A Dissertation Tale: Table of Contents

Part 1 - Beginning the Journey

Part 2 - Applying for Programs

Part 3 - Acceptance and Confirmation

Part 4 - Getting Ready for Day One, Class One

Part 5 - Lessons from My First Class

Part 6 - Year One- An Introduction to Business Research

Part 7 - Year Two, The Year of the Quants

Part 8 - Year Three, The Dissertation Process Flow Chart and Seminar Course

Part 9 - A Case of the Comps

Part 10 - Project Management for Doctoral Candidates

Part 11 - Selecting your Dissertation Committee

Part 12 - A Decent Proposal

Part 13 - Case of the IRBs

Part 14 - Gathering Data - Qualitative Research

Part 15 - Coming Up: Gathering Data - Quantitative Research

Part 16 - Coming Up: Qualitative Data Analysis

Part 17 - Coming Up: Final Write-ups and Dissertation Polishing

Part 18 - Coming Up: The Ultimate Defense

Part 19 - Coming Up: Hiring and Working with an Editor

Part 20 - Coming Up: Publishing Submission

Part 21 - Coming Up: Celebratory Ceremonies

Part 22 - Coming Up: Life After Earning Your Dr.

A Dissertation Tale - Part 14a: Gathering Data - Qualitative Research

-In Loving Memory –

Forgive the tangent, but I am taking a much-needed moment here. An underlying theme of this endeavor has been that life happens no matter what goals you're pursuing. This project is no different and comes after LIFE hit my small family in a tremendous way. We lost our sweet little girl, Sophie, after only seven short years with her.

This post and the book that follows will be dedicated to her. She taught us so much and brought so much love into our lives. She kept us present, taught us to enjoy the little moments, reinforced the need to stretch, and appreciated the best of snuggle sessions. 

We are all the better because of her. Rest in peace, sweet girl. We will keep you in our hearts, always.

Thank you for your understanding; let's get back into it. We've now entered the leg of the dissertation process, where we're gathering data to either test our hypotheses or build a framework in response to our research questions. Depending on your methodology, this process can go by quickly or be an extensive process. Accordingly, this section will discuss different data-gathering processes and a few logistic-based realities that can occur while gathering data. The first bit will cover qualitative research, and the next post will cover quantitative studies.

Data Gathering Methods 

Let's begin this journey by reviewing the different methods you can employ in qualitative research. Qualitative research is designed to reveal any underlying meanings or rationales behind people's behaviors, experiences, or perceptions. More simply, the beauty of qualitative research is it reveals insight into the WHY behind phenomena, trends, or experiences. What it does not do is prove causality, but it can lead to the formulation of theories that can be tested for causality later on.

Methods to gather qualitative data include interviews, focus groups, observational studies, document analysis, and meta-analyses of other qualitative studies. We'll review each of these:

Interviews

Interviews are one of the most common ways to gather qualitative data. This task involves sitting down with a participant and asking them open-ended questions to gain insight into their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Interviews can be structured or unstructured, depending on the research question and the information sought.

It's important to recognize four levels of interview format formality (i.e., structure): unstructured, semi-structured, structured, and standardized (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). We'll review these from the casual interview to the completely formal format:

• Unstructured interviews involve open-ended questions, allowing the interviewer to explore topics in-depth without a predetermined format. Subjects may ask interviewers questions, which feels more like a conversation than a fully formalized interview.

• Semi-structured interviews have a more defined structure, with questions or topics guiding the discussion while allowing for flexibility and follow-up questions.

• Structured interviews have a highly defined format, with a fixed set of questions and a specific order of presentation. Interviewers will go through questions here with a few deviations and redirect subjects to answer the questions.

• Standardized interviews involve a set of highly structured questions that are asked in the same order and manner for each participant. No deviations occur in this format, and the interview is treated as running through a script.

Focus Groups

Focus groups are another way to gather qualitative data. This involves bringing together people with a shared experience or characteristic, such as a specific age group or profession. The moderator (you) would guide the discussion and encourage participants to share their thoughts (perspectives, opinions, and interpretations) and experiences with the group.

There are two factors concerning focus groups that researchers need to be aware of:

• The first of which involves the confidentiality of the participants in the study. While you can take every step possible to safeguard the personal identifying information in the study, this in no way guarantees that subjects will follow suit. Because of this, you need to follow the guidelines when communicating to participants that confidentiality cannot be guaranteed 100%. It's best to use the methods suggested by your training here and, of course, your chair's guidance.

• The other factor to consider concerns the phenomenon of groupthink. Groupthink occurs when a group becomes too focused on consensus and harmony to the point where they begin to suppress or ostracize dissenting opinions. Worse still, groups could ignore evidence that does not fit their espoused and newly formed perspective. Subsequently, groupthink can skew your data. To mitigate the impact of groupthink in focus groups, you can use techniques such as devil's advocacy or the Delphi method to encourage dissenting opinions and generate a more robust discussion (Stewart & Shamdasani, 2014).

Observational Studies, Document Analysis, and Meta Analysis

Observational studies are a method of gathering qualitative data wherein you watch people in their natural environment. This research can be done through direct observation or video or audio recordings. Observation can provide valuable insights into human behavior and can help researchers understand how people interact with their environment. Full disclaimer: I've not seen any examples of this outside of marketing research, but it IS a method, which is why we're talking about it.

Document analysis is another method of gathering qualitative data. This method involves analyzing written or visual materials, such as diaries, letters, or photographs, to gain insight into the experiences and perspectives of the people who created them. Document analysis can be instrumental when studying historical events or cultural artifacts. One study I came across had subjects write a letter to their future selves. The researchers then used the letters as a source of qualitative data, so there is precedent for this approach.

Qualitative meta-analysis is a research method that combines the results of multiple qualitative studies to synthesize the findings and gain a deeper understanding of a particular phenomenon. This approach involves systematically reviewing and analyzing the data from each study to identify common themes, patterns, and insights. The resulting meta-synthesis can provide a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the research question than any individual study alone (Sandelowski & Barroso, 2007).

The use of qualitative meta-analysis has become increasingly popular in recent years, and there are many examples of successful applications across various disciplines, such as healthcare (Thomas et al., 2008), education (Mitteness et al., 2019), and social sciences (Miles et al., 2020). Setting clear guidelines for study inclusion or exclusion becomes critical when using this method. Additionally, as a cautionary note, if you are interested in pursuing a meta-analysis for your dissertation, clear this with your chair to ensure it is sufficient and appropriate.

Finding and Recruiting Study Participants 

This part is, by far, the most nail-biting, stressful part of running a qualitative study. If you're here, hang on and have faith. You're likely worrying about getting a response or scheduling your confirmed participants. All the issues in other spheres of life apply here: people will drop off, you will be ghosted, your responses may not be as fruitful as you'd like, and you will need to redirect folks back to the questions you asked initially.

Your goal is to hit theoretical saturation (the point where no new insights are presented from additional interviews) while ensuring your group is representative of the population you're targeting. To add more fun-ness to this task, theoretical saturation is not some concrete, clearly defined number; it differs from study to study. Give yourself a little credit here; this is a tall order.

This section will discuss each step and hopefully give a few helpful tips.

Interview Design: To design an effective interview, you need to consider several factors, including the research question, the study population, and the level of structure. The research question should guide the selection of the interview questions and the overall interview design. For example, if the research question is exploratory, an unstructured or semi-structured interview may be appropriate, while a structured or standardized interview may be more suitable for confirmatory research.

The study population also plays a role in interview design, as you need to consider factors such as the participant's age, gender, culture, and language proficiency. Finally, the level of structure should be determined based on the research question(s), the desired level of detail, and the required consistency in the data.

To ensure the quality of the data collected through interviews, you must carefully consider the interview process, which includes selecting a suitable location for the interview, establishing rapport with the participant, and ensuring that the interview questions are clear and relevant. Virtual interviewing through a platform like Zoom or Microsoft Teams is great for this, but make sure that the platform you use is HIPPA-compliant to ensure participant confidentiality.

Platforms and Postings:

When planning a research study, using social media platforms to find participants can effectively reach a broad audience and diversify the sample. Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram can be handy for studies targeting specific age groups or communities, as they allow for targeted advertising and outreach. This trick is especially useful when targeting professional groups on these platforms.  

Remember, like the interviewing platform, it's essential to consider the accessibility and security of each social media platform and the nature of the study. You should choose a platform that's easy to use for the target population and has robust security measures to protect participants' privacy.

Network Effect:    

One benefit to growing your professional social media reach is in instances like these where you must cast your message as far and wide as possible to recruit the most representative circle you can. The network effect refers to the phenomenon of a product or service becoming more valuable as more people use it (Katz & Shapiro, 1985). In the context of recruiting research subjects, as more people become aware of the study and share it with their networks, the more likely it is that the study will reach its target audience.

This is the point where you ask your connection to help spread the word regarding your study or use the professional groups available on the platforms to tap into prequalifying membership pools. Start by creating a post about your study on social media and encourage people to share it with friends and followers. This post can generate buzz and increase the study's reach beyond your immediate or first connection network. Additionally, using targeted hashtags and groups can help reach people interested in the study but not yet connected to your network. By utilizing the network effect, you can tap into social media's (insert animated voice here) phenomenal cosmic power to recruit a diverse and representative sample of research subjects (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).

Scheduling:

Scheduling is more an art than a science, but there are tips that can help this process. Naturally, when trying to schedule times with other professionals, you are beholden to their schedules and your own. Plan on 2-3 weeks to conduct the interviews needed to hit theoretical saturation and be ready to roll with the punches (metaphorically, of course). Here are a few rules (ahem, as Capt. Barbossa says, more like guidelines) to help make this process manageable or at least not overbearing:

Rule #1: Do not schedule more than two interviews each day. 

Why, you may ask? Each interview will take thirty minutes to an hour, so three hours may not seem that bad for three interviews. You make an excellent point here, but here's what you need to remember: that's three hours of focused attention; in addition, you must transcribe three hours' worth of audio afterward. Best to pace yourself here. For every hour, plan on at least 2-4 hours' worth of work behind it.

Rule #2: Be ready with probative follow-up questions. 

Given the nature of the interview environment, you need to get people comfortable and ease them into talking through your questions. At first, the responses will likely be brief and could be dichotomous (i.e., yes or no), even to open-ended questions. This means you'll need to be ready and able to come at these questions more effectively by breaking them down and asking for more information. 

There's a great book that helped me with this by Rubin and Rubin called Qualitative Interviewing. 

Rule #3: Plan for overtime. 

If one challenge is getting people to talk, another end of the spectrum might be sticking to your time limitations if people talk a lot. 

There's a healthy balance concerning these conflicting demands. On the one hand, a person's subject is giving you a lot of great information; on the other, you are running over time and will need to sort out the usable information from the off-topic notes after transcribing it. If you plan on having a one-hour interview, reserve at least 90 minutes on your schedule to have some flex. You'll need it.

Rule #4: Be flexible but firm in the cutoff point when rescheduling. 

Scheduling issues will come up. While going through this stage, I put out requests and posts for three weeks before hearing back from anyone. It takes persistence and patience, but you need to be ready once folks come rolling in. In my case, I had a few interested folks reach out after I hit saturation and needed to thank them for their interest but not take on any more interviews. It's all a balance between your data needs and your deadlines. Remember, the seven-year countdown is still in effect.  

Rule #5: If needed, expand the scope. 

Backup plans are great, ami-rite? You should have a way to open the qualified subject pool slightly if reaching your initially intended subject pool has proven problematic. This response was something I was getting ready to do myself.  

Initially, I targeted creative post-secondary faculty, defined as faculty working for institutions that were a part of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD). After waiting three weeks without a response, I decided that deferring to a larger US Higher Education faculty pool was necessary. 

I switched the subject pool, and low and behold, those in my original targeted sample came forward, so I was lucky enough to stick to my OG plan. Had I not had a backup plan, this could have delayed my study or forced me back to the drawing board.  

Steps to Protecting Research Subject Anonymity and Confidentiality

Protecting the confidentiality and anonymity of research subjects is required to ensure ethical and responsible research practices. As we've discussed previously, it's one of the crucial concerns of the IRB, so we need to do everything we can as researchers to protect our participants. Here are a few steps that you can take to protect the confidentiality and anonymity of your subjects:

1. Obtain informed or implied consent: 

Before beginning the study, researchers should obtain informed or implied consent from participants. This process involves explaining the purpose of the study, the procedures involved, and the potential risks and benefits. This step helps to establish a clear understanding between you and the participant and sets the foundation for maintaining confidentiality and anonymity throughout the study (American Psychological Association, 2017).

2. Use anonymous identifiers: 

You should separate PII from the responses by using anonymous identifiers, such as numeric codes or pseudonyms, to replace participants' real names in any data collection or analysis. This helps ensure that the participant's identity is not revealed in published reports or research findings (National Institutes of Health, 2018). Another layer of obfuscation I used here was to use they/them/theirs pronouns when referring to any participant to reduce identifiability by participants' gender identities.

3. Protect data storage and transmission: 

This is a BIG one. You should take measures to protect the storage and transmission of participant data. This includes using secure servers or encrypted cloud storage to store data and password-protecting any electronic devices used to collect or analyze data (American Psychological Association, 2017). Due to their data usage policies, you should also not use publicly 'free' platform services like Google.

4. Limit access to data: 

You should limit access to participant data only to those directly involved in the research project. In other words, you should be the only one who knows about your participants. Bonus points if you obscure this data from yourself. This limitation includes using password-protected files or folders to store data and limiting access to electronic devices that contain participant data (National Institutes of Health, 2018).

5. Obtain a Certificate of Confidentiality: 

This was new for me, but hooray research. Did you know you can obtain a Certificate of Confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health to provide additional legal protection for participant data? This certificate helps to prevent the disclosure of identifiable participant data in response to legal demands (National Institutes of Health, 2018).

Data Gathering Faux Pas

With all the things you should be doing listed in this post, there are equally things you shouldn't do. When gathering qualitative data, you need to be aware of potential pitfalls or faux pas that can compromise the quality and validity of their findings:

Faux pas #1: Coming into the research with an outcome or hunch in mind.

One common mistake is to impose preconceived notions or biases on the data collection process, leading to a confirmation bias that may skew the results. To avoid this, approach data collection with an open mind and be willing to explore unexpected findings and perspectives. This issue also requires declaring these biases ahead of time and working consciously to seek the truth and not confirm your theory. One professor hailed this as passionate dispassion concerning the outcomes. Any answer you come to, even one that counters your theories, is still considered an answer.

Faux pas #2: Myopic research is not cogent research. 

As a researcher, you must look far and wide when building your literature review, combining many perspectives and approaches to your research topic. One trap you should avoid falling into is relying too heavily on a single data source or method. This faux pas leads to a limited and incomplete understanding of the research question. To avoid this, mix it up and use multiple methods and sources to triangulate the data and ensure the findings are robust and comprehensive.

Faux pas #3: Research ethics. 

You should be mindful of potential ethical considerations when conducting qualitative research. This awareness includes obtaining informed consent from participants, ensuring confidentiality and privacy, and minimizing potential harm or discomfort to participants. You also should consider any power dynamics and reflexivity issues, particularly in studies involving vulnerable or marginalized populations. IRBs are VERY STRINGENT concerning vulnerable groups, but you should also be diligent about the ethical implications of your study as it impacts your participants. In many cases, subjects put themselves out in some way, shape, or form to help you. Please respect this and honor the risk they took by looking out for their best interests.

Bringing your research practices all together

Gathering qualitative data requires you to carefully plan your approach, maintain your attention to detail, and commit to completing your study ethically and transparently. The learning curve is tremendous, and you'll grow so much from this process. In the next post, we'll cover similar areas for quantitative studies. Until next time!

References:

American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/

American Psychological Association. (2020). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/

Baxter, L. A., & Babbie, E. (2016). Basics of communication research. Cengage Learning.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589-597.

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.

Guest, G., Bunce, A., & Johnson, L. (2006). How many interviews are enough? An experiment with data saturation and variability. Field methods, 18(1), 59-82.

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Business Horizons, 53(1), 59-68. Katz, M. L., & Shapiro, C. (1985). Network externalities, competition, and compatibility. The American Economic Review, 75(3), 424-440.

Maxwell, J. A., & van der Vorst, R. (2018). Designing qualitative research. SAGE Publications.

Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2020). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook. Sage publications.

Mitteness, C., Kilgore, A., Kecskes, K., & Poling, T. (2019). A meta-synthesis of qualitative research on teachers of gifted students. Gifted Child Quarterly, 63(3), 199-216.

National Institutes of Health. (2018). Protecting research participants: What everyone should know. Retrieved from https://www.nih.gov/health-information/nih-clinical-research-trials-you/protecting-research-participants-what-everyone-should-know

Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research & evaluation methods: Integrating theory and practice. SAGE Publications.

Sandelowski, M., & Barroso, J. (2007). Handbook for synthesizing qualitative research. Springer Publishing Company.

Stewart, D. W., & Shamdasani, P. N. (2014). Focus groups: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Thomas, J., Harden, A., & Oakley, A. (2008). Integrating qualitative research with trials in systematic reviews. BMJ, 337, a2290.

A Dissertation Tale - Part 13: Case of the IRBs

If you’re in this part of the journey, you have likely successfully defended your research proposal and are now submitting it to your Institution’s Review Board or the IRB for short. Excellent work, friend!

Why do I need IRB Approval?

Obtaining IRB approval is an essential step in your research for a few reasons:

1. Conducting unsanctioned research is one way to ensure you will NOT complete your degree.

2. Gaining IRB Approval is one step that safeguards your study design from adversely impacting study participants (you know, fellow living, breathing human beings).

3. Applying for approval helps you focus your study concretely, giving you a better sense of what will happen once approved, though I suspect this is a secondary gain.

What is the IRB?

Representative image of a doctoral candidate submitting their study application to the IRB.

It’s not so much what as it is a who, or more accurately, several whos.  

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS), an institutional review board is a group of scholars charged with “reviewing research proposals to ensure that every study involving human subjects upholds all federal, state, and institutional regulations. They also ensure that studies are considered ethical and protect your study’s participants (or subjects).” This oversight group can also run under the banner of Ethics Review Committees.  

Concerning the makeup of these committees, a few regulations are in place to ensure group diversity and that members possess the relevant professional experience to serve meaningfully. Here are a few guidelines that IRB member selection needs to involve, according to the USDHHS:

• The Common Rule – there must be at least five members of varying backgrounds

• The IRB must include the perspective of a scientist

• The IRB must consist of the view of a non-scientist

• The IRB must involve the perspective of someone not affiliated with the institution

As a group:

• The IRB must be “sufficiently qualified” in research experience, relevant expertise, and variance of the membership.

• “Variables that may contribute to IRB group diversity involve training, educational background, race, gender, cultural background, and community attitude sensitivities.”

As a point of note, IRBs may be a smaller subset of an institutional Human Resources Protection Program Department. These larger departments are found in organizations that conduct much human research.

Fun Fact: educational institutions are not the only organizations where you’ll find an IRB. The American Psychological Association notes that institutions that receive federal funding and conduct human research are beholden to IRB research governance. This restriction includes medical research concerning humans. For this reason, you’ll also see the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pop up when learning about IRBs.  

What does the IRB do?

A IRB hand protecting a study participant from harm.

In a nutshell: IRBs protect human participants (people). That’s it. How they do it and what they protect participants from requires a little more explanation. This group of researchers, both within and outside of your organization, reviews research study plans to ensure that subjects will not endure harm from participating in a study. Here’s an excerpt from the FDA explaining what IRBs do from their POV:

“Under FDA regulations, an IRB is an appropriately constituted group that has been formally designated to review and monitor biomedical research involving human subjects. In accordance with FDA regulations, an IRB has the authority to approve, require modifications in (to secure approval), or disapprove research. This group review serves an important role in the protection of the rights and welfare of human research subjects.

