomfortable, but the group was great and the feedback helped a lot.”

Anonymous participant

Categories
Soft skills development

Core quadrants & qualities by Jeanine de Bruin from Hakuna Matata

Discussing strengths and qualities with your supervisor and colleagues is one of the best ways to build successful organisations. Acknowledging you own personal skills is the first step to be able put these into practice. Moreover it raises your self-esteem and enhances team spirit. In this workshop we identified our personal strengths in terms of (transferable) skills and qualities. We talked about strategies on how to communicate effectively about our strengths in order to put these into practice. We also identified and addressed our weaknesses in order to make better and effective decisions during our career.

https://www.hakunamatata.nl/

“I actually learned a lot about myself – it is good to sometimes take the time to reflect on yourself”

Anonymous participant

“The atmosphere was really nice. It was a very interactive workshop”

Anonymous participant

“We played several fun games to learn about our personal qualities. The drinks afterwards were fun too!”

Anonymous participant

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