The purpose of IRB review is to assure, both in advance and by periodic review, that appropriate steps are taken to protect the rights and welfare of humans participating as subjects in the research. To accomplish this purpose, IRBs use a group process to review research protocols and related materials (e.g., informed consent documents and investigator brochures) to ensure protection of the rights and welfare of human subjects of research.”

Why do we need them anyways?

No one here assumes a researcher intends to hurt other people, but without oversight, they could still unintentionally hurt people. Don’t believe me? Sadly, a quick review of past research incidents clarifies why research oversight is needed. Let’s look at these examples that show why supervision is required to protect people when conducting research.  

From a limited research foray, it looks like the ethics of research conversation began in the early 1600s when Francis Bacon posited that “scientific research should benefit humanity” (Resnik, 2022). Though the declaration seemed promising, bad actors warranted the creation of a safeguards system.

Instead of covering every instance in robust detail, here’s a non-exhaustive shortlist of incidents involving human endangerment, biased study results reporting, and theft from Resnik’s article featured in the National Institute of Health’s publications:

• 1796 – Edward Jenner attempted to immunize an eight-year-old James Phipps with “fluids from a cowpox pustule.” Phipps contracted a cold afterward but recovered from the procedure. While nothing tragic happened here, this experiment notes the risk inherent in specific types of research.

• 1885 – After a rabid dog bit nine-year-old Joseph Meister, Louis Pasteur gave him an experimental vaccine for rabies but did not test it on animals first. At the time, he was practicing without a license.

• 1897 – Five patients were injected with the yellow fever bacteria without having given consent by Giuseppe Sanarelli. The patients all contracted the disease, and three died from the experiment.

• 1909 – Robert Millikan failed to accredit his student or fully report the results of his oil drop experiments but still received a Nobel Prize for his research.

• 1932 – 1972: Tuskegee Syphilis Study – “A US dept of Health, Education, and Welfare study did not disclose to the participants, 400 African American men, that they were study participants and withheld vital treatments for those afflicted with the disease.”  

• 1939 – 1945: The Nuremberg Doctors’ Trials - In 1946, Nazi doctors were “tried and convicted of conducting horrible and demonstrably unethical experiments on Holocaust concentration camp prisoners.”  Experiments included exposing people to freezing temperatures, low air pressure, radiation, electricity, infectious disease exposure, wound healing, and surgical studies. The extent and malice of this study led to the creation of The Nuremberg Code, which served as a foundation to prosecute scientists for their crimes.

• 1944 – 1980: The US Department of Energy sponsored a study that exposed people, unbeknownst to them, to radiation. This sample included cancer patients and pregnant women.

The list goes on, but you get the idea. Without research oversight, people could be hurt or shortchanged, and inaccurate reporting could lead to distrust in academic research. It’s clear that research integrity and sound ethical practices must be protected.

What is the IRB Application process like?

Two doctoral candidates applying to the IRB.

The application is relatively straightforward:

• Step 1: Complete the pre-requisite research training.  

• Step 2: Draft your Consent Form

• Step 3: Fill out the Application Form

  • Attach your Appendices

• Step 4: Wait for the application, either an approval, a request to revise, or a denial

The first step in this adventure may occur before your proposal defense. This work involves taking training courses and receiving a certification regarding the safeguards and requirements for conducting human research. The program I went through was run by the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI), and the program was the Social and Behavioral Research – Basic/Refresher curriculum. I accidentally took a more involved certification than required to finish my dissertation. After a quick check-in with the IRB, they approved the longer course as suitable to continue, so all-in-all, it was a happy accident.

The training reviewed the history and procedures concerning human research, including:

• the Belmont Report and its Principles

• Faculty Advisors

• Students in Research

• Federal Research Regulations

• Assessing Risk

• Informed Consent Procedures

• Privacy and Confidentiality

• Internet-Based Research

• HIPAA Privacy Protections

• Vulnerable Subject Groups

• Conflict of Interests in Human Subjects Research

The curriculum was hosted online and took about 4 hours to complete from start to finish. Overall, the tone and cadence of the courses are what you likely would expect if you’ve ever completed an asynchronous course online. 

The following task concerns creating your research consent form. This form will be reviewed and given to each prospective participant so they are aware of the following:

• The purpose of the study and what it’s looking to examine (Note: unless this is approved with an allowable deception, but this usually occurs only in specific fields, and IRB approval for such studies is narrower from my understanding)

• The procedures involved in participating

• The benefits of the study

• The costs or incentives of participating (Note: this is not allowable in most studies due to a conflict of interest.)

• People that are conducting and assuming responsibility for the study.

• Confidentiality statements

• Policies regarding the protection of their personally identifiable information (PII), risks they would incur from participating in the study

• The use of the information

• Voluntary participation statements

There are two main types of consent forms, and creating the right one will be pivotal when applying to the IRB. The first is an Implied Consent Form, and the other is an Informed Consent Form. 

Implied consent is as it sounds, you include the forms for participant review before conducting any research, and the record acts as a notification of the study details; however, signatory authorization from the participant is not required. Informed consent involves all of the same information BUT requires the participant to sign the form in agreement with their permission. Check with your chair to determine the most appropriate form for your study.

Other elements you’ll need to prepare prior to applying involve any qualifying questions to ensure you get the participants you’re looking for, including demography questions and your interview questions if you are conducting a qualitative study using the interview process.

From here, you’re on to step 3, applying for IRB approval. This step will vary by institution and discipline; however, you’ll likely need to complete a form. Make sure you read the directions twice and check all the details. This protective measure will increase your odds of a successful application. Your dissertation chair and you will need to sign the form. After the form is filled out correctly, you’ll need to attach proof of your certification, your consent form, your prequalifying questionnaires, and your interview or survey questions in the appendix of the application. Again, it’s best to check everything before sending it off.

Extra Research Approval Fun-ness You May Encounter 

If you are surveying faculty or staff in your institution, an additional approval step or two may be involved. Work with your chair to see if studying institutional staff is allowed and, if so, what other procedures may happen to gain approval. For example, if I were to recruit participants at my place of study. I would have needed to send an approval form to the Vice President of Academic Affairs and gain their approval in addition to the IRB before conducting the study. Once you have done it all and confirmed you have correctly satisfied the requirements with your chair, it’s time to send off your complete application to your IRB, and then the wait begins.

Possible Outcomes of Your IRB Application

There are likely four possible outcomes for your application, and pending the verdict will determine what you do next:

• Approved – Phenomenal job! This verdict means you are now “All systems go” to recruit your research subjects and gather data.

• Minor Revisions Required – You still did great! Make those tweaks, resubmit, and assuming you did it correctly, you should be good to go (but wait to hear that from the IRB first, don’t take my word for it.)

• Revisions Required – You’re doing good; the IRB may have determined something is either amiss or could adversely impact participants in your study as it’s currently designed. Work with your chair to make the necessary changes and resubmit.

• Justification for Non-Approval – In this case, much information is missing, or the study presents as problematic to participants. Don’t lose heart; I know it’s disappointing. Take some time to process, and when you’re ready, review the feedback and adjust accordingly.

Once you receive approval from the IRB, it’s time to gather that glorious data. In the next post, we’ll discuss data gathering and some challenges you might encounter. Until next time!

A Dissertation Tale - Part 12: A Decent Proposal

If you're here, you're likely also working towards the next major hurdle in the dissertation adventure, building your proposal defense. Congrats!!! It may not seem like an achievement, but you're doing great things (remember to celebrate this victory).

What is a proposal defense? 

A visual representation of the dissertation from the proposal defense point.

Phenomenal question here. A dear colleague once told me the defense is like the wind up to the first drop on a rollercoaster. You steadily build the dissertation chapters, section by section, with a cadence like the clicking you hear on the ascension in the cart while climbing; thunk, thunk, thunk.

Then you build the presentation deck using the chapter work with a parallel flow; thunk, thunk. Finally, once approved by your chair, you get your date and rehearse like crazy to build proficiency in speaking about your topic (thunk) until you've reached the summit of the climb, dangling in anticipation of the drop. The proposal defense presentation begins the 'drop' of the events leading to your final defense. Things go quickly (if all goes well), and before you know it, you've arrived at your final defense (Yay!).

A proposal defense is a presentation (usually lasting about 30 minutes) where you propose your study after extensively reviewing the body of literature on your topic. This hurdle includes submitting your completed dissertation Chapters 1-3 with your committee feedback addressed.

Let's examine what sections are presented during a proposal defense.

Proposal Defense Sections - The Usual Suspects

Before I list off the sections, please remember that this structure will likely deviate depending on your topic, degree, and, most importantly, what your chair expects to see. 

With that nugget of context in mind, feel free to use this list (which I, too, used to build my proposal defense) as a framework for your defense construction:

1. Intro Slide and Researcher Background

2. Chapter 1: Introduction

1. Problem Background

2. Statement of the Problem

3. Importance of the Study

4. Research Questions

5. Assumptions

6. Limitations

7. Delimitations

3. Chapter 2: Literature Review

1. Theoretical Framework

2. Discussions of the Research Gap

4. Chapter 3: Methodology

1. Research Model and Design

2. Subject Population

3. Sample

4. Instrumentation

5. Interview Questions (If Qualitative)

6. Data Collection

7. Data Analysis

5. Conclusion

1. Projected Timeline

2. Conclusion

3. References

Using this framework as a structure allows you to cover all the bases your committee is looking for to know whether your study is warranted and is designed to maximize your likelihood of successful completion. The committee members are looking for potential problems that may hinder your progress or hinder your ability to complete the study without adversely impacting your subjects (we'll talk about this in the IRB post coming up next).  

Plan on beginning your title slide that lists your institution, study title, which defense you're presenting, your committee's names, and the presentation date. Then, give a short professional background on yourself. From here, you segue into the information about your study in Chapter 1.

Chapter 1 Elements for Your Proposal Defense:

• The Problem Background discusses the events that provide context about your topic. 

• The Statement of the Problem explains why your study is needed.

• The Importance of the Study highlights the POTENTIAL implications of producing this study and explains the relevant gaps in the literature that have created opportunities to run your research.

• The Purpose of the Study explains your intentions or rationale for this research endeavor. It explains what you are looking to discover and, by clearly stating it, explains what you're not examining.

• The Research Questions list the exact foci of your study. Note: Be VERY intentional and careful when crafting these. Check out Creswell & Creswell's book Research Design for a great guide on drafting research questions. An essential addition here concerns quantitative studies wherein you must also include the supporting hypotheses for each research question, listing the null (usually listed as "H0") and the alternative hypotheses (there can be more than one traditionally listed as: "H1, 2, 3…" or "Ha" if only one alternative is included).

• Assumptions concern what you, as a researcher, ASSUME to be true when conducting your study with particular emphasis on your desired participants. Create two subcategories for your study assumptions: one focusing on data gathering and the other on data analysis.

• Limitations describe conditions that may affect the reliability or validity of your study results that lie outside of your control. Remember, you are surveying people. With that recognition, you must accept that people (including us as the writer and reader) are biased in implicit and explicit ways, so no matter the efforts you take (and you should take) to reduce the adverse impacts of bias, there is always the possibility it may happen.

• Delimitations are intentional boundaries you set on the study to limit or constrain your research to a narrow area of focus. Think of these as 'things I will NOT do or examine.'

Proposal Defense Chapter 2 Elements

We move on to Chapter 2, the Literature Review section. In this section, from the presentation perspective, you discuss the critical theorem your study is based on. From the dissertation document perspective, Chapter 2 will likely be your largest chapter, constituting anywhere from 50 to 100 pages of writing! Just because you've read a lot does not mean you present all of it, only the most important elements.

This experience becomes a great exercise in critically assessing what is essential and what is 'fluff' when proposing your study. Ultimately, this section looks different across every study, so I recommend you review the foundational theories and the research gap you want to assess.

Proposal Defense Chapter 3 Elements

Next is Chapter 3: the Methodological Review section. In this section of your presentation (and in the dissertation as well in more robust detail), you are explaining EXACTLY how you plan on conducting the study, including the worldview or philosophical mindset and the approach you'll use to gather and analyze the data. Here are the sub-sections accompanied by brief explainers on what is included in Chapter 3:

• The Subject Population reviews the larger group of people your Subject Sample seeks to represent. For the population information, you should define and research how many people there are in your population currently. US Census information or the Bureau of Labor Statistics are excellent for population information if your study concerns folks living and operating in the US. Your sample size information should include the number of participants needed to be considered representative of your larger population. 

  Use your research to guide the appropriate head count for your sample requirements. The number you end up on will vary by the population, type of research (Quant./Qual./Mixed Methods), and your chosen confidence interval (if applicable).

• Instrumentation refers to the tools you will use to gather participant data. A tool can be a survey developed by another researcher, a method (if qualitative), or a platform (such as SPSS, NVivo, or SurveyMonkey). So, which do you include? Excellent question! Anything you intend to use should be discussed, and you may need to plan on explaining HOW you are using them, pending the tool. In my case, I was using interviewing to gather data. Accordingly, I needed to include my interview questions so my committee would know what I would be asking subjects if approved word-for-word.

• Data Collection explains the process you will employ to gather data, INCLUDING the mitigation measures you are taking to ensure participant anonymity and information accuracy.

• Data Analysis, similar to the collection, explains how you will assess your data and draw conclusions concerning your research questions.

The last elements you need to include in your presentation concern the project management aspects of the dissertation. Remember in a prior post when I said you should plan on an end? Here's where embracing a little PM awesomeness makes your life easier. You must include a timeline with dates informing your committee when they should expect you to complete your dissertation and be ready for the final defense. Here's an example from my proposal defense deck:

My dissertation proposed study timeline.

Finally, you bring your presentation together under a conclusive statement that recaps the most important elements and list your references in the following slides (likely in APA7 format). Once you've built this thing, it's time to review for copy errors, add supporting imagery and transitions, and practice. This note leads to the next section quite nicely; let's discuss deck design.

A Note on Proposal Defense Deck Design 

Does design matter? I am not a design professional, but I've always worked adjacent to and with designers. As such, working with these fantastic professionals has imparted a distinct nugget of wisdom I will share with you in a quote I found online:

A design quote.

We might not be consciously aware of what design does for communication (though I suspect there's a study or two out there that may substantiate the impact of design on information processing). Still, collectively we (society at large) do recognize BAD design.  

For example, after reading this sentence, close your eyes and recall the last poorly designed PowerPoint deck you sat through. I'll wait. All done? Now remember what you learned from looking at the deck. Anything? That's my point. The goal is not to dazzle your committee with your design and take away from your research. The purpose of designing your deck is to allow your audience to focus on what's essential or, at the very least, to not distract from the content you're discussing. This goal means you should review your deck with a few tips in mind.

Proposal Deck Design Tips:

• Check to see if your department institutes design requirements: There are likely a few guidelines in place as determined by your department, institution, or committee. Make sure you satisfy these requirements before making any other aesthetic decisions. The other points that follow are those that you should consider unless they violate a requirement here.

• Stop it with the 4:3 already! Apologies for the slight scream there. Can you tell this is a personal peeve? Look, both PowerPoint and Keynote allow you to select the screen ratio for your deck, but unless you're presenting on an old cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor that's a squarer display, you're likely presenting on a widescreen 16:9, rectangular display. So many defense presentations are built as a 4:3 full-screen ratio and displayed on a 16:9 screen, leaving letterboxing (the black bars on the left and right sides of the screen). That's room to play with that is left on the table. Best to design with the screen in mind, amirite?

• Keynote or PowerPoint? This choice is a user preference here, but unless you're required to use one specific platform, I suggest going with what you're most comfortable using. With that said, I will nod to Keynote due to a few particular features. The animations are smoother, and the iPhone remote option is an excellent feature for presenting in person. PowerPoint has its merits as well. This note is just personal preference and an unintentional unpaid advertisement.

• Template or Design-from-scratch? Can you use a template? Absolutely! No one said you had to start from square one. Some folks are comfier starting from a blank canvas, and that's okay. Others prefer the ease that comes with a template, which is also okay. If you use a template, select one with a good array of slide layouts to allow supporting images to be cleanly added and not free-floating in space.

• Typeface selection:  There are a lot of informative guides to using typefaces on the market, so I advise looking to designers for better practices when choosing typefaces (more commonly known as fonts). These tips are more for fellow novices like me, which may make them seem fairly obvious, but as a safeguard (TBF, I've also felt the rush of selecting fonts), here are some pointers to keep in mind:  

• Pick a legible font (be glasses-friendly as well)

• Pick two fonts, Max (the KISS method is used here). Having one font for headers and one for body copy gives a little variety without overwhelming.

• Be consistent in how you use your typeface selections.  Font switching mid-paragraph, including treatments in the same font family, can be distracting.  See what I did there?

• Image selection: Use high-quality, high-resolution images only. Using a low-resolution image may cause what I call 'derezzing,' where individual pixels become more pronounced, and the image seems less sharp by proxy. Here's an example, along with some guidance by Contemporary Communications Inc., with a 'derezzed' photo on the right:

Example of derezzing provided by CCI

• Slide design: This tip could easily be a whole book (and I'm sure it is somewhere), so I'll keep it to a minimum, as should you, in your design. I recommend opting for a clean and simple design over a complicated or ornate design. Remember, your research is what should shine.  

• Don't cram. Leave some breathing space (negative space in the design world) and utilize flow in your design.  

• How do people read a slide? The answer, of course, varies by where you are in the world, but in the US, we read left-to-right, top-down. Capitalize on how people read naturally in your design to create a flow that makes sense.

• Balance visuals to text and use visuals that reinforce what you're talking about. Here's a slide from my defense that utilizes the points listed above using found imagery:

Is this slide perfect? No, not by a long shot, but it upholds a few design tenets. Look at it for 15 seconds, then look away and see what you remember. If it's anything about burnout, then you get the point.

• Transitions and Animations: Transitions and animations for presentations should enhance the flow of your words and allow your audience to keep pace instead of reading ahead or lagging. Again, they should enhance, NOT distract, so select clean or smooth animations (emphasis animations when you want something to POP) and keep it simple.

• Progress Indicator (You are here): This is for your audience to have a sense of time in the presentation and know where they are. I learned this trick from a stellar student and have kept it with me since. Look again at the slide above. Where are you in the presentation? Do you have a relative sense?

Now that you have a few design basics under your belt. Let's review the proposal defense process.

The Defense Process – 30-Minute Format

The proposal defense lasts 30 minutes to 2 hours, pending your program's design. The events are fairly similar, wherein you will present your research proposal, then there's a 'defense,' where your committee will ask questions concerning your study, and you'll need to address them; afterward, the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions. Then, your committee will leave to discuss the verdict, and you'll wait either outside the room (if presenting in person) or in a different Zoom room with your audience (if digital). Once your committee returns, your chair will tell you and the audience of the verdict.

Results of the Proposal Defense

There are three (in most cases) potential outcomes regarding your proposal defense:

• Pass | No Revisions: If you hear this, Bravo! This verdict means you knocked it out of the park. A "pass with no revisions" is the green light to apply to the IRB. Woot!!!

• Pass w/Revisions: A pass with revisions is also great news! You'll need to make the tweaks suggested by your committee, and then once approved, you'll be ready for that next step. Well done!

• Fail: If you failed, it's likely you knew this would happen before going into your defense, or you missed something apparent that is critical to your research. In cases where you fail, get the feedback you need to re-present successfully in the next go. It's important to remember it's not a "No," but instead a "Not yet." Keep at it, and you'll get there.

Proposal Defense Presenting Tips for Success

The last section of the post provides some helpful yet general tips to increase the odds of success in your favor. It's just a list, but it may help all the same.

• Say what you'll say, say it, and then say what you said.

• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

• Be ready for questions.

• It's okay to say you don't know; just say it right.

• Prepare for Murphy's Law, specifically "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."

• Arrive 10-15 minutes early

• Embrace Amy Cuddy's Presence techniques

• Breathe

• Avoid Filler Speech: Pause instead of adding sounds such as "ums, uhs, ers, you knows," etc.

• My greatest hope is the tips and tricks in the post help you succeed in your first of two defenses. You'll apply to your institution's review board from here, which we'll discuss in the next post. Until then!

A Dissertation Tale - Part 11: Selecting your Dissertation Committee

If you're here, you have crushed your Comps (Yay!) and have a plan to manage your dissertation like the project it is. Now for the next step! Selecting (or receiving) your Dissertation Committee can occur either right before, during, or after Comps, so while this post follows the Comps and Project Management for Dissertations post, it's not a guarantee that this will be the order of events for your degree program. It's necessary to have a committee that is as invested in you completing your dissertation as you are. With this understanding in mind, let's discuss key considerations to look for when selecting your committee, starting with a description of what your committee does.

One important note here is that committee assignments may be predetermined or based on availability. In cases where you do not have an option, the best thing you can do is meet with your Chair to lay out the communication plan, expectations, and delivery system groundwork before jumping in.  

What Does a Dissertation Committee Do?

A visual representation of dissertation committee awesomeness in action!

A Dissertation Committee acts in advisory, supervisory, examining, and judgmental capacitates, pending where you are in your process. This group assures your theories and research uphold the tenets of sound research, including providing necessary safeguards when researching people (more on this when we talk about the IRB process). Remember: these folks act as your ultimate stakeholders, so heed their guidance if you want to succeed. Let's look at each function of the relationship to understand the whole further:

Dissertation Committee Actings as Advisors and Supervisors

When acting in an advisory or supervisory role, your committee will lend advice that advances your work and addresses issues or gaps in your research. Your committee's expertise and prior experience are invaluable. 

This valuation is especially poignant if you have not conducted research before; they will have ideas of what you need to review and cover and what critical thinking applies to the study information you both include and exclude. If your committee members are also experts in the field that you are researching, they may point you to specific works that will either support or refute your underlying theories (remember you need both).  

Your Chair and Members may also give you feedback on your writing. However, as a communication suggestion, if you submit work that has not been reviewed for writing continuity issues (i.e., you haven't performed a three-step copy pass on it), please note that in your submission with specific instructions for your committee to NOT REVIEW WRITING but instead to focus on the content and general direction of your research. Doing so will save them valuable time and create a better working relationship by managing expectations in the work you submit.  

Dissertation Committee Actings as Examiners or Judges 

The committee also serves as the deciding body on whether you have successfully passed your dissertation. With the decision looming, they examine your writing and research from the lens of "Does this hold up to the research/writing standards of the institution and the academe?" That's a big question to answer, and as such, your committee will review the entirety of your work under a critical lens of quality analysis.  

Once approved, your work not only represents you but your committee members as well. Their names will appear on the cover page of your research next to you, so they put their reputations on the line with your work; this is why their feedback is so important.

What will your committee look for?

According to Jason Karp, Ph.D., your committee may expect you to "have picked apart your work better than they have," which means you'll have to (and very likely will be the final defense) know the shortcomings and contributions of your work better than anyone. They'll be looking for due diligence and exhaustiveness in your research along with a clear understanding of the limitations, implications, and future applications (both academically and professionally, pending on your degree and area of expertise) of your research. Methodologically speaking, the committee will consider your approach to your study and whether your research design (tools, analysis methods, and interpretations) was appropriate.

How many people are on a dissertation committee?

Excellent question! How many people in your committee largely depends on the requirements of your degree, institution, and department. Committee sizes can vary from 2-5 people serving in a specific role. For example, at the University of California, San Diego, a Ph.D. committee has:

• "Minimum of 4 members with UC San Diego faculty appointments

• At least one Member must have a primary appointment in a different department than the Chair's primary department.

• At least two members must be from the student's home department or program.

• At least one Member must be tenured or emeritus.

• Proposed members from other UC campuses, other universities, or industry are exceptions and must be requested in writing."

The University of Oregon has a similar structure for its graduate programs:

The dissertation committee consists of a minimum of four members, each with a particular role:

• Chair

• 2 Core Members

• Institutional Representative

• Committees in Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Physics also have an Advisor separate from the Chair

As the last example of committee structure, my committee consisted of one Chair and one Member, and from the three examples, you gain a sense of the variance across institutions.  

One important note here is that the more people you add to your committee, the more likely you'll encounter differing opinions, politics, or conflict between members, and the more people you'll need to keep current on your progress. Try to keep your committee to the minimum to reduce these headaches. Now, let's talk about the roles within your committee.

Dissertation Committee Roles

A representative image of working with your chair.

1) Your Chair:

This individual is the person that takes full accountability for the impacts and implications of your research. It's their job to ensure your research is conducted within the IRB standards and that the work is original. They'll be the ones to authorize your IRB application (before the full IRB review) and will be held accountable if your research is found to have violated the requirements instituted by the board.

Your Chair is also the person you work with most throughout your dissertation, so having a similar deadline and working style would serve you well while dissertating. Your Chair will be the first stop you send work to for review and the one who will most likely advise on the direction and development of your research. Your Chair will notify you when you are ready to defend your proposal or the final. They will help you schedule each defense and, lastly, lead the committee's conversation when determining if you have earned your Doctorate. The best advice I can give here is to choose your Chair wisely.  

2) Committee Member(s): 

Like your Chair, committee members will advise and guide your research. They may critique your writing, point gaps or areas to revise in your research, ask probative questions during defenses, and provide a final verdict on your proposal and final defenses.

One strong recommendation is to include a methodologist within this group for guidance on your dissertation's data gathering and analysis portions. Enlisting a methodologist means seeking a statistician to vet and check your data analysis and interpretations for quantitative studies. You should seek out a seasoned qualitative researcher for process and interpretation feedback for qualitative studies. (I'll also have a great book to help with this in a future post.) Other qualifications may be impressed on committee members and may hold other titles. These include the roles of institutional and external members. We'll review each to ensure you have a firm understanding of these requirements:

Institutional Member(s)*- Pending on the institutional requirements, you may also need a committee member who serves as the institutional representative. This condition was not required in my experience, but I came across the term while researching the various forms of dissertation committees. 

According to the University of Oregon's graduate studies policy, this person is an "outside member" (see external member explainer below). They are charged with ensuring your committee follows all procedures designed for dissertation committee governance.  

External Member*- An external member serves on your committee and is of equivalent rank as your other committee members but is NOT affiliated with the institution you are studying in. Boston University gives a beautiful description of this role:

"A "classic" model of an External Member is someone in a tenure-track faculty position at a university of similar or higher quality than BU ("peer" or "peer-plus") working in the same scientific field as the Ph.D. student but who is not currently affiliated with the Ph.D. student's research group or BU faculty advisor."

Now that we have covered who all may be required to serve on your committee and the roles that may fill, we need to discuss factors you may want to consider before sending out the committee requests.

Factors to Consider When Choosing Your Dissertation Committee

Below is a list of factors you'll want to consider when drafting a list of committee members. We'll go through each of these one by one:

Availability: First and foremost on this list concerns availability; this is especially important when selecting a chair. You'll need committee members with a reasonable amount of time to provide feedback or are at least willing to make time to help you finish this undertaking. Remember that faculty may likely be serving on multiple committees at any one point in time, which reduces their time with any candidate the more they take on.

Level of Interest or Commitment: Equivalently significant is the level of interest or commitment concerning your dissertation. Fun fact: in most cases, faculty do not receive compensation for serving on dissertation committees, which may influence the level of care applied to your study. This issue can be mitigated or reduced by seeking advisors who work in similar fields or are more relevant to the committee members' expertise. Another point of note is serving on committees may satisfy the service to college expectations of their contracts which may aid you in finding committee members as a 'selling point.'

Area of Specialization (Parity or Adjacent): Ideally, you would be working with someone with expertise in your specific area of interest, which may be why you applied to that institution in the first place. Realistically, you may have found your topic during your curriculum, and an expert in that field may not be employed at your institution. If this is the case, first, know that it's okay. In these cases, try to find someone whose expertise is adjacent (close to) your area of interest.  

For example, if you are interested in a human behavior-related topic and an expert in that phenomenon is unavailable, someone with a psychology background can lend valuable insight to your study. I recommend finding someone adjacent and committed, as opposed to an apathetic expert or one seldom available to serve on your committee.  

Tenured, Tenure Track, or Adjunct: This category points to the prior categories mentioned but may add valuable context in helping you select your committee members. An interesting phenomenon may occur once a professor earns tenure (within those institutions that offer it) wherein the level of effort in staying current or hungry in their field is not as intensive as before making tenure. By and large, tenure-track professors are more primed to want to help dissertation students as leverage to earn their tenure; they may also bring more ideas and enthusiasm to your research. Concerning adjunct professors, pending the institutional requirements, you may be able to enlist the help of an adjunct professor who also works in the field, which may lend more practical insights into your work.

Problems May Arise in Dissertation Committees

Avoiding 'Superstars': The folks at MyDissertationEditor have offered this gem, which echoes points made up to this point, but is worth reiterating. Superstars in your field may be too busy (being the superstars they are) to effectively serve on your committee. As an alternate suggestion, see if you can conduct a single expert interview with this person (or people) to include in your research after reading their work. This way, you can still incorporate their insights into your study without monopolizing their time or slowing down your progress.

Too many cooks (Differing perspectives): Having too many committee members may create a scenario where two or three butt heads on a point or direction of your study. Academics can be passionate in their perspectives, which means you may end up playing an intermediary role between members if discord happens. When in doubt, I recommend going with the advice of your Chair but acknowledging and considering all feedback.

Intra-Committee Conflict (or Politics): I hope this doesn't happen for you. Depending on the happenings of the department and the timing, in some cases, your dissertation may become a platform for departmental politics, ultimately slowing down your progress due to members' conflicting agendas while running down your seven-year timer. One way to reduce this is by selecting committee members you know work well together or allowing your Chair to recommend committee additions with those insights in mind. Remember, people are people at the end of the day, and if there is an unrelated but present conflict within your committee, it will likely affect your study. It's best to avoid it at the beginning rather than dealing with it mid-dissertation.

Hopefully, the information up to this point has helped you narrow down your list of prospects to a group that will guide you to success. Now, let's work on creating the final list of candidates!

A 3-Step Process for Assembling Your Committee:

Step 1: Draft a Preliminary Roster

The first step here is to look at your institution's committee requirements. Know how many people must serve on your committee at a minimum and what other rules are impressed upon committee members (such as institutional or external requirements). Once you have your requirements in hand, create a short list for your Chair. Starting with the person you'll work with most makes sense because you'll spend the most time with this individual, and they'll ultimately determine your success. Choose carefully using the suggestions provided above.

Then create a shortlist of members who can also serve as your methodologist (if your Chair cannot fill this role). Consider your chosen methodology. Are you looking to do a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods study? Who do you know that can provide insights into your data-gathering and analysis process? Can your Chair recommend someone if you need help finding someone that meets your needs? Finally, create a shortlist for your other members (if more than two are required), including your institutional and external members. For each role, have at least two alternates.

Step 2: Contact and Interview 

Just because you think someone is a good match does not mean they are available, interested, or a good fit to serve on your committee. You need to do some leg work to secure the right team, meaning you'll need to send out a few requests and, if possible, interview faculty to ensure a fruitful dissertation experience. Here are some questions you may want to include in your request or during an interview.

Questions to Ask Potential Dissertation Committee Members

• What is your goal for my dissertation completion deadline?

• Alternate: What realistic deadline would you expect me to complete my dissertation by?

• Alternate: What is the average amount of time your candidates complete their dissertation within?

• What is your availability?

• Alternate: How much time can you allocate for this committee on a weekly, monthly, or term-based period?

• How much proactive engagement do you expect from me?

• How much proactive engagement should I expect from you?

• How do you prefer to communicate? (Specifically, meetings, emails, phone calls, etc.)

• How often do you like to communicate? (The frequency: Weekly, Bi-Weekly, etc.)

• When can I expect feedback or revision notes from you once submitted?

• How will I know when the work is complete?

• Alternate: How will we determine when I am ready for each defense?

Other questions I found online you may consider adding, from Stephen Foster:

• Would you like to view my work when it is finished or as pieces are being completed?

• How do you prefer communication? Should it be direct, or it has to go through the chairperson?

• How long does it take for you to do my review?

• Are there some faculty members that do not fit well with your work style or may not work well with you?

• What are the attributes that make successful students?

• Do you have ideas on my topic?

• Are there any questions that you care to ask me?

Asking a few of these questions will allow you to understand the expected pace of your progress and the level of commitment from each Member. Now it's time to select your team by sending an official request to each prospective Member (excluding those unavailable or excluded after having spoken with them).

Step 3: Establish the Communication Plan

Once your team has assembled, it's time to lay the groundwork by communicating your communication plan. You should have a firm sense of how (and how often) each committee member would like to hear from you. To keep it straight, you can create a small table that will serve as a reference point or schedule a reminder in your calendar if that helps you stay on track. I recommend sending an establishing email as a thank you to start things off on the right foot. This email should include the following:

• Thank you for agreeing to serve on your committee

• A restatement of the communication approach you discussed in your interview (E.g., As we discussed, I will send you a progress email every two weeks and will send chapters to be reviewed once completed, with the expectation to receive feedback in approximately two weeks from the submission date.)

• An initiation to contact proactively.

• A note of enthusiasm for the opportunity to work with the committee member

Now that you have your team, it's time to get going on your research in preparation for the next major hurdle: your proposal defense. Til' next time!

A Dissertation Tale - Part 10: Project Management for Doctoral Candidates

If you're here, you've passed your Comprehensive Exams. Brava! 

Hopefully, you have celebrated navigating the first hurdle (remember this is an essential part of the process; you need to hype yourself up to keep the motivation going).  

In this stage, the level of self-direction and accountability will be THE difference in success or failure to reach the final defense. So, before getting into the committee selection elements and working towards the proposal defense, we must create a management plan for this undertaking. Let's talk about it.

What is Project Management?

Excellent question! A complete answer to this question could be a book (or five) on its own. However, an abbreviated version will do the trick. 

Project Management is a discipline that allows the Project Manager (PM) to transgress stages from ideation to completion in an undertaking. The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a project as "temporary efforts to create value through unique products, services, and processes."

A project can be anything, and anything can be a project as long as the concept has a finite end. Undertakings that are indefinite do not meet the parameters of a project, which helps to create a mindset of completing it, much like the goal of your dissertation, which leads me to a great quote that my chair said often:

Make no mistake; your dissertation is a project.

Dr. Mancini told us this is not, nor should it be, your magnum opus. Remember, you have seven years to complete it, and by this point, you're likely 2-3 years in already; the clock is ticking, and it will end no matter what. Best to end on a triumphant note, right?

Project management is segmented into two distinct mindsets: one utilizes a linear approach (i.e., from start to finish) and another is iterative in nature. The former is often called waterfall project management, and the latter is called Agile. Though it seems a rebranding of these terms is gaining traction to coin the mindsets regarding how they flow (again, the linear or iterative approaches).  

Linear (or waterfall) project management moves through a series of five stages: 

This overall process is called the PM life cycle, and completing one stage and beginning a new stage requires a stage gate. A stage gate is where a deliverable is produced. For example, when transgressing the ideation stage into the planning stage, you might have made a document that contains the ideas and end deliverables your project will have produced at the end.  

Iterative project management allows for projects to take shape when uncertainty about the final deliverables or learning while executing becomes necessary. There are several variations or flavors to employ Agile thinking; the most used is the Scrum methodology, but other variations such as Kanban, Scrumban, Lean, RDD, or Crystal Method exist, amongst others.

Which project management approach should I use to complete my dissertation?

Another excellent question! The approach you use is up to you, and your work style, but a few questions can help you narrow the myriad options available:

1. What needs to be produced at the end of the project?

2. Are your stakeholders in agreement with what needs to be produced at the end?

3. Do you have a set deadline?

4. Do you have a set budget? (Yes, you should have a spend associated with your dissertation, but we'll discuss this in the hidden costs section in a later post.)

5. Are you motivated by a set series of events, or does that seem too rigid?

6. Do you need to be able to flex or pivot throughout the project?

Your preferred work style should influence the approach you use to manage your dissertation. The more specific you are about project variables, the more a linear PM approach can be beneficial. However, if there is disagreement or a need for clarity on the end deliverables of your dissertation, an Agile mindset may serve you better here. In my case, I knew what I would need to produce to complete the dissertation, so the Linear design worked well for me. As such, I created a Gantt chart that helped me plan the weekly tasking breakdown for the final defense.

The Case for Methodological Hybridization (Or, in less academic speak, can’t I use a little of each approach?)

The short questionnaire above assumes it's clear to determine what PM approach will serve you well, implying a binary determination on each element. Still, I've learned (thus far) that the world is often better reflected as varying shades of gray (grey) versus a black-and-white approach. If "maybe" or "uncertain" was your response to any of the six questions above, you may consider using a hybridized system to fuse Linear planning with an Iterative learning flavor.  

You might be thinking, is that even doable? The short answer here is "yes," but how becomes the most significant hurdle? If project management is new to you, using a single approach might be best (after all, you have enough to do already). If, however, you are familiar with PM, this might be a great time to play with the tenets of the foundation you have to create a workflow that is best for you. As we discuss employing PM for research under each method, note which tools and techniques work best for you.

How does Project Management advance research undertakings?

You might be thinking, "I don't need a system or method to get this done." If that's the case, I say, "You do you," and I support your decision. With that said, it's also worth mentioning from this point on, your progress is yours to determine. You will not have deadlines set for you, as was the case in other classes, and your advisors will likely ask you what they should expect from you and by when.

Communication and updates will be on you to proactively plan with your committee, and the fruits of your work will need to be delivered to make the conversations consistently beneficial. You also need to plan on a two-to-three-week turnaround on feedback from your committee. 

Note: Your dissertation committee likely serves on multiple dissertation committees at any time in addition to their other job responsibilities (not to mention they have lives of their own). This recognition is one reason why the onus is left to you to set and maintain the pace to reach the end of this race.

In my experience, this can be a difficult adjustment. I've seen folks drop off because other spheres of life (understandably) took priority, rendering their dissertation progress to a standstill, and they couldn't recover after too much latency. Having a plan that optimizes consistency helps to reduce the likelihood of a drop-off scenario. Using a PM system helps to keep you focused on what smaller increments need to be done every day (the tree's perspective, as mentioned in the last post) to realize the total requirements (the forest).

You'll need to research many aspects concerning your topics which can be a great way to organize your tasking in addition to the other requirements you'll need to satisfy. Let's talk about task breakdown.

Tasking, tasking, and more tasking.

A large element of PM is task management. Many smaller tasks comprise the whole, and ensuring you cover everything becomes critical in this journey (not to mention less stress-inducing).

Start with the grand picture, the five chapters you need to write:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Lit. Review

Chapter 3: Methodology

Chapter 4: Results

Chapter 5: Discussion, Implications, and Recommendations

Then, add another level of detail, such as the sections expected in each chapter (See the Part 8 post for these elements concerning Chapters 1-3.)

Then, start tailoring the pieces toward the narrative concerning your topics, variables, phenomena, and subject pools. I bet you didn't think you were telling a story here. Au contraire mon frère! You are building a narrative that encompasses the history and evolution of your variables up to the study that you are running. It's not just a story; it's an epic saga.  

Task management using a Linear PM approach involves taking large items (like a whole chapter and breaking them into the smallest-most-easily-measurable pieces possible (called work packages, in case you're interested). We started doing this above, and you likely do this intuitively, so it should feel familiar. Once you have a list of tasks (or "to dos" as I usually refer to them), the following steps vary by either the linear or Iterative flavor you select. Let's start with linear!

Linear Project Management Task Management for Dissertations

Begin by taking your exploded task list from above and assign "estimates" to each task (or "work package," as we just learned). What's an estimate, you may ask? Excellent question! Estimates can involve the following areas of consideration with questions below to help you determine your requirements for each task:

Time (by far the most pressing element) 

1. How much time will it take me to complete this task?

   Pro tip: Figure out the estimate and multiply it by two afterward. People are usually incorrect when assessing how much time tasking takes to complete. By preparing for the worst, you give yourself a needed buffer. This technique is called contingency planning.

 Resources (such as librarians, databases, etc.)

1. What resources do I need to be able to work? (Include space needs here.)

2. Do you need to work with specific people?

3. Do you need access to databases or other resources? (If so, do you need to set it up beforehand?)

4. Are there particular tools or software you need to procure access to be able to work?

 Money

1. What fiscal costs are present when performing your tasks?

   Tip: Include expenditures such as the cost of materials or tools, time costs, and even that obligatory creature comfort that helps you to be able to do the work.

Travel (if needed)

1. Add the time costs of travel to your Time requirements.

2. Add the financial costs of travel to your Money requirements.

Research Tasking Determinants:

You now have a list of "to dos" or tasks with the time, resources, and financial requirements assigned to them. Well done! Now, we must determine if any tasks depend on completing other assignments beforehand. These are called dependencies in the PM world.  

The example I use for this most often comes from building construction: To frame a house, you must first build the foundation. There's a natural, sensical order in which the work must be done to get to a complete, structurally sound end product. Theoretically, you could assemble the frame and then pour the foundation, but this would require a lot of adjustments and rework to fit the frame to the foundation, so it's not an ideal workflow. 

Adopting the house metaphor to your research undertaking, which sections must be built first to complete other areas? I'll give a more directly relatable example: you will likely need to write Chapters 2 and 3 before you write Chapter 1. You will need to complete Chapters 1-3 before you can conduct your research. On a smaller level, you would need to research your population before determining what a representative sample of that population would consist of. Take some time to review your task list and note the dependencies you have between tasks. This process will help in the next step, task sequencing.

Dissertation Task Sequencing:

Once you have assigned estimates to each task and determined dependencies, it's time to sequence them (i.e., put them in an order that makes sense). I'm of the old-school mindset here when it comes to task sequencing, so I will write tasks on sticky notes and move them around until I have them in the order that optimizes the workflow (Not kidding, it's a messy process, but the act of physically switching things up helps me figure things out a little better).  

Several PM programs can help you perform the same actions (and save paper) without space requirements. I won't list them all (too many), but programs I have found helpful include Miro, Trello, Hive, and Asana. Whichever method you take, the goal here is to create a task sequence where you can save as much time as possible work in a way that your research builds upon itself and allows you to reflect regularly on the literature while seeing your progress along the way.

Crafting your Dissertation Schedule (v01)

From here, you take all the information and draft your first schedule by placing the series of tasks within the context of your calendar. At this point, you can use one of the tools listed above to create this schedule or become Excel-lent and build it in Microsoft Excel. I chose the latter for my dissertation due to my familiarity/comfort with the program. I will explain how to create the schedule (Gantt Chart) using a section of the very chart that kept me focused throughout my dissertation:

A section of Dr. Garman’s dissertation Gantt Chart.

At first glance, this looks like a SCARY chart, but I'll break it down. The left column contains the tasks that need to be done, and I organized tasks by the class they would be completed in (color-coded categories). My tasks consisted of the sections that needed to be researched and written, and you'll notice I started this document at the beginning of Comps.  

The top row contains the dates of the project work periods. A work period is a predetermined amount of time (segmented by days, weeks, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.). I chose a weekly work period layout. An important note is to indicate if the date listed on the top row is a "start by" or "end by" date so there's no confusion as to which week you are on.  

The cell color highlights indicate tasks for each work period. Any critical moments or hurdles were colored red to grab my attention and keep the focus on what this work is building towards. As you complete a task, you check it off (showing your progress and pending tasks).

Remember, this is a V01. As such, you will work with this chart as you go from work period to work period. I suggest keeping this as a living document and printing hard copies of the latest version for your planner or dissertation journal. Visit your schedule often (if not daily) to stay on track.

Iterative PM Task Management for Dissertations

An iterative PM approach for dissertations also involves creating a task list (see above section). Still, tasking requirements are prioritized as it becomes clearer what needs to be done.  

Before you can begin managing your tasking with an iterative system, you must choose the flavor of Agile PM. While there are several flavors, the flavors that can be most easily applied to research projects concern:

• Scrum

• Kanban

• Scrumban (Scrum + Kanban)

This post will not explain any framework in its entirety but instead explain progressive steps and tools from the frameworks as they can advance the progress of your dissertation.  

• For a complete explainer concerning the Agile mindset, please check out the Agile Manifesto.  

• For information on Scrum: the book Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time and Kanban: the self-named Guide by David Anderson.

• The concepts discussed below come from these resources. 

Scrum for Dissertations

Scrum is a flavor of agile wherein work sessions are performed in a series of iterative sprints. A sprint is a period (of time, usually 1-4 weeks long) wherein four events (formerly known as ceremonies) occur:

• Sprint Planning – happens at the beginning of the sprint wherein tasks (called stories or epics pending on the scale) are selected to be completed within the sprint.

• Daily Standups – short (usually 15-minute) meetings, happening 1x p/day throughout the sprint, where developers (people that are doing the work) discuss:

• What they have completed

• What they are working on

• What hindrances they've encountered that need resolving to proceed.

• Sprint Review – Presentation to the stakeholders at the end of the sprint on completed stories/epics, with feedback elicited to improve the work or confirm completion before moving on to other tasks.

• Sprint Retrospective – After completing the review, a reflective session on past performance will indicate successes, identify improvement points, and ideate changes to improve future performance.

Instead of the schedule, Scrum utilizes an ever-changing list (called an artifact) known as the Product Backlog. Think of this as a list of 'to-dos' where tasks are prioritized as more information is learned. As tasks become more concretely defined, they move from the bottom of the backlog (list) to the top. Tasks that are defined and broken down to the point where they are "ready to be executed" can then be pulled (chosen) for completion in a sprint session. 

The team (including a 'team' of one) will transgress the events ongoingly until every task on the backlog is fulfilled, thereby indicating the close and handoff of the project.

For dissertations, your team would consist of you, and your stakeholders would be your committee. You would transgress sprint working through the same task list and gaining feedback from your committee on an ongoing, regular basis. The most significant benefit of using this approach is that regular feedback allows for critical changes earlier and, more often, reduces the prospect of a surprise when proposing or defending. However, you would need to explain the process and gain support for this approach from your committee before working this way.

Kanban PM for Dissertations

We touched on Kanban very early in this series, but this is the time when this approach shines. The Kanban board works as a task visualization tool; I'll again use the Kanban section of the professional strategy board I designed for my professional development/workflow as an example:

That good ole’ Kanban making a repeat appearance.

The same four categories exist in this board; consider this a basic version of the Kanban as most times, you'll see 3-4 swim lanes (the columns) of progress labeled similarly to what is in the example. Lately, I've been referring to the "Done" column as the "TA-DA!" column as a reminder to celebrate the small victory. Here is the flow of tasks using the Kanban board:

1. Tasks from your task list (see above) are written on sticky notes or digital task cards using a PM software tool like Trello and placed on the leftmost "TO DO" swim lane.

2. When you begin working on something (called a 'pull' or a commitment), you move the task sticky note over to the "DOING" swim lane and get to it.  

3. Once you have completed the task, quality control/assurance (QC/QA) commences. In this case, the sticky note moves into the "REVIEW" swim lane, and you take whatever actions are needed to review and polish your work.

4. Finally, once polished and considered good to go, it moves again into the "DONE" swim lane (and you have a little celebrative dance).  

If you start a Kanban, an important note is to limit the number of tasks you're working on at one time. The act of 'stop-gaping' the amount of work you are performing is called setting a work-in-progress (WIP) limit. WIP limits are necessary because, contrary to popular belief, multitasking is unrealistic or even viable for most of us. Our brains are not made for multitasking. In fact, "what we think is multitasking is, in most cases, task switching," according to Dr. Nancy Napier.

We focus on one thing while other things are happening on their own until we need to handle it, and then we switch focus before returning to the original tasks. An example would be doing laundry while writing; we're not constantly focusing on the laundry while it's going. Instead, it's going while we do something else, and we return to it when needed.

For dissertations, you would write all of your tasks onto a card, place it into the TO DO category, and work them through the board as you go. If a new topic or area presents while you're working, don't worry. Just create a new card to add to your TO DO swim lane and keep moving along. The process allows you to see what needs to be completed and how much progress you have made along the way.  

Utilizing a PM method for your dissertation lets you stay on track and communicate better between yourself and your committee. The goal here is to advance your success in a seamless, dare I say, enjoyable way. In the next post, we'll return to the process with tips and tricks when selecting your committee. Til' next time!

A Dissertation Tale - Part 9: A Case of the Comps

Do you feel a sense of impending challenge coming at you? If you do, the comprehensive exams must be closing in. If you've arrived here, you are about to endure the first significant hoop to jump through in the final Doctoral process. You might be thinking: "Dr.G, you have no idea what I've been through; how can you say THIS is the first major hoop?" That is a fair point, dear reader. You have undergone a lot to get to this point and should feel an immense sense of accomplishment, but this process is literally where the academe separates the candidates (or ABDs) from the Doctors.  

What is an ABD?

This acronym was a term I was familiar with before my journey, but the full scope of the implications was a new discovery. ABD is a term applied to Doctoral Candidates when they have completed "All But the Dissertation."

When you are still working towards the degree, this term becomes a marker of progress, but if this is where you fall out, it becomes an indicator that, for whatever reason, you didn't make it. From the behaviors and impressions I've seen, this is not a term of endearment nor an accolade when in an incomplete-and-no-longer-pursuing scenario. The larger whole of academia (though individual exceptions are undoubtedly present) does not value the work unless the individual makes it 'all the way,' which can add pressure to perform. Maybe that's the point? Honestly, I have no idea.  

Having explained that, please do not think there is NO value in the work you've done and the experience you've had getting to this point. What you accomplished by completing all the coursework is the necessary preparation and skill-building required to face the final hurdles, and that in and of itself is valuable. Other industries may also find these skills of value in different roles, so you're only pigeonholed if you're looking to enter specific academic positions. At any rate, back to comps.

A found image of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbs as he panic exams. We’ve all felt this, right?

What are the Comprehensive Exams (Comps)?

Does it mean Compression Learning? How about Comparable Research Methods? Composure training? Is it a sickness? No to all the above (though TBF, you may feel sick during the process if stress management is not a thing for you or you struggle with High-Performance Anxiety).  

Comprehensive Exams or more commonly referred to as Comps is a course designed to assess the soundness of your research abilities and knowledge concerning your chosen discipline. 

According to Tara Kuther, Ph.D., Comps cover a broad array of materials and topics within your years in the program and often vary by degree, level of mastery, and discipline. More simply explained, Comps can come in all shapes and sizes.

At the Doctoral level, exams often take the response format of research and writing within a limited or compressed (I guess 'compression' is a variable here, after all) timeframe. Comps can involve responding to a specific question as a writing and research prompt or can be used to further the research work on the dissertation home front again, pending the design of your chosen degree. Turnaround time can be as long as two weeks or as short as eight hours, with the length requirements usually increasing with additional time.  

The other aspect of Comps is the on-your-own-ness nature of the challenge. Your professor or course proctor will likely meet with you the first week to explain what you will be facing and the deadlines and present the questions either progressively throughout the course or all at once. 

Then, you are left to do the work. Feedback is given once the exams are over by design, leaving you to your devices to produce quality work quickly. The experience requires both critical thinking and project management skills. As such, we'll discuss project management skills and tools for Doctoral students in the next post. (Stay tuned)

In my Comps experience with our now very small-but-mighty cohort, we had two questions to respond to and a final knowledge assessment. We had about four weeks to respond to the first prompt and two weeks to respond to the second prompt. The first prompt asked us to discuss the background information that informs our research problem and provide a cogent rationale for the study, including the facets that would come to be our Chapter 1. The second prompt concerned the factors and processes of our proposed study's methodological design or the foundations for what would become Chapter 3.

Did you notice we skipped a chapter there? If so, well done! The reality is you need to have done the extensive legwork of writing your Chapter 2 to have a well-composed, research-backed Chapter 1. In theory, it might be more advantageous to start by writing your Chapter 2 entirely and backtracking to write the first chapter, but your professors and program will make that call.  

Another aspect of this adventure is we're no longer grading on a letter-based or numerical scoring system. At this point, there are two possibilities, you either pass or you fail. Ouch! Pass/fail will be the grading system from here on in, so there's no grey (or gray) zone here. You are 'all in' with every hand (if this were a high-stakes poker game). Exciting, huh?  

Note: If you fail, programs usually allow you to retake comps once. If you fail a second time, this means you stop here. You need to either find another program and start over or discuss options (if there are any) with your academic advisor and department head. No matter how you slice it, it's not a great place to be, so let's discuss how you can avoid this situation.

Tips for Improving Your Odds

Many hedging methods to improve your odds come from work you should have been doing before arriving in Comps. Check out past posts for those tips but be advised, this includes addressing the feedback given to you in the preparatory course (or courses) concerning your research topic and the work you have done up to this point.

A thing a great professor wants to say to candidates that argue every step of the way.

It seems incredibly simple, right? This quote was one I heard from a fantastic professor that was explaining repeating pain points experienced from cohort to cohort. Remember, in most cases, professors try their darndest (technical term) to help you succeed, but candidates may choose to argue nuances with their profs. rather than make the suggested changes or address feedback given to them. 

TBF, I see this in students as well and get it. You might push back to understand a point made by your prof. further, you may avoid rework or extra work, or it may be based on your convictions or experience. There is always a time and a place for discourse, but when you're in a make-or-break situation, taking the feedback given to you by the one that determines your fate might be the best course of action.  

This scenario may be your first 'go' at this level, but this is NOT the first rodeo (per se) for your professor. They know what to look for, have been in your shoes, and earned their "Dr.". With that in mind, you better have some compelling research or a poignant point of consideration to push against the notes they're giving you before comps. More so, they might be explicitly LOOKING to see that you addressed the notes they gave you, which will not bode well if you choose not to include it without good reason.

You have one of two options: 

• Make the recommended changes and learn about the AOIs you have going forward

• Keep doing what you want and roll the dice

I recommend swallowing your pride and doing the work. Once you've passed comps, if you notice discrepancies, inconsistencies, or conflicts in the feedback from your committee or you can address it at that time.  

This juncture leads up to the next tip:

Sound advice from an incredible artist.

You have a very short time to produce quality work. While this should be second nature by this point, adding heightened time pressure in these circumstances may cause us to forget those good habits in favor of the 'getting-it-done' mindset (no judgment; I've fallen prey to this as well); ensure that part of that time is dedicated to sweeping your writing (or copy) for spelling, grammar, name checks, and unintentional plagiarism. I picked up one life-saving copy-sweeping method from working as an intern in a Creative Advertising department (in La La Land); the Three-pass Copy Scan Method. Here's how it works:

1. Scan for writing continuity: spelling, grammar, syntax, tone, and style

2. Check and confirm all names are spelled correctly (especially for high-profile celebs. or software names)

3. Check again for 1 and 2

Why does sound copy matter?

Aside from the expectations in your program, writing quality demonstrates proficiency or competency, at least on a subliminal level. If readers are focused on making sense of what you're telling them, they're not focused on the merits of your research. In advertising or marketing-adjacent fields, copy errors are not just annoying but also expensive.  

I'll give you a quick example: Let's say you find a copy error on a movie poster (called a one-sheet in the industry). If you catch it before the print run, you may have to pay for a resubmit or deal with the costs to expedite production to make up lost time. While bad, this is NOT the worst-case scenario.  

What happens if you don't catch a mistake until after the prints have been run and are being readied for distribution? Then you need to pay for an emergency response measure which includes:

• New print run costs

• Expedited printing costs

• Expedited packaging costs

• Expedited shipping costs

• The cost of the original print run (which will now need to be destroyed to protect the brand, so you must either pay an intern to shred for a day or pay a service to take care of it)

These costs can quickly rack up to thousands, if not millions, of dollars. Yikes!  

With that said, is the three-pass method time-consuming? Yes. Helpful? 

Heck yes! Cheaper? Well, given the example above, my vote is: absolutely! This approach helped me reduce about 80% of my writing errors. Is my writing perfect? Absolutely not, but improvement is an improvement, and the Pareto principle may be applicable here.

Once you've used this method, run the copy through an editing software such as Grammarly or the editor in MS Word. (There is NO excuse nowadays; everything, including the Adobe Suite, has a spell-check feature.) Then, get a second or a fresh pair of eyes on it. After working on the same project for a while, you grow less critical or observant of the contents. This phenomenological bias is why having another party check your work becomes valuable. They may see a missed error since this is new. If your institution has a writing resource center or club, use it.

Planning for Comps Success:

Creating an outline before you start researching/writing is a great technique, and I'll reaffirm it here. For formal writing, at least, go in with a plan. As the great Benjamin Franklin said,

A true thing Benjamin Franklin once said.

Build the skeleton before adding the research 'muscle' or the writing aesthetics. Ensure you have also included every requirement in the response prompt. Doing so accomplishes a few things:

1. You'll know what to research and write to hit the points you need

2. You'll ensure you have included all of the requirements

3. You can focus on the trees (sections) instead of the, at times, paralyzing view of the forest of work (chapters)

4. You gain a better sense of the amount of time you'll need to spend to complete the undertaking

Another Flavor of Comps

The process I described is merely one flavor of the Comps experience. According to Jason Karp, Ph.D., some flavors can also involve an oral exam which resembles an intensive interviewing process. Questions concern topics covered throughout the entire 2-3 years of study within your chosen program. Karp notes his oral defense lasted about two hours and, once finished, was left waiting outside the conference room for his committee to render their decision. Agonizing!

The next post will discuss project management tips for doctoral students, followed by the next significant element of a dissertation, selecting your dissertation committee. Til' next time!

A Dissertation Tale - Part 8: Year Three, The Dissertation Process Flow Chart and Seminar Course

If you made it here, many congratulations! You may have only one or two topic-related courses left before the dissertation journey begins. Take a little breather, if possible, as the last few steps you must traverse are work-intensive and require several iterations before you reach the final defense.

As a reminder, here is the curriculum layout for year three of the program:

Year 3/4 Classes:

• Consulting Learning Practicum

• Dissertation Seminar (We are here)

• Doctoral Written Comprehensive Exam

• Directed Research (This repeats for up to 3 more terms, carrying into a 4th year if needed)

• Dissertation Oral Defense (Non-credit)

Since I'm a visual person, at the beginning of my dissertation adventure, I drew a flow chart that I could refer to as I took each step, I share this with you in hopes that it will aid your journey, but likely your process will deviate slightly dependent on the design of the curriculum you have chosen. Since the dissertation is the main event within this series, the adventure will be broken into a post for each course and the tasking contained within them.  

For the grand overview, here is the flow chart:

The adventure began in the first course focused on the dissertation, the Dissertation Seminar class. This class had two assignment categories and a training certification program to be completed to satisfy the course requirements. Weekly module writings prompted discussion regarding our progress and drafting the first three chapters of the dissertation for the Comprehensive Exams (AKA Comps.; more on Comps. in the next post).

Writing three chapters felt like a challenge to me at this juncture, but I was reminded that it is an iterative process (Agile mindsets are helpful here). What I produced would not be perfect. In instances like these, I am reminded of a simple truth from Nadya Ichinomiya in an online training session arranged for my students (but I get as much out of these sessions as they do):

Perfection is an illusion. There will always be mistakes, and you'll catch them over time and revisions, but your dissertation will still need improvement at the end of the day. Further, differences in interpretation will create discord among the experts in your respective field, thereby throwing your work under scrutiny. (Thus is the nature of academia.) Because of this underlying nature, attempting to write something that will be universally accepted and praised is a fruitless endeavor.  

Strive for objectivity here, and remember to keep your personal opinions elsewhere. Theories are welcome, but only after you have done the legwork by researching what is out there first. The important thing is to start researching and writing. Then, keep going. Writing a dissertation is a marathon, not a sprint. That said, it might now be helpful to overview what Chapters 1-3 are all about. With no further ado:

Chapter 1: Introduction

You'll know what this chapter is about if you have read anything. The Introduction section (along with most of the writing in a dissertation) is formulaic. Specific areas are expected to be included and vary slightly by your chosen research methodology. In this chapter, you will likely be asked to include the following sections:

• Problem Background

• Statement of the Problem

• Purpose of the Study

• Theoretical Framework

• Research and Interview Questions (If using a qualitative or mixed methods approach)

• Brief Literature Review

• Definitions

• Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations

• Importance of the Study

• Summary

There's an approach that will serve you well here:

• First, tell your readers what you're going to tell them

• Second, tell them

• Finally, tell them what you told them

They may not get it or remember in step one or two, but your odds improve with each reiteration. It's true when people say there is a lot of redundancy in dissertation writing, but it's not without purpose. By the end of writing Chapter 2, you will have stacks (literally) of research supporting an existing theory that you seek to either test or further explore to formulate a new testable hypothesis. Chapter 1 lays the groundwork for the following chapters, provides a contextual overview for the deep dive that lies ahead, and serves as the first step to the method listed above.

Chapter 2: The Literature Review (the DEEP dive)

Did you bring your swimming goggles and snorkel? How about a full diver's tank? This chapter is where you take a plunge and dive deep into the prior studies and research done by those that have gone before you. I hope you bring a snack because you'll need it.

Chapter 2 is often the most extensive and densest in the dissertation. You are looking for the giants whose shoulders you'll eventually stand on. The sectioning and organization will vary widely and is dependent on the following:

• The area you have chosen to research

• The associated variables or phenomena of your study

• The context surrounding the subjects of your study

• The stacking design of the research to build up to the gap in the research you seek to fill (i.e., your contribution to the universal body of knowledge or the pimple you are creating, as noted in a prior post)

For example, my chapter 2 was about 70 pages, which can be considered light compared to other dissertations you'd find as you conduct your research. I recommend looking at other dissertations (as was recommended to me by my chair) to see how the authors organized the timelines and structures of their research so that you can build a relevant and practical skeleton for your own Chapter 2.  

Pro-tip: Build an outline (framework) of your Chapter 2 and run it by your professor in the introductory course to determine if any key areas are missing BEFORE jumping into the writing. Additionally, ensure your framework is supported by past research from experts in the same field.

This chapter (along with chapters 3 and 4) tells the reader (step two from the above approach) what research and theories are out there, what areas of consensus and discord there are among scholars, and after examining the body of research, what gaps exist that can be furthered.

Three areas will likely need to be covered for each variable, amongst others that come from your committee or advisors:

• The historical perspective includes:

• Evolution of the variables or phenomena

• Past work by seminal scholars, leading experts, and thought leaders.

• Past theoretical frameworks concerning your topic

• Current studies (for my program, this was defined as within the past five years)

• The current state of the variables or phenomena

• Recent studies across all methodologies (Quantitative, Qualitative, or Mixed-Methods)

• Background on the subjects (participants) of your study

• Industry (if work-related)

• Variables concerning your theory or hypothesis

• Population information

• Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, or Environmental (i.e., PESTLE) factors affecting your selected population

• Summary

Chapter 3: Methodology (your "Research Cake" Recipe) 

This chapter informs the reader about your research approach and design from the perspective that you are employing and the underlying theory(ies) to the mitigation methods used to reduce the impact of biases infiltrating the study. Think of this section like a giant research recipe, where you're outlining the ingredients and cooking techniques employed to bake this "research cake" (Yum!). Sections of this chapter may include:

• Study Theory and Worldview

• Purpose of the Study (reiterated from Chapter 1)

• Research Design

• Population Information

• Respective Sample Information (including sample size determinants)

• Data Collection Methods

• Data Analysis Methods

• Validity, Reliability, and Measurement Issues

• Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations

• Summary

Expect your institution's review board (IRB) to scrutinize this section when submitting your application. These folks seek to ensure that prospective participants are protected from adverse impact and safeguarded by anonymity or identification obfuscation methods. (We'll talk about this in another post.)

Back to the Class

Now that we've briefly covered the chapters, let's talk about the experience of this class and what to do to be successful. The dissertation seminar class again was about getting the rough draft "out" to be refined and resubmitted in Comps. Comps are a make-or-break class with no feedback; it's just you doing the work on a tight deadline. Accordingly, doing as much prep work and soliciting feedback here before Comps is recommended.  

Here is where you write the first iteration (if you've not been doing it already, as advised by Dr. Dool in a prior post) of the chapters that will be submitted for your proposal defense in a later course, assuming you've passed Comps. The course also required completing research training and certification from the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI).  

Hitting the Books (i.e., the internet, university library, and actual books)

Do you recall when I said the reference list is like a shopping list? This technique can help start you along your journey. Another approach is to create a question framework about your variables so that you begin to search for publications that can answer your questions. My strategy was to start with the questions and then use the reference sections to guide my journey, going deeper and deeper with each iteration. I also looked in the references for commonly sourced articles or scholars. The more these people or writings popped up, the more I considered them foundational or seminal research.  

Note: Google Scholar is great for this but use a critical lens when including articles. 

Each article lists a source count so you can more clearly see how significant the author or article is in the scope of the larger conversation.  

You will likely hit articles that are locked behind a paywall. Fun fact: Authors may have to pay for their work to be freely accessible to the public; I didn't discover this until after I submitted my work to ProQuest, which may explain why you are hitting a paywall. This point is where searching across multiple databases may yield what you're looking for without paying. I recommend a one-two-punch method:

• Search across multiple databases.

• If unsuccessful, then reach out to your institution's librarians (again, these folks wield research magic and are excited to help you)

• If still unsuccessful, then reach out to the author directly.

Writing, writing, and more writing…

At some point, you will have read so much about your topic that information may start to blend; this is where being organized becomes critical. My safeguard was the cover sheet and file organization methods I mentioned earlier. I read an article once, reread it, and filled out the summary sheet. Then I would write a paragraph or two using the sheet and package it up under a folder for the corresponding variable and the methodology used in the study. Does this process seem like a little much? It could be, but it worked for my thought process and helped me write quicker and more fluidly. To each their own.

Another note about writing concerns paraphrasing another scholar's work. You should not leave room for accidentally plagiarizing (I assume no one that has made it to this point intentionally plagiarizes.) Please remember that even when paraphrasing, YOU STILL NEED TO SOURCE AND CITE the work, which leads me to a personal motto:

One Personal Motto

If there was ever any room for something to be interpreted as "I said that" when discussing another's research, I cited it (probably more than needed, but better to be cautious in these situations). I also ran my work through Grammarly's plagiarism checker to be sure. It saved me a lot of headaches, and I hope it helps you.

I can't think of any more to add!

If you run out of things to write, this is likely an indicator you need to read more but check with your professor to see what areas need to be further built upon. Questions to ask yourself:

• Did I cover the history and evolution of the variables from their genesis to their current states?

• Did I include the seminal authors and leading experts in the field?

• Did I discuss areas on consensus?

• Did I highlight and contrast differing views on the variables' nature, interaction, or sequence of events?

• Is there a clear gap that creates an opportunity for my study?

• What areas could be more straightforward?

• What areas need further research to demonstrate due diligence?

• Did my professor note areas I need to revise?

The goal of this process is to be as prepared for Comps as possible. Will you be 100% ready? No, likely not. But even 70-80% ready increases your potential for success when it rolls around.

We'll talk about comps and dissertation committee selection in the next leg of this adventure. Til' next time!

A Dissertation Tale - Part 7: Year Two, The Year of the Quants.

If you've arrived here, your program may emphasize a series of courses dedicated to quantitative (i.e., statistics) analysis methods and tools at some point in the curriculum. 

You must learn (unless you already know it) new analysis software such as SPSS or R (in addition to Excel), and you'll need to know how to interpret the results correctly.

This undertaking might be the most difficult part of the journey for anyone like me that is NOT a numbers person. Here's how my program designed this part of the analytical learning voyage:

Year 2 Classes:

• Research Methods – Quantitative

• SPSS – Research Data Analysis

• Applied Research

• Analytics for Decision Making

• Strategic Management in Global Organizations

• Consulting Learning Seminar

Let's begin with a little background context. My education and independent training have involved data processing and analysis throughout. Still, as a non-numerical thinker, this always meant that I had to work longer and harder to make sense of it. It makes sense that a third-time business major needs to be accounting, finance, and statistics literate. Still, the depth of that literacy was about to be expanded in one of those professional arenas. It was time to swim in the data; I hoped there were no sharks in these waters.

One Toe in the Water

It all began with the Quantitative Research course under a professor with an incredible reputation for helping students understand the magic of quantitative data analysis. The first class was held during lunch, and I was among the few students to attend the live session in our small but mighty cohort. The course consisted again of weekly discussions with research integrated into the responses and data analysis practicums. Thankfully, we started in familiar territory (ye olde Excel) and only needed to generate a frequency table for two given data sets. We then needed to provide feedback on a peer's analysis. "Okay, not too bad," I thought. Maybe I'll be okay.  

The lecture content first covered a review of the different categorical types of data, a review of the measures of central tendency, and basic probability computations. One surprising challenge was learning to format equations in Microsoft Word to submit the assignments. Having been in school long enough to submit written mathematical HW assignments or Excel spreadsheets, having to type work in Word proved interesting. Still, after some head-scratching and a tutorial, I got it.

From week to week, we worked across the statistical testing methods. We then swiftly worked our way up to testable hypothesis formation based on the potential dissertation topics we considered. Looking back on my assignments, I was interested in examining grit scores concerning the stages of job burnout as a prospective modifying factor and proposed using a one-way analysis of variance to test it.  

Here are the research questions:

RQ1: What effect, if any, does grit have on an individual's susceptibility to job burnout onset?

RQ2: If an individual is already experiencing job burnout, what effect, if any, does grit have on job burnout stage transgression?

Here's the model I built to frame the line of analysis:

A working Quantitative Model to test Grit as a modifying agent of Job Burnout (Note: needs revision to be testable see point in text.)

Sexy, right? Well, in the world of data, this is a supermodel level of hotness, or at least what I gathered from the feedback given on the assignment, plus a slight metaphorical exaggeration. Still, this read should be fun, IMO. 

In hindsight, this model incorrectly treated the burnout stages as progressive. More recent studies have shown that those afflicted with Burnout can experience any, all, or some combination of the three burnout variables at any point. I digress. At the time, I was reading Dr. Angela Duckworth's Grit and became enamored with the research surrounding grit and resiliency. Maslach's work on Burnout also found its way to me, and it seemed like a beautiful crossing of the fates to explore these phenomena in tangent.  

We didn't segue into an analysis software beyond Excel at this stage; that would be the next class (SPSS), but remember when I said that life doesn't stop just because you're pursuing a Doctorate? Allow me to present the image (badly drawn by yours truly) that comes to my mind when "Life" comes your way; queue the line he says while plotting: "Excellent…."

A poorly drawn Mr. Burns by Dr.G

Welp, the same was true for me. Life decided to come at me, and it was not 'excellent.' You see, I had been managing an issue over the years that now demanded a response. It was time for me to take care of it, which would force me to take a term off to recover. We planned a move while this was all going down to add more fun to the situation. Didn't I promise you this was going to get interesting?

Herein lay the dilemma, the way these courses usually work, I would have to either pick up with the next course my cohort was on and make up the course I missed later, or I would have to wait two terms and move to another cohort delaying my completion date by six months. Why does this matter? TBF, it wouldn't have made a vast difference from a progress standpoint, but it was important to me to stay with my cohort and not lose progress. If I moved to a new cohort, I would also be in a group where in-person residency requirements would be expected going forward, which was not feasible.  

Accordingly, I chose the first option (which was only an option due to the support and grace of our department chair and advisor). This choice meant I would go from a smooth, progressive submersion into analytical thinking to a 'sink or swim' plunge into the deep end. The class I would pick back up in would be Applied Research, where it is presumed that I would know how to use SPSS, a program that, at the time, I had never opened. I took the term off and, to the best of my ability, learned SPSS basics on my own in preparation for returning. As it happened, I would come to take the SPSS course one year later in addition to my first dissertation class. Knowing that analytical thinking was not my preferred course of study, the stakes couldn't seem higher.  

After eight weeks, I returned with a determination not to let this instance hinder my progress, but I also knew that the transition back into the flow would not be easy. Applied Research was the name of the game, and, thankfully, a familiar professor teaching the course. He focused the class on formulating the foundation of our dissertations. While analysis methods were discussed as part of the methods building, the deep data was delayed to the next class (thank goodness), giving me more time to acclimate to the SPSS platform. The final project in this course was producing a more robust 30-page literature review concerning our then-research interests.  

I could get back into the swing and felt pumped about returning strong. The next course would undoubtedly put those feelings to the test. As an aside, our cohort was down to four, self-included. We were one-third the size from the beginning of this adventure, and a little over half of the journey left. I wanted to avoid becoming another one lost along the way.

The Plunge

The time had come; it was sink or swim. I would either understand this and succeed or succumb to my hesitations. 

Analytics for Decision Making and Strategic Management had arrived.  

At this stage, a phrase that a mentor used to say often came to mind. He would tell the story about conversations he had with his father after he earned a degree. After earning his Bachelor, he exclaimed, "Look what I did!" His father responded, "That shows me you know how to think." After his Masters, he did the same thing. His father replied, "That shows me you know how to learn." Missing the admiration or pride he was hoping for and thinking that the next degree, his father's response would be different, he showed his dad his Ph.D. His father responded, "That shows me you know how to teach."

Why am I mentioning this now? You should be prepared to teach yourself at some point in your degree. This point was my moment of recognizing reality. 

TBF, it makes sense. You are likely pursuing this degree to become a professor at some point in your career; one stands to reason that you'll need to learn how to teach. What better way than learning to teach yourself first?

The course hosted a series of modules with analytical assessment work to be performed in SPSS. This point is where I offer you, dear reader, a HUGE (pronounced as "Yyyuuuuuuggggggeeeee…") tip concerning the SPSS platform:

You are far better served to use the PC version in a Windows virtual machine than to try to 'Mac attack' your way through this one. The books are designed around a Windows experience; the lessons are designed around the Windows version, and your professors are equally likely not to be familiar with the nuances of the Mac version. Refrain from adding to the burden of learning a new tool in an unfamiliar environment. If you're so inclined, learn it later.

With that said, let's go back to our regularly scheduled program. M'kay? Coolsies!

The class maintained the cadence of work established in prior courses, weekly modules, and analysis of HW problems. This time, I would be using SPSS the entire way, which prompts me to highlight the small arsenal of textbooks on SPSS and statistical analysis methods (and steps) that I would cross-reference and tab (insert a non-paid advertisement for the self-adhesive tabs for book pages here, as they helped a lot) frequently:

• Albright, S. C. & Winston, W. L. (2017). Business analytics: Data analysis and decision making (6th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-1-305-94754-2 

• Cronk, B. (2016). How to use SPSS: A step-by-step guide to analysis and interpretation (9th ed.). Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-936523-44-3.

• George, D., & Mallery, P. (2020). IBM SPSS statistics 26 step by step: A simple guide and reference.

• Reinard, J. C. (2006). Communication research statistics. SAGE Publications.

In addition to these times, I had a fantastic peer who would soon become my Partner in my Dissertation or PID. More on the importance of a PID in a later post. She helped me understand concepts I missed in my absence (Thank you, Dr. Kempink) and worked with me to produce a stellar final assignment. Words cannot express how much of a blessing she was and is in my life.  

The final assignment for this course infused all we've learned (including the lessons from the SPSS course) into one business analysis report and presentation using provided dummy data as the basis for the interpretations. We contextualized our analysis around a hypothetical California university under fire for pay inequity accusations. The report wove research on the variables with the analysis and interpretations of the supporting "university" survey data. We examined reported pay rates against gender while controlling for education level, using this model and research question with supporting hypothesis:

RQ1: What is the nature of gender across different educational levels when determining appropriate compensation?

H0: There is no difference in pay for different educational levels between genders.

H1: There is a difference in pay for different educational levels between genders.

To find an answer, we ran some statistical analyses, including:

• Descriptive Statistics

• Multiple Linear Regression Analysis (multiple)

• An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

• Paired t-Tests

After running the tests, we were able to interpret the results and determined that we "failed to reject the null hypothesis." More importantly, I finally overcame my analytical reservations by the end of this leg of the journey. I could understand quantitative research. I recognized the magic quantitative analysis produces and the value of the thinking supporting it. This win was no small victory. (Insert celebratory happy dances in your moments of triumph.). The next course was the Strategic Management course which had the same tone and vibe as the one just discussed, so we'll move past this one.

The final course of year two was one that I was most looking forward to, a consulting duo leading into the third year. We would learn consulting practices and then use them in the following course for our first client. While not tied to the dissertation experience, this course was one that I was excited to use in the future. More on that at a later time, in another series.  

The class was hosted by the same professor possessing a great wealth of knowledge in HR. He also worked as a consultant, bringing practical advice and guidance to consulting theory and application in both courses. For this first course, our challenge was establishing a business plan for our new consulting company. We created a company called Divergent Business Solutions, only to discover that someone had grabbed the name in our state. C'est la vie.  

By the end of this year, we were down to three Cohort 17 members. In the next post, I'll talk about the last year, including a term where I had to double up to stay on track. Til' next time!

A Dissertation Tale - Part 6: Year One- An Introduction to Business Research

At this point, you've weathered (more likely passed with flying colors, you rockstar you) your first class. Instead of talking about each proceeding class one by one, I figured a yearly overview might be more beneficial and entertaining so we could get to the good stuff, the dissertation. There should be a few good pearls of wisdom I can distill from a year's worth of doctoral work. Again, this is told from my lens of experience, and I will do my best to lend transferable points that can help you in your doctoral journey. They'll be bolded for emphasis. Ready? Great!

The remainder of my first year consisted of these five courses:

Year 1 Classes:

• Doctoral Success Lab (See the last post for details)

• A History of Applied Management Theory*Global Leadership and Ethics

• Organizational Behavior and Social Responsibility

• Global Perspectives in Human Resource Management

• Research Methods – Qualitative 

Starting with a Shakeout Course 

This adventure began with the first shakeout class. I heard rumors from prior cohort members that the History of Applied Management Theory course was challenging. Knowing this in advance helped me frame the experience as a 'mini-boss level' and allowed me to embrace the feedback as a ready-ment for future challenges. This class is one where I would 'skill up.' Challenge accepted.  

The class structure was like the first course. We had discussion assignments due weekly and projects at the end of the eight weeks. Weekly modules were filled with information and additional articles to read and respond to. The key differentiating factor was the degree of critical thinking applied to the sources we used, our writing styles, and our sourcing proficiency. The class also hosted a new professor with a different lens of focus.  

One pearl of wisdom from the contrast of teaching styles is to learn what elements are essential to each of your professors. All professors are different. As such, expecting the nuances of their courses to be the same is far-fetched, at best. This professor possessed the magic of detailed feedback with equal care for his students. Make no mistake; detailed feedback (if you take the time to learn from it) will help you improve. The professors that gave me feedback, even when harsh, were the ones that helped me improve.

Another differentiator of this course was our final project was a team project. If you have taken any class with a team project, the 'ughs' might have been triggered. Team projects are all about the luck of the draw when it comes to your team members. If you can craft accountability and a sense of commitment within every team member, the experience is magical. However, team dynamics like that often don't just happen; you must create them. 

The final deliverable for this project was a 15–20-page paper with a minimum of 20 references in APA7 format. The topic? Write about a business theory in alignment with a current specific business issue and the associated social responsibilities implicated in the dilemma.  

This project team of four largely possessed a high productivity mindset. By and large, personal accountability across team members was present. Everyone on the team came together to deliver their assigned tasks. The challenge presented from this assignment was weaving together starkly different writing styles to sound like one cohesive voice. Additionally, we encountered a challenge where we had to rewrite a section to ensure the academic integrity of our submitted work. That's the thing about teamwork; the whole team is held accountable for one team member's misstep. In these cases, I found it's best not to waste time blaming others and instead spend time making corrections. These are teachable moments if handled correctly. 

As mentioned previously, the fallout from this course reduced our ranks in half, but those who remained were all the better for it. We were more aware of our Areas of Improvement (AOIs) and knew what to look for when reviewing our later works. While demanding, the class was profoundly beneficial, and I left the course with a sense of accomplishment and a quote that would hang on my wall for the rest of the journey:

Leading by Example

The next class was a welcomed reprieve from the intensity of the shakeout class (TBF, maybe the skill-up made the courses feel a little easier by proxy). Cohort 17 met with a seasoned leader, author, and advisor to guide the Leadership course. Dr. Dool understood the rigor and life demand of what we were seeking to accomplish and managed to bring a sense of calm confidence to the course while instilling a sense of intrinsic motivation that inspired me to apply myself further. The class environment was what my students would refer to as 'chill' but still set a professional expectation of excellence.  

The course examined leaders' ethics and values as they govern their employing institutions. We looked at varying leadership styles, and the actions managers take to realize the benefits of those styles. Dr. Dool was also working on his next book to be published, highlighting and discussing the leadership methods of those doing the work across various industries.

This work paralleled the positioning of our final assignment, which was to research and discuss the practices of a known leader, whether in business or otherwise. For my last course submission, I focused my research on AMD's Dr. Lisa Su. Dr. Su's work must've piqued his interest as he said he would investigate her going forward. In an ultimately insignificant but personally meaningful way, I felt I made a difference by adding to his work by culminating awareness for a fantastic leader.

Another fantastic facet of this course was Dr. Dool's efforts to tie in what we were doing as applicable to the dissertation. He gave copious guidance and advice on habits to get into to realize a successful dissertation experience. Words cannot express the depths of my gratitude for the wisdom he bestowed:

• Work a little on your dissertation daily, even if it's only 15 minutes (he meant EVERY day, weekends included).

• Leave your work in the middle of a paragraph or thought so you can pick back up more quickly the next day.  This technique was a unique memory trigger that helped immensely.

• Use the assignments to determine your research interests and narrow them down as you go from course to course.

Gaining the Survival Mindset

In one course, I realized that professors (either with or without intent) may pass on the tradition of unnecessary academic revision to 'earn' your keep. The same assignment structure for the course was consistent with the others. Still, the level of scrutiny concerning the work could have been more helpful (as it did not help me to advance my understanding or skills in any way, but as a bonus, it did have me doubting my abilities the first few weeks).  

I equated this to hazing instances I underwent while working in the entertainment industry. The attitude of "this is what I went through, so this is what you must endure" rings true. It smelled familiar, so I knew what to do. It's best to keep your head down and push through in this setting. Let the comments roll off you, and make changes to show you're listening, but don't try to fight it out. JUST GET IT DONE.

Note: This method may become the case for your dissertation pending your committee. Fortunately, I had a stellar chair/committee, but I have heard tales of rough dissertations from the chair-student dyad relationship. Rest assured, the "get er' done" (in my best Larry the Cable Guy impersonation voice) approach works here. You must decide where to pick your battles; sometimes, it's more important to be DONE than RIGHT.

More on this when we talk about the dissertation. You will likely have one experience like this in your journey. After all, some 'Doctors are the foremost experts in their field, and that renown can fuel their egos if not checked. In these cases, be prepared to use the approach above, band together with your cohort, and like the great Monica once sang, 'Don't Take It Personal, Baby." 

Aspirational Scholar Goals

Closing out year one was a class on one of my favorite disciplines, Human Resources, taught by a professor with a dizzyingly profound knowledge level. (For those unaware of the magic of HR or look at the discipline with dismay, please know that all organizations involve people, and taking care of your people is the work that should be happening collaboratively between leaders and the human resources folks. I will get off the soap box, but put some respect on HR; they deal with a lot and are often stifled by leadership to realize the full value they're capable of.)

You may have had a prof. or two whose lectures are imbued with such passion that you can't help but be enamored by the depth covered from week to week. I aspire to become one of these profs. They can talk for hours; you want to make sure to get everything because it's all relevant and significant.  

Our classes would often run late but be filled with such information that we stayed the whole way through, regardless. At one point, I expected and planned for the course to have overtime. In moments like these, you can earn a bit of clout by sticking it out (rhyming is not intentional here, but it works as a mnemonic). Like office culture in action versus espoused culture, take your cues from the professor and the class. Don't stick out in negative ways by leaving 'on time' when you're still working through lesson content (I understand that life demands might get in the way of being able to stick around; in those cases, speak with your prof. beforehand individually so there is an understanding of the circumstances.)

The work and research I did in the first year opened my mind to new possibilities and fueled my desire to continue onward. The next big personal challenge looming around the corner was something I knew would be difficult, the quantitative courses. For context, I managed to get to this level without successfully passing College Algebra, but now it was time to confront quantitative studies head-on.

We'll discuss this leg of the adventure in the next post. Til' next time!

A Dissertation Tale - Part 5: Lessons from My First Class

TL;DR: This post distills insights from undergoing my first doctoral class. I hope you find it helpful or comforting, but again, check the subheadings for information most relevant to you.

By this point in the adventure, you've acclimated to your new institutional systems; organized yourself for the blast of information coming soon, met your cohort and first professor, and, if all goes well, optimized the odds that you'll start strong. Way to go! 

From here, there's no way for me to tell you what your first class WILL be like (that's nearly statistically impossible, as the odds are VERY slim) as one class experience from my lens of perspective will differ across several variables (such as different programs, life stages, experiences leading up to this point, socioeconomic differentials, the list goes on).  

Instead of trying to convey what you will go through, I'll discuss my experience and pay forward the lessons I gathered along the way. Before jumping in, we need some background context (queueing the sparkly music that leads to an opening scene of a budding scholar attending her first doctoral class). My program of choice was a Doctorate in Business Administration, and the program employed an online course delivery system. Here's the complete course curriculum for the entire adventure playbook:

Year 1 Classes:

• Doctoral Success Lab (You are here.)

• A History of Applied Management Theory

• Global Leadership and Ethics

• Organizational Behavior and Social Responsibility

• Global Perspectives in Human Resource Management

• Research Methods – Qualitative

Year 2 Classes:

• Research Methods – Quantitative

• SPSS – Research Data Analysis

• Applied Research

• Analytics for Decision Making

• Strategic Management in Global Organizations

• Consulting Learning Seminar

Year 3 Classes:

• Consulting Learning Practicum

• Dissertation Seminar

• Doctoral Written Comprehensive Exam

• Directed Research (This repeats for up to 3 more terms, carrying into a 4th year)

• Dissertation Oral Defense (Non-credit)

Classes are designed to be taken one at a time, run for eight weeks, and usually have a weekend separating the ending of one course from the beginning of the next. If you didn't take a semester off, the only breaks in the schedule happened during the winter holidays for about three weeks, or what one colleague called "three weeks off for good behavior." You may find a similar cadence in your new schedule, and if this is the case, I suggest you accept this new reality now and cherish the time.  

One of the benefits of this program was the curriculum preparing us for the final challenge at a steadily increasing level of rigor. Akin to levels in a video game, the challenges and battles grew tougher as our skill sets advanced. Looking back on what seemed like a Level 1 tutorial round with an "I'm a very 'squishy' character" feel, I appreciate even more the growth that ensued from this journey.  

The class had a series of assignments to execute:

• An initial comprehensive assessment (the before picture of your journey, testing what understanding you currently possess)

• Module content reviews and downloads

• Eight discussion responses with required responses to colleagues and your professor (The host assignment of the 11:59 club)

• Weekly synchronous collaboration sessions

• One annotated bibliography

• Project 1: One ten-page literature review

• Project 2: One recorded presentation of Project 1 work

The journey began late one night in the first week of May. Attendance was earned by completing the first-week module; I learned this after receiving a call on the first day of term asking why the work was incomplete and had a minor panic episode. At this stage, I was looking for signs that I had made the right decision or not with the mindset to ignore the sunk costs if it didn't work out. Delightfully, the first professor was the head of the program and exuded care and concern for the success of his students. It was then I knew I had found the right place. (Thank you, Dr. Mancini!)

As is the case with most day-one classes, we, the members of cohort 17, took turns introducing ourselves and received a 'run-down' of what lay ahead. We discussed the first assignment, drafting an area of specialization statement. Looking at the projects and considering the caliber of what the cohort was here to do, I wondered if I could handle the workload alongside my other responsibilities and if I had what it took to reach the end. With every passing week, a flow and sense of timing set in regarding my personal time management, but it was tested with the first major project, the ten-page literature review.

Looking back on this assignment now, I chuckle. Ten pages is now a challenge as a max limit, but doable as a minimum. A lot of my stress came from a fervor to prove myself. In an oddly humorous turn of fate, I later learned this mindset is a pre-requisite condition for job burnout, one of the phenomenal foci in my dissertation. That's a post for another time, but it's amusing to notice life's subtle foreshadowing, amirite?

Writing my first literature review

The literature review resulted from weaving together priorly written annotated bibliographies of reviewed articles on a chosen topic, discussing the areas of agreement and highlighting areas of discord, and determining the research gaps that present from the limited research as avenues of future study. Looking back, this was a great first impression of conducting academic research, though, at the time, I had no idea how valuable it was.  

Topic-wise, my literature focused on what is referred to as value-congruence or a match between a worker's personal values and that of their employing organization's espoused values. The final submission (v02, as a callback, no file is EVER final) was fifteen pages long with mere one-and-a-half pages of references, and the feelings of sitting for hours-untold working on it rushed to mind. It was stressful then, but the stress was not without reward. I took with me some pearls of wisdom (Ooooo, shiny); please enjoy.

Note: If you've ever looked back on your older work, felt the cringe, and can identify what would need to be changed to improve it, consider the recognition a sign of how much you have grown.  

Lessons- 

• Academic writing is like basket-weaving- Seems outlandish? Hear me out. As I was writing, the act of bringing together information flooded my imagination with visuals of basket weaving. Look for areas of convergence. Where are findings similar or reinforcing one another across articles? Are common references found across multiple articles? 

  One point here aligns with another issue there, over and under and over again. You're bringing it all together in what should be a fluid piece, where the grand design is a cohesive series of objective, research-backed points that lead to the final position of a new study to fill a now apparent gap or to test an area lacking consensus.  

• Reading academic writing can be a lot of translating into simple language- This is still frustrating. While I understand that some scholars may possess an arsenal of impressive, mellifluous, and multi-syllabic words at the ready for such written occasion (if not a witty repartee, to be sure), using as many as possible while explaining dense research or theory is not great for those of us trying to learn it. 

  The KISS method ('Keep It Smartly Simple'; after all, there's no need to be mean) grew to become an indicator of expertise. If an author knows something well, they can and often would explain it simply. (Thank you out there to all that do.) For those more-robustly-written articles, I learned to expect to read them thoroughly at least two more times and to simplify them (i.e., break them down) before finding any valuable insights. This demand became time-consuming, so I created a cover sheet template to highlight the essential points (and, um, yeah...it was attached from then on to all my TPS reports).

My Article Review Cover Sheet

• Finding information is more challenging than it initially seems- Caveat here, finding access to the relevant or most valuable information is more complicated than we've grown to expect for other non-research-related searches. No doubt it is far easier now than ever, but that still does not mean you'll have immediate access to every article without additional expense or a mandated waiting period, so plan accordingly.  

  To efficiently determine if an article is relevant, I offer you a recommendation from the first course, the Abstract, Results, Method (or ARM for short) review. It works as you may have guessed by reading the Abstract section to see what the article is about as the first "Is this article relevant and useful for my research?" check. Next, you read the Results section to see if they are relevant and either align with or refute other studies. Lastly, you read the Method section to determine if the researcher's approach is reliable, valid, and relevant to your research.  

• Treat an article's reference section like a shopping list- This nugget is related to the last point. When researching, you're going DEEP, which means that you need to read the articles from which the one or two foundational pieces are basing their positioning, which means we go another layer in and read what THEY have read. Are there any references to a single article across the ones you've already pulled? 

  This occurrence could indicate you have found a seminal article, meaning you must read the OG. Therein is the magic that makes the reference section so valuable for researchers. You're walking the path of prior academics while gaining incremental understanding with each layer of discovery. Down the rabbit hole, dear Alice.  

• Says who?-  I find myself saying this to students more than ever now. Flashbacks of classes of professors telling me to take my 'two cents' out of the equation come to mind in these early days. Fortunately, I listened and learned quickly. The writing you're doing here is not persuasive from a subjective standpoint. You're not looking to prove your hunch; you're looking to find an answer based on whatever the results yield, even if the answer is a "fail to disprove." One of the great profs in this journey said it best "You have to be relentless in pursuing an answer, but dispassionate in the outcome." (Thank you, Dr. Kemp). 

There you have it, five insights that shaped my success and all from the first class. The following post will attempt to cover the remaining events and pearls from the first year. Til' next time!

A Dissertation Tale - Part 4b: Getting Ready for Day One, Class One

TL;DR: Finishing off the prepping section before your first class broken into two posts. For digital file organization, see the prior post. Here, we're focusing on the physical working environment.

Setting the Stage for Focus

Once you're digitally organized, it's time to organize your physical workspace (i.e., your working environment). Before we get into this, I recognize you may not have access to a dedicated, private workspace. The good news here is some tactics will allow you to focus no matter where you must work.  

Let's first address those that have a dedicated space to work. It's a great resource, and I'm elated for you. Since you have it, you'll need to design the room for focus. 

Here's what I mean specifically, you want to embrace a few fundamental tenets:

• Prime the environment for focus

• Reduce distractions

• Maintain consistency in surroundings

• Marie Kondo that clutter

• If living with others, use a "do not disturb" sign on your door

• Inspire yourself

• Include motivational quotes or visualizations.

• Consider hanging a vision board.

• Utilize the senses from an environmental perspective (think lighting, ambient music, a mini fridge, and an absence of distracting odors).

• Track your progress (courtesy of Kanban) 

• Utilize task listing.

• Visualize your work in progress (WIPs).

Focus Priming

Your brain thrives on environmental cues to trigger focus, which means we can hack this fact to make ourselves more focused and productive. Everyone is different, so I acknowledge that one person's focal aid may be another's distraction. Again, you design your space in a way that works for your mind, and don't be timid in trying new techniques as you go; you might learn something about yourself along the way.  

Just as specific cues can trigger focus, others can pull focus, so consider your phone an amusement-park-sized distraction device. My most productive days were those where I forgot my phone at home. This occurrence is why one of the points under priming for focus is to remove distractions. In the book Atomic Habits, eliminating distractions is a form of creating friction around undesirable habits. The more work you have to do to be distracted, the less likely you will choose the fun thing over the work needing to be done. Please make no mistake, when you're 2 hours in on what was supposed to be a 15-minute TikTok break (raises hand here), it is a distraction.  

Another trick of the focus trade is to maintain consistency in your cues. Theoretically, the more you use the same signals, the quicker and longer they work for you. Along the same line of thought, clutter can work against you pending on your personality. 

Consensus is out, yet, on tidiness improving productivity overall. One study showed that messy desks might be indicative of creativity. As such, I let you draw the line on this one. My default mode is more like Wasabi from Big Hero 6; if everything has a place, I don't need to think about where it is, allowing me to focus on the task at hand, but again, that is my thing.

The last point concerns if you live with others; you may want to put an indicator on your door (if you have a door) or a red light near your work area that asks your loved ones to leave for your work. (Though I doubt your pets will abide by this request.)

Average time to recover from broken focus!

Imagine the timer to the left counting down to the moment you can expect to be refocused. Tick, tock, tick, tock…Ugh!

Researchers from the University of California found that, on average, it took 23 minutes to refocus after a distraction! That can add up quickly.

Address your bodily needs before sitting down to work

As a quick tangent here, thinking of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs…

The base layers of the hierarchy concern external needs (outside of purely cognitive needs) and become increasingly internal as you ascend the ranks. You cannot focus on higher-level needs like learning (self-actualization), much less writing, until your physiological needs are met. 

The moral of the story is this, before you get going on that discussion response explaining the impact of robber barons in the early American Industrial Age (apologies for anyone experiencing flashbacks from that prompt, I'm right there with you), ask yourself what physical needs must be addressed before you can go into a state of flow, as coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi? Consider this checklist to take care of your needs and optimize your focus:

• Are you hungry, thirsty, itchy, or scratchy?  

• Do you need a bio break?

• Would a ten-minute meditation temporarily relieve those pressing worries?

• Is a quick workspace pick-up needed to be able to focus on your work?  

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled program.

Quick Optional Task: Envision Your Ideal Space

Sit and think about it for a minute; what spaces were you the most productive in? Close your eyes and go back to those moments. Then write it down and pull references from a site like Pinterest to inform your spacial redesign.

• What was around you?

• What was the sound like?  

• Where was your phone?

• What inspired you?  

• Was there a specific piece of art or a quote in the area?

• How about the lighting? Was it well-lit? Dimly lit?

• Did you have food or drink nearby?  

Once you've visualized your ideal workspace, allocate time to declutter and design your workspace. 

Then set the mood (work mood) before jumping into your tasking for the day.

Inspire Yourself

The reality is you're pursuing something HARD. It's not for the faint of heart, but even the most resolute sometimes need to amp themselves up to move past the motivational slumps in the journey. Sometimes this could be a favorite song, walking, or looking at a visual aid to remind you why you chose this path. 

Cue the (BA BA DA DAAA) Vision Board. What pretzel is a vision board? A vision board is a manifestation tool that allows you to see your goals by creating a collage (either physically or photoshop-py) of images that are symbolic of the accomplishments you're looking to reach. Seeing these goals daily before you get going allows your subconscious to guide your ongoing decision-making by keeping the goals in your field of view. Do you NEED to do this before the first class? Not my call; you decide what's important here. All I'm doing is giving you tools to consider to be successful.

Visualize Your Progress

This nugget of awesome comes from a flavor of Agile Project Management called Kanban. We'll go deep into this process in the Project Management Techniques for Dissertating Scholars post, but a sneak peek may be helpful for now. Kanban has four guiding principles to make workflows run smoothly, one of which is to "visualize the process." Seeing how much you're accomplishing furthers your level of motivation. Motivation doesn't just happen. You must get going before you feel the drive for your undertaking, which is why a personal motto of mine is:

If this quote inspires you, keep it and say it to yourself on the tough days. If not, no worries; find a quote that works for you. There were days when I wanted to wrap my arm in tattoos of motivational quotes, like a shield of armor. Granted, that's not socially acceptable in most places, and it was a more transient whim. The desire dissipated as I got back on track, but it's a lovely visual all the same.

The Kanban board works as a task visualization tool; I'll use the Kanban section of the professional strategy board I designed for my professional development/workflow as an example:

The Kanban board section of my Professional Development Board.

There are four categories in this board; consider this a basic version of the Kanban as most times, you'll see 3-4 swim lanes (the columns) of progress labeled similarly to what is in the example. Lately, I've been referring to the "Done" column as the "TA-DA!" column as a reminder to celebrate the small victory.  

Tasks or things you must do are written on sticky notes and placed on the leftmost "TO DO" swim lane. When you begin working on something (which is called a pull or a commitment), you move the sticky task note over to the "DOING" swim lane; once built and quality control/assurance (QC/QA) commences, the sticky note or card moves over again into the "REVIEW" swim lane, and finally, once polished and considered 'good to go,' it moves again into the "DONE" swim lane. If you start a Kanban for yourself, an important note is to limit the number of tasks you're working on at any one time (this is another guiding principle, but we'll revisit this in the post, as mentioned above).

These recommendations seek to help you create a space designed to bring out your best work due to improved focus, but what if you don't have a personal dedicated, private workspace? Fortunately, these principles can be applied differently to achieve similar benefits. Let's talk about how to "flow on the go."

Flow on the Go

For those that do not have a space, a few key investments might be needed to "flow on the go," including tools that can assimilate the tenets without altering an area that is not your own (I've found people don't appreciate you moving their things around). To reduce distractions on campus, see if you can book a study room or find a library space available regularly.

If you're able and willing to spend a little money, invest in a pair of noise-canceling headphones and find a focus playlist on YouTube. Lately, I've been favoring MusicLab. I play the same track every time I work, so I'm not thinking about what I'm listening to. It acts as an auditory cue to get to work.

For visual cues, utilize your laptop background. Can you have a quote or vision board as your background? You bet you can! Consider your laptop your surrogate "home space" in these circumstances and make it work for you.

Last note: if there are no good options on campus and no private spaces at home, a co-working space membership might be an ideal alternative, but this assumes you have reliable transportation to get there and back when you need to use it.

By this point, if you have used some of the tricks and techniques in the 4a and 4b posts, you should be in a better state to start strong, beginning with your first class.  

The day has arrived!

Fast forward to your first class. If online and the course has a synchronous component, you must log in to a specific video conferencing platform. If in person, you're walking in the classroom doors and finding a seat. At this moment, you will likely meet the other members of your cohort.  

What is a cohort? 

Excellent question! On the Doctoral level (in most cases though some programs do not employ a cohort system), you'll be placed in a numbered cohort or group of students starting their journey simultaneously. Why does this matter? As you progress through your courses, there will be intermittent or continuous attrition drop-off, meaning that your group will get smaller and smaller until you are dissertating exclusively with your committee as a class of one. In my case, our group, Cohort 17, started as a group of twelve, and by the time the Comprehensive Exams (Comps for short) were completed, only two of us remained on the original timeline. Be ready for the shakeout classes! You may hear echoes from students ahead of you concerning the demanding courses in the pipeline. I call these shakeout classes. In one such course, we lost six colleagues for varied reasons or half of our starting group.

Whatever class begins your adventure, get to know your professor and peers; take note of the expectations; ask for developmental, constructive feedback; and devote yourself to identifying your research interests. One of the best tips I received from a professor was to use every assignment you can as a test run of your dissertation to narrow your focus from a wide array of topics to the one knowledge gap you seek to fill (Thank you, Dr. Dool!) Heeding this suggestion saved me two semesters of work. I completed my degree within three years in what was, on average, a four-year program. Trust the professors who are genuinely interested in your success; they are helping for all the right reasons and are a blessing in this journey.  

In the next post, I'll reminisce on my first class and impart what I learned from the experience. Til' next time! 

A Dissertation Tale - Part 4a: Getting Ready for Day One, Class One

You should be readying yourself for your first class at this stage in your journey. You may have an orientation to attend before, and we'll get to that, but this post aims to set you up for success leading up to your first classroom experience.

TL;DR: Prepping for success before your first class. This topic is broken into two posts. Check the headers for areas that may serve you, and return for the second half.

To recap the series of events that have landed you here, you have been accepted into a program (woot!) that you committed to (put a ring or at least a non-refundable deposit on it) and have confirmed your enrollment. Yay! Now you need to get acclimated, organized, and prepared to rock this thing (insert a The Mask scene leading to a musical number of epic-ness).  

There's a lot to do to be ready and less time to do it. You'll need to familiarize yourself with the following:

• College-provided digital environments such as the emailing system and class learning management system (LMS) such as D2L/Brightspace, Canvas, Blackboard, Sakai, etc.

• Lay off the land (i.e., the campus) to locate your classes and student resources.

• Digital textbook system (if the college uses one), to opt-in or opt-out (pending on if you prefer to buy your books independently or not).

• Student Handbook (I recognize the likelihood that you read this might be marginal; I get it. As the nerd who read it, I know there's some useful information in there. Think of this as good practice for all those academic articles you will be immersed in soon).

• Offices and contacts for each office you may need to engage with (realistically, you could tackle this on an as-needed basis, so there is no rush here).

No doubt, in the weeks leading up to your first class, you'll start receiving emails from the school concerning events, expectations, bookstore advertisements, and the like. Learn how to access everything, bookmark essential sites, and check your email regularly.  

Getting Organized 

Next, you'll need to organize yourself both digitally and physically. Now you might be thinking, "Dr. G., with all due respect, I'm good here. I know what to do and am ready to rock and roll (insert air guitar)." To which I would say, "That's awesome! I'm not suggesting you disrupt a system that has gotten to this point if it works well, BUT if your master's or bachelor's degree (if going directly to Ph.D. and passing GO) process got a little 'nutty' towards the end, this post might be worth your perusal. You have my full support to do as you see fit."   

The digital organization includes storage systems for your computer and email files. You should be able to quickly access and know where any one file you need is (Trust me when I say this becomes a critical point come dissertation time. You'll have so many articles backlogged and citations to track that it becomes an insurmountable obstacle if you're not organized. So, with that in mind, it's best to build a system that works now that becomes second nature by the time you begin dissertating, which leads me to file naming and folder organization.

Exciting, right? If saving time and reducing stress is your jam, I've got a sweet, juicy information download for you (Pardon the pun).

Folder Organization for Doctoral Awesomeness:

Folder systems are whatever you make them to be. Accordingly, I am recommending the method that worked for me, BUT I strongly advise that you tailor this to a system that works for you and borrow whatever tactics make sense. (There's no sense in using a system you loathe because, eventually, you'll stop using it.)

Start by making your parent folder and call it whatever makes sense to you. You can call it "Doctor_Degree" or "School_Work" or something else entirely. E.g., I called mine the name of the school, degree, and the word "work" after it, using underscores instead of spaces (you'll see why this is important when we talk about file naming). Again, make this your own. Then open that puppy up. It's time to design the next layer of subfolders.  

Let's add a "Classes" or "ClassWork" folder. All documents associated with a class will unsurprisingly go into its associated course folder as a new subfolder. Make a folder for each course (you can do this as you start each class, there's no need to make them all right now) using the course number or name of the class.  

For example, if your first class is called PHD1001: Intro to Doctoral Research, you could label your folder "PHD1001" or "IntroToDoctoralResearch." I recommend using the course codes because they are consistent and, in most cases, already in numerical, sequential order, allowing the folders to be chronological when you open your "Classes" folder automatically.  

You may also want to add a folder in your parent folder for other aspects of your education, such as:

• Events

• Colleague defenses (Note: Your program might encourage you to watch your peers during the big moments in their dissertations. If this is the case, ATTEND AS MANY AS YOUR SCHEDULE ALLOWS. Why? Great question! You'll have a VERY clear picture of what you're in for and get a feel for the dos and don'ts concerning defenses. I'll revisit this point when discussing the dissertation process later.)

• Financial Aid or Bills

• Clubs or Honors Chapters

• A good ole miscellaneous folder (for the times there's not a clear home for a file)

• Enrollment resources

• Research resources (applicable to more than one class so they get a special home)

The last level of folders concerns the organization of each class. In this case, you have a couple of options here, and again, whichever makes sense for you is advisable. One option is to sort the class by each week of the term OR use the deliverable method. In case this is a new term, a deliverable (in the realm of project management) is the thing (technical term) you deliver (submit) to satisfy the terms of your original client contract (what we often call the Statement or Scope of Work, aka the SOW, in case you're interested).  

When applying this to your classes, the deliverable would be the assignments you have due to satisfy the expectations of the course (i.e., earn a passing grade). The nice thing is you will have a clear idea of what you must do by the end of the term by reviewing the class syllabus. In either case, I advise also making a Class Resources" file for all the documents that outline the course or have information that applies to more than one assignment. The goal here is to be able to access any needed file within five mouse clicks. 

You do want to go subfolder crazy, as that takes a lot of time, but scrolling through unsorted files is not ideal either. Use the same approach when organizing your emails; you'll be smooth sailing regarding your organizational prowess. Now that we're folder ready, let's talk about file naming conventions.

File Naming Conventions for Doctoral Awesomeness:

If this seems irrelevant to you or you have your naming convention system in a state that works well, please skip this section.  

File naming is important because, ultimately, it either helps or hinders the searchability of your files and determines the likelihood that your files will remain intact (i.e., not corrupt) due to the presence of bad characters (not be confused with the Tasmanian Devil here, he's not bad, just chaotic neutral). If this is your first time hearing this, it might be worth sticking around to prevent a file-related disaster during crunch time. I take a page (literally, ba-dum-ch!) from Harvard's guidelines. By using a consistent method, you intuitively know what premutation of characters to enter to find your file using a search quickly. With every file name should be a string (ah, coding humor) of information that tells you:

• What course is the file associated with

• What the file is

• When it was created (i.e., the date in YYYYMMDD format)

• What version number of the file is (This number is for you. Your professor will not ask or care which version you give them. If you recall, your latest version is V05; you know not to bother opening V04 as things have changed since then, but now you can go back to older versions if you need to by versioning your files and saving changes as new versions.)

Special notes:

(1) For the love of all that is good in the universe, do not EVER name something "final." The minute you do, a change will present itself, and you'll end up with files like these:

(2) For images, I also like to include the pixel dimensions to quickly determine if an image will work when placed in specific locations without trial and error. E.g. for a MacBook 13" background image, add "_2560_1600".  

One last note before moving on from here, let's talk "spec. chars." or fully referred to as special characters. 

These little balls of fun can cause many issues opening your files because some computer systems cannot handle them. Without going ultimately down the rabbit hole (as I am NOT a programmer but am learning a language. Consequently, I ask for a bit of grace here if my metaphors are not perfect), your file names represent an identifier that is equated to a location or a bit on your storage drive be it an old school hard drive or its newer cousin the solid-state drive. Because the location is rooted in a code (like directions on a map telling the processor to "go here"), special characters can confuse the function of locating and opening the file.  

With that said, here is the spec. chars. you need to avoid along with using a space in file names:

~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) ` ; : < > ? . , [ ] { } ' " |

Citation Magic

We've covered folder and file organization, but what if I told you there is a handy and free tool you can use to collect, organize, and format your citations? Magical, amirite? This tool will save you a lot of grief, and again I recommend it only because it helped me, and I'm hoping it helps you. It's called Zotero, and it is magical (really) for researchers. A colleague recommended it to me (Thank you, Bill!), and it improved my research life.

From class one, you must write and SOURCE your research, most likely a la APA7 or MLA, which requires a Liam-Neeson-like-particular-set-of-skills to execute it correctly. This tool allows you to input manually or, in some cases, scrape a website's metadata to autofill your citations in the correct formatting, saving you valuable time. Now it's not to say you won't need to check the citations before you submit to ensure everything is as it should be; you still need to check yourself (as the great Ice Cube said). As part of your prep. work, I recommend you download it or another version of the same type of automagical tool (TBF, there are others like Mendeley, Citavi, etc., but I don't have any experience with them.). Alright, let's move on to your environmental surroundings.

This point is an excellent opportunity to take some time to get your digital space ready to go. In the next part (4b), we'll finish preparing by discussing the physical workspace prepping you can do to fuel your focus! Til' next time!

A Dissertation Tale - Part 3: Acceptance and Confirmation

At this point, you have applied to at least four Doctoral programs and have endured the mandated 'sweat' period from each program's review boards. Hopefully, the process wasn't laborious or panic-inducing. So, let's talk about the results in a best-case, most likely-case, or worst-case scenario format.  

A quick note before we jump into the scenarios here as I have had to run the entire emotional spectrum of being both accepted (elated) and rejected (insert the stages of grief here) from many an institution (I'll share a quick story on this after this thought). 

The decision criteria and reasons you may not be accepted into a program can be arbitrary or the result of applying during a particularly strong applicant year. Committees are looking for reasons to quickly dismiss candidates to reduce the time it takes to select the final pool. Furthermore, pending on how high you shot (insert the ivies, research, and preeminent institutions here) will amplify the more granular reasons you may be passed by for admittance.  

I'll give you an example here; I once applied to Harvard (the one and only) for a Ph.D. program in Organizational Behavior with dreams of studying under Dr. Teresa Amabile. Just like you may have undergone recently, I was on pins and needles waiting to hear back, and after four months of waiting, I received my rejection letter on St. Patrick's Day. To say I was crushed would be an understatement. After a good cuppa coffee and a small window of boo hoo-ing (Listen, we're all entitled to be sad in moments like these. Feel what you need to feel and then pivot accordingly), I wrote a note to myself on the rejection letter and hung it on the wall as motivation:

"Proof that you tried. Keep going."

So, to this point, I will say the same thing to you, dear reader. If the ideal scenario did not pan out, and you, too, shot very high, don't let it take you down. Rejection is nothing more than another avenue opening somewhere, and your job becomes to find it. Before jumping into these scenarios, first recognize you'll have a big decision to make, and before you close your eyes and attempt to pin the tail on the Ph.D. program (please don't do that), instead consider these factors:

Factors to consider when selecting your program:

• Curriculum demand or intensity

• Completion rates

• Average time to complete degree

• Committee selection processes

• Class scheduling

• Level of support

• Research support (including library assistance resources)

• Writing support

• Class support

• Time management support and general counseling

• Mental health support

• Post-doctoral placement and success rates (i.e., Where are they now?)

• Finances

• Financial Aid (Scholarships, Grants, Student Loans, etc.)

• Teaching stipends

• Comped housing?

• Location

• In-person, remote, or hybrid?

• Cost of living

• Lifestyle match

• Level of prestige (Every institution has a 'rep'; will the one you choose work in your favor and open doors?)

Let's delve further into each category to inform the research you may decide to do, starting with the curriculum demand or intensity.  

Curriculum Demand or Intensity

Earning a Doctorate is intense enough on its own, but some programs dial up the rigor for varied reasons. Akin to the US Marine's reputation of toughness, programs may increase academic intensity so that you can be one of the few and the proud at the end of the adventure. Similarly, your committee members may individually decide to dial up the intensity of your dissertation to ensure you've undergone the same rigor they endured, but that's a sneak peek at a much later conversation.

The fun rule about Doctorate degrees, you have seven years to complete everything from day one. It seems like A LOT of time, but you would be surprised how quickly it goes when you factor in the three years of classes leading up to your dissertation. Additionally, most programs require that a passing grade is a minimum of a "B" for your graded classes (some classes might be based on a pass/fail system). This requirement is why the level of rigor matters.  

By and large, the program you choose will be challenging. After all, there's a reason only 1.3% of adults in the world have a Ph.D. among 38 countries as of 2021 (according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development or OECD for short). From the same study, the percentage in the US is like milk, 2%. So, the small ratio of doctors alone conveys this journey will take work.  

When examining the program's demand or intensity, consider the courses' scheduling, the average time students take to complete their degree, the completion rate, and the process of committee selection (more on this when we talk about the dissertation process). Once you have a sense of the rigor, you can either list it out or rate it on a scale (if so inclined). From here, you know how much effort and time it will take to complete your degree. Now you'll want to know how much support you'll have access to along the way.

Level of Support

The expression "it takes a village" rings true for this undertaking. I attest that without the support of my family, committee, peers, colleagues, professors, counselors, research librarians of awesomeness (Thank you, Christine!), and friends, I wouldn't have made it to this point. It's challenging to conduct original research and write what could easily be a 200+ page book on a single topic.  

You might be a superhero, but even heroes need a little help now and then. Types of support include research, writing, class, time management, and mental health support. Look into each program and institution to see what resources are available to you and what resources you'll need to procure on your own when a need presents.  

Research support includes the oft-unsung library heroes with a passion for information and zeal to help you discover the magic they wield. (Seriously, there is magic here.) When you begin to craft Chapter Two, known as the Literature Review, be prepared to go in DEEP. You're going to run into paywalls; you're going to be desperately searching for a rare print copy of a seminal publication, and you're going to be emailing researchers requesting a copy of their studies, waiting impatiently as this might be the one article you were missing to fill a void. Google Scholar alone won't be enough to get there; you need help from an information soothsayer.  

Writing support includes not only people but access to tools to polish your writing, such as Grammarly. You will be writing a lot. Before this adventure, writing a fifteen-page paper seemed like a Herculean challenge; I still chuckle about this to this day. Now, the challenge is to limit a single piece to forty pages. (Please note this is not a brag. Brevity is tough, especially when there is research to be showcased.) If writing is not your strong suit, you need to ensure there are resources to help you improve as you go. Is there a writing center? Does the school provide writing tools? Can you partner with a peer? See what is available to you with each program.

Class support involves helping with understanding the course material and assignments leading up to the dissertation. This resource can involve help or guidance from your professor or peers, teacher's aides (TAs), and tutors (if provided by the school). Remember, the passing requirements are high here, but more importantly, you will likely need to ACTUALLY understand the subject matter as it relates to your study. Ensure you know where to go if you need help learning a new subject.  

Time Management support is by far one of the most important and, at times, complex skills to master while in a Doctorate program. In my case, as may be yours, this was doubled by working full-time while attending school. How and how well you manage your time will become critical throughout this journey because, as you may have guessed already, life doesn't stop just because you're pursuing a Doctorate. Your family will still need you; chores will still need to be done; you will still need to take care of yourself, and more than ever, you will need a little grace trying to balance it all. In my program, there was a running joke about the 11:59 club. 

Assignments were due by midnight on Thursdays, so naturally, there were times when I took every minute available to complete an assignment on time. No judgment here. As a professor that understands that life happens, "on time is on time" in my book. Having a little project management knowledge NEVER hurts in these undertakings, which is why I'll include a whole post on just this in the future.

Mental Health support 

Listen, this journey is arduous. Imposter syndrome can be real. It can be easy to feel like you're the only one "not getting it" (Lord knows I did a time or two). Sometimes you need someone to help you reframe your thoughts or listen to your struggles to make sense of it all. Increasingly, colleges and universities have begun offering counseling services to students during their stay. It's a beautiful resource. I encourage you to see if it's offered and to use it on tough days. You might be the grittiest/most resilient person in the world, but that doesn't mean you must "go it" alone.  

Post-doctoral success rates and placements

Before we get into this one, please note that some programs are beginning to fudge this up by only admitting candidates that are high-level managers or successful business owners in the first place, increasing the ability for programs to claim the successes of their graduates. Fun fact: This may be why you were passed up at one of the institutions you applied to. There's no shame in it; it happened to me as well. If this was the case, know that it's not a reflection of you or what you bring to the table, more so a '3-card Monty' or sleight-of-hand on institutions' part to inflate their program's projected graduate outcomes (never mind what's behind that curtain…).

For programs where success inflation methods are not employed, jump on LinkedIn and see where graduates were before and after obtaining their degrees. Better yet, reach out to a few of them and ask for their insights on the experience and any tips they have for you. Technology is fantastic these days, amirite? If you aim to secure a job as a professor or researcher, see how many graduates have secured the desired position. It's not guaranteed that things will work out exactly as you have planned, but if your probability increases from this degree, the odds may more likely be in your favor (insert Hunger Games reference here).  

Finances

For the vast majority of those looking to pursue a Doctorate, the means to earn more money is likely a reason (if not THE reason) to do it. The adage "you have to spend money to make money" may apply here. Doctorate degrees are expensive if you're not in the lucky ranks of those programs that are entirely paid for. Even then, you still have to be able to provide for yourself while studying, which means it will cost you in some way, shape, or form. Looking into financial aid (finaid from now on) options or contacting the finaid offices for each program may prove fruitful here.  

As an aside, one of the classes I teach is Negotiation, so I would be an absolute hypocrite if I did not recommend seeing what options are available to reduce your overall tuition costs. 

As long as you're respectful about it, there's no harm in asking. True story, I saved about $20K in my master's program by asking, which was the difference between completion and not. Finances are, not surprisingly, a core determinant of attrition (dropout) rates in Doctoral programs, according to a 2018 study by Wollast et al. in the International Journal of Higher Education. The researchers found "the highest attrition rate occurs in the first two years and is related to the absence of funding or scholarship ." Accordingly, ask yourself, "Is the juice worth the proverbial squeeze?" Will the degree allow you to earn more money over 20-30 working years than what the degree will cost you? (Pro tip: if considering student loans, remember that all-important factor of compounding interest.)

Location

Location is one of those elements that can factor into the conversation in multiple ways. It affects the associated cost of living, the desirability of the program, the ease of attending classes, the time demands around attending class in person (e.g., LA traffic added about 2 hours of time demand needed to go anywhere #the405), and the ability to find a job in the chosen locale.  

If classes are offered online, be advised you still may need to travel to campus at least once a year for mandated residencies where you're taking classes in person for 2-5 days (confirm this with your programs). If this is the case, you'll need to plan for the costs of days off, travel, and possible hotel accommodations to satisfy the requirements).

Institutional Prestige    

I listed this last because it is a factor to be sure, but it should not be the foremost consideration (personal opinion here, but you do you) when selecting your program. As mentioned earlier, every school has a reputation. You should conduct what we call in the marketing world "social listening" to see what impressions of the institution and program are and how it will reflect on your professional brand once you've earned your "Dr." (so exciting).

Once you've investigated these aspects, it's time to list your pros and cons for each program. Then prioritize the list. What is the most important to you? How about the least? If you're a quantitative thinker, again, a ranking system might be helpful here, or better yet, how about a table with conditional formatting to color code that list? 

Too much? Apologies, I got excited for you.

Sound good? Great! Let's use our strategic thinking hats to break down the scenarios of applying from the best case to the worst case. Feel free to jump to whichever scenario is most relevant to you, but along the way, check out the Factors to Consider section if you have a choice. Please note: In this post, I will NOT tell you which path to take; only YOU know the best fit for yourself. Take the time to weigh what is most important for you, research, and commit to your decision.

Scenario 1: I got into every program I applied to! Now I must choose…

Look at you, fancy pants! You must have really worked your tail off on those applications. Please accept my deepest congratulations; that's awesome! Now comes the no-so-bad problem of having to weigh the programs against each other a choose your destiny. Using the abovementioned factors, you want to use those research skills to create a list of pros and cons for each program. Just like no person is perfect, no program you enter will be perfect. 

There will be some great benefits and some not-so-great consequences to your choice. The goal here is to maximize the good and minimize the not.  

Scenario 2: I didn't get into all the programs but I have a few options.

This is still fantastic news! You have a few options here, and all the same, factors apply to your decision. Start researching and see what you learn about the options available to you—with that said, if your heart and mind were set on the "one that got away," you could consider calling their admissions office and asking for feedback on your application and what you could do to apply in the next round more successfully, whether that's next term (if they accept rolling applications) or next year (if they don't).

Scenario 3: I got into a single program.

What's great in this case is you have a choice; you can decide to go for the option that you have, OR you can choose to continue looking at other programs and submit new applications. A big note here is not to feel pressured to take the one option first presented to you (especially if you're not enthusiastic about the prospect). Remember, this is a long-term, challenging commitment. When you confirm your acceptance, you must be fully invested and ready to 'put a ring on it.'

Scenario 4: I was not accepted anywhere.

The first and foremost point here is not to be disheartened (I know easier said than done). Have your moment. Take a day or two to process. Treat yourself to a bit of self-love and sit with it as long as you need, but most importantly, don't stay there. Create a plan to bounce back; you could start looking at other programs, ask for feedback on your applications, or perhaps you're missing a few prerequisites that you can take before reapplying. The big thing here is this is not a final "NO"; it's just a "NOT YET." If you want bad enough, you'll find a way and craft a plan to make it happen.

You're in!

Assuming you've landed in scenarios 1-3 or landed there after a second go around with the application process, it's time to make your choice and confirm your acceptance. It usually involves paying a confirmation fee that will go toward your tuition once that bill posts. The following steps are to apply for financial aid, which generally begins with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (ye olde FAFSA) and getting ready for your first class (or student orientation, if there is one). But before all of that, you should celebrate! You have an exciting chapter ahead of you.  

In the next post, I'll talk about the lead-up to and attendance of your first class. Til' next time!

A Dissertation Tale - Part 2: Applying for Programs

TL;DR: Spoiler alert here; if you're getting ready to apply to a Doctoral program, be prepared for this section to fall away. Once in, you're going to be reading A LOT.  

This section covers what to expect when applying for grad school. If you have already undergone this process, please feel free to skip this post. 

Ahhh…the application process. If you're here, you have decided to go for it (or at least apply to programs to see what options are available to you.) Congrats! This decision is a BIG step, and you should celebrate taking it. (Seriously, learn to celebrate every small win along this journey.)

What lies ahead for you in the application process? Well, it varies by the programs you're applying to, and generally, it consists of the following tasks:

• Filling out the Application (Pro tip: Have your recent and polished resume handy)

• Pay the Application Fee (Or call admissions and have it waived)

• Provide a Writing Sample or Write a Professional Statement

• Submit Official Transcripts for your Past Degrees/College Courses (if no degree earned)

• Obtaining 2-3 Letters of Recommendation

• (For some fields of study) Passing an exam with a minimum acceptable score, such as the GMAT, GRE, LSAT, etc.

• An interview

(Pro tip: make sure to check each program's specific requirements. I chose to bookmark each program's "how to apply" page and used it as a checklist, but do what works best for your process.)

How many programs should I apply to?

Excellent question! Doctoral programs are more selective than undergraduate studies and, thereby, more competitive by design. If you're set on making it happen, you should plan on applying to at least four programs. For example, when I was in this stage, I applied to four programs and was accepted by three. 

From a quick cross reference of a few sites, consensus advises applying to four to six programs. From a statistical perspective, the more applications you submit, the more likely you'll be admitted to a program. In contrast, applying to multiple programs takes a lot of time, bandwidth, and money, so striking a manageable balance is also essential. 

The Actual Application

Let's talk about these tasks individually, beginning with completing the application. If you have ever completed a job application, filling out a graduate school application is largely what you would expect. Colleges ask for basic background information along with areas to upload the other materials requested, including your writing sample, unofficial transcripts, and exam scores, or may link you to the sites that can provide the official version in a streamlined system.  

A critical mindset to maintain here is to be honest while presenting your best self. Just as a resume is considered a legal document when applying for a job, so too is this application used to determine candidacy as a prospective scholar.  

There is often a fee associated with processing and considering you for entry into a program. 

Fees range from $50-250 per program and can stack up quickly, depending on how many programs you apply to. The not-so-secret savings grace here is most times, you can call the admissions office and ask them to waive the application fee. From a fiscal sense, it works well for both parties; you save a little on the admission fee but may accept an entry, thereby paying tuition, and the college gets to report higher application and admission rates. 

My philosophy here is it never hurts to ask. The worst-case scenario is the answer is no, and you pay the fee.

The Writing Sample

Applications may ask for a sample of something you have written in the past, for you to respond to a specific prompt with a word limit, or they may ask for both. The thing to remember about the writing sample is the frame of mind the reader will have when reading your work. Applicant reviewers are looking at your work from the lens of: "Will this person bring value to the program and the school as a scholar?" Accordingly, a quick delude into what it means to be a scholar is appropriate here. Without further ado…

What is a Scholar?

Echoes of the movie line "You are a gentleman and scholar" come to mind here, but for the life of me, I cannot remember where it's originally from, so I will assume it came from an episode of The Office, as suggested by a quick Googling. Anyhow, Merriam-Webster defines a scholar as "a person who has done advanced study in a special field or a learned person." Still, one lesson I received from grad school is that dictionary-based definitions are not the most reliable source for defining terms. Researchers should instead elect to use definitions from experts in the relevant field or those that garner consensus. With this in mind, I offer this alternate definition from an article written by Callie Womble Edwards "someone who consistently strives to learn while concurrently educating others."  

The former definition advances the notion and expectations that a scholar will propel the universal body of knowledge forward in some way, shape, or form and is agreed upon among scholars. After all, dissertations are pimples on the face of academia (bear with me, and I'll explain this metaphor). Dissertations are first formulated by assessing all available literature on a specific topic or phenomenon, finding gaps in the literature, and then conducting a study to fill the void. The result furthers what is known about the subject in a very minute, albeit significant way. A pimple (when present) expands the surface area of one's face, again in a small but significant way (especially when an event is happening, but isn't that always the way with pimples?) I digress.  

As I interpret it, the latter definition conveys the scholar's mindset. Constant learning and sharing knowledge as a way of life. The work you will do in school and the final research you publish further your learning and teaching of what you have learned. To be fair, both definitions have value in the larger conversation of what it means to be a scholar, so I present both with equal weight for your consideration (FYC, for future reference).  

How does this relate to your writing being reviewed under the eye of prospective scholarship? Another excellent question! Reviewers will be looking for your academic research interests and how they will further collective knowledge on a topic (not to mention you make the college look better by extension). When you talk about yourself as a candidate, mention your research interests. Bonus points for aligning them with a current professor's work (research needed here) at the institution or the university's larger mission. Your ultimate goal is to authentically convey a fit between what you bring to the table and the aim of the program you're applying to.

Transcripts

There's no getting around this requirement, so ensure you have enough time between submitting and ensuring the college has received your official transcripts. The same note goes for any test scores. In most cases, you must provide transcripts for any college credits or prior degrees you have received. In my case, this went all the back to my community college days, so again, ensure you have the time to follow up with each institution and double-check the addresses beforehand.  

Letters of Recommendation

When applying, you'll need 2-3 letters of recommendation (LORs), but who you get them from and what they say about you are especially important at this level. The people you want to ask for LORs should be able to speak to your knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) as a professional or as a scholar. Depending on the programs you are looking to apply to, some may consider professional recommendations with more weight than those of a more scholarly nature or vice versa. 

Your recommenders should be able to speak to your ability to write, think critically, or work under pressure. Plan on asking 4-5 trusted folks to recommend you. When asking, explain which programs you're applying to (include the links to each program's website), remind them of the skills and value you would bring to the program, let them know what to expect, and set the deadlines for each application. After they have submitted their LOR, make sure you thank them for their support. While creating a single letter is relatively simple, several LORs take time, and their advocation should mean a great deal. As a cautionary tale, only elect someone with their knowledge and consent in advance. No one likes to be blindsided, and generally, the best results come from a place of awareness.

Testing

Ick. Not my favorite element of this process, but it's still required for some programs, so here we go. Prestigious or more traditional colleges and universities may require this hoop-to-be-jumped-through. If this is the case for you, do this BEFORE all the other application elements. At one point, the GRE was required for me. While I did my best to block this out, this exam is as much an endurance test as it assesses written and mathematical skills.  

Give yourself at least six months of diligent study and practice before taking the exam. There are also courses out there to help you maximize your potential, but these are at a cost, and not all courses are of the same caliber. Do your homework before spending that extra money. Another important note is that some exams have a guessing penalty, and some do not. Make sure you know which scenario you're in.  

Note: If you are not a great tester (like me), you can take it more than once, and the higher score will replace any lower counterparts, but keep in mind the exam is expensive and takes about six hours. I doubt you'll want to do it again for fun-sies.

And lastly, the Interview

Akin to a job interview, the last hoop before you are left to sweat about it for a while is an interview. Interviews may consist of a phone one-on-one or a video conference with a panel of interviewers and feel like a job interview.  

You can expect to get the basic "Tell me about yourself?" questions to more targeted questions about your research interests. The resounding guidance I can give here is to look up "interview questions for doctoral candidates or grad students" and have an answer ready in anticipation. When I ran this Google search, here are some prospective questions that came up, compliments of Indeed:

• Tell me about yourself…

• How will you contribute to our program?

• What are your career goals? (i.e., How will you use this degree upon graduation?)

• What are your research interests?

• What would you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?

• Why this program?

• What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?

You may also have the bonus questions of explaining any shortcomings of your academic progress. The best advice here is, to be honest and emphasize how you have grown from any weaknesses in your transcripts. In my case, this was college algebra. Curse you, quadratics.

Again, the goal here is to highlight the value you bring to the table, your enthusiasm for the program, and, last but not least, the fit between your interests and theirs. Like dating, you must show the best and most authentic version of who you are, so both parties can make an informed 'swipe right.'

Check, and check….

Once you have successfully applied (within the deadline), there's nothing more to do besides waiting for the news. In my experience, the longer the wait, the more likely the response will be good, but pending on how backed up the review committees are, this can take a couple of weeks to six months. Most programs list a date applicants can expect to hear decisions, so mark your calendar and stay positive. You did the hard thing by putting yourself out there; if you did your best, let the universe sort out the rest.

In our next installment, we'll discuss what happens when you are accepted into a program or, better yet, decide between multiple opportunities. Til' next time!

A Dissertation Tale - Part 1: Beginning the Journey

TL;DR:  This post reflects upon my journey to earn a Doctorate amidst the onset of the global pandemic. I am speaking from my frame of reference and giving personal interpretations of the process, challenges, discoveries, and hindsight learnings, within one specific program, in one cohort, as one person. 

I do NOT recommend treating this as an ‘end all, be all’ of what earning a Doctorate is like. To say the sample size is not representative here is a statistical-truthy pun of epic proportions.

Note: I can’t blame you for jumping to the TL;DR; trying to consolidate three years of work/life into a single post is a challenge, to say the least, so instead, I’ve broken it into chapters. If you ARE considering pursuing a Doctorate, please use the subheadings to navigate to the information that might be most relevant to you at the time as you embark on your journey. I send my deepest congratulations and support for your decision. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be worth it.

Who is this for?

These posts are for those considering pursuing a Doctorate or those curious about the process. Before my enrollment, I too wondered about the journey of earning the “Dr.”, shrouded in a veil of academic wizardry and mystery, but having walked the path, I can say things became clearer (albeit an ere of magic and wonder still exists around those that pursue this path). The road is not easy, and passion is sometimes the only sustainable factor that pushes people (including myself) to continue.

—

Part 1: The Beginning

It’s been about a month since earning the title of Doctor of Business Administration and over a year since the last posting, so it seems long overdue to reflect upon the adventure and distill insights from the experience as was promised in the blog title. Please forgive my extended absence. Sacrifices to finish this undertaking had to be made (as you’ll soon read why), but now I am excited to share them with you.  

Setting the scene:

A little background seems needed here. The COVID pandemic was settling in for an extended stay. 

The school year had just ended, and for the first time, there was no graduation ceremony to finish due to necessary social distancing requirements. Colleges and universities were planning for a full return after the summer break, with health policy precautions underway and fears of recession looming. 

To say things were interesting for us all would be a massive understatement; we had no idea what lay ahead, but all the same, I decided this was the time to jump back in and finish pursuing a goal that lived in my heart for at least ten years. Why was it, then? Excellent question! The pandemic may have sent a stark reminder that nothing is guaranteed and to make the most of our time here. Perhaps the solitude of working from home made it clear an opportunity exists to make the best out of a bad situation. Maybe the itch of complacency sent an alarm bell that it was time to level up. Truth be told, it could be all those things or something else entirely, but the gut said, “No more lollygagging, do it!” so off I went.

As one who likes to know what I’m in for ahead of time, I did a little digging before looking into programs and found a great book that gave me information on what to expect. It helped me, so I’m recommending it, but this is an unpaid, unincentivized advertisement. The book is also a bit dated, so some aspects may no longer be the case, but at any rate, onward!

And so, the journey begins…

Why journey? Because this lofty goal requires many steps, many sacrifices, and many hours to achieve it. The truth about pursuing a doctorate is that you start this adventure by identifying the degree, program(s), and university(ies) that match your desired expertise focus. 

This decision may require soul-searching, preliminary research, and a healthy dose of skepticism if you are anything like I am (a self-declared jack-of-all-trades). Make no mistake, when choosing this path, you narrow your skillset and energies into a targeted skill area. You are equally selecting what you WILL and WILL NOT hone. You are developing your expertise, substantiated by first, your final defended and published research, and then by your received degree (credential) and title (that oh so glorious “Dr.”).

The program or programs (more likely) you choose to apply to are based on the college’s focus, as declared by their degree curriculum (the series of classes you take) and the faculty that will be teaching it (experts of their chosen subject matter). The college or university denotes the resources, rigor, and reputation of the degree you have earned. Realistically, you will select multiple here to increase your odds of being accepted into a program; think of it like dating; both parties need to ‘swipe right,’ which means you’ll be shopping around until you find the best match. 

You need to find the best balance for you.  If it helps, here are some questions I asked myself before applying to programs:

• How important is this to me? (No one else can answer this for you, sit with it for as long as you need.)

• What do I plan on doing with the degree once completed?

• Will I be working full-time while doing this?

• Is my job stable enough to allow for this?

• Can I afford another degree? (Unless you’re applying for a program that is paid for, financial aid is rare, and money is always a factor.)

• How much family time am I able to sacrifice?

• Do I have my family’s support? (See the question above and speak with your family before jumping in, they need to know what they’re in for just as much as you do.)

• Do I have the time, and if not, can I make the time?

There’s also the added component of accreditation for the degrees you’re considering. Programs may gain higher clout or prestige from these accreditations and regional accreditations. As an example, in business programs, there are two revered accrediting organizations:

• The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)

• The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP)

Pending on what you plan to do with your degree and how your field views accrediting will determine how much weight you assign to a program having specific accreditations. I suggest researching which accreditations are significant for your area of study, which colleges have the best programs (level of renown) for your focus, and where the experts in your field are teaching. Then make a list of the programs that fit the bill.

In the next post, I’ll discuss the application process and what to expect.  

Values in Action

In light of recent events at the Capitol, it's appropriate to talk about the next topic, values. What are values? What purpose do they serve, and how do they guide us individually and organizationally? 

Defining values- 

Mirriam-Webster defines value as either something of worth (monetarily) or refers to the terms' fairness in exchange. Still, when we dive deeper, we see value as it relates to principle, and that is where we're focusing. Individually, we can identify a specific quality as something to aspire to or something currently possessed that needs to be maintained or protected. Values are powerful. They can bring about our best intentions by reminding us what is truly important, but they can also invite deeper, destructive emotions if used for gains at the cost of others.  

Beginning with personal impact, let's discuss what role our values play in our daily activities and overall mindset. To envision the effects of values, let's contextualize them in a personification. Meet 'Elise.' Elise is a high school senior ready to embark on an adventure that represents a significant demarcation in American life, going to college. Her peers and parents have primarily guided her values or sense of right and wrong up to this point. Social norming and the influences that come with it are normal, but the college experience will challenge her to define herself apart from those influences. Elise will need to reflect upon and determine who she is and, more significantly, who she wants to be. Assessing her current or future qualities is not an easy determination, but she may have abstract visions of the type of person she wants to be. "I want to be honest, intelligent, and empathetic," she declares. Those are her values. If she prioritizes those values, they should shape her overall decision-making as she endures challenges and opportunities throughout her life. 

Values influence behaviors- 

How? If she is preparing for her finals in her first semester of college but fell asleep while studying for an exam to take place the next morning, for example. A conflict has presented itself. She failed to finish preparing for the exam but could find alternate, less than ideal ways to make the grade. With her values clearly in mind, Elise would seek to enforce the honesty she has determined is important to her. Her actions would likely result in doing her best and accepting less than stellar results rather than cheating her way through to a good grade. 

In this example, her values guided her to decide on the necessary course of action to uphold a quality or belief that she deemed to be right.

Organizational values- 

Organizations also determine the values that guide their operational and strategic decision-making. Values guide the cultural formation and act as a form of virtue ethics for businesses. In the text Ethical Theory and Business-10th Edition, authors Arnold, Beauchamp, and Bowie describes values as "general statements of guiding beliefs." (Page 102) Akin to an individual effect, organizational values should inform the "how" or prioritization of the decision-making, albeit on a grander scale. Corporate values need to be enforced or encouraged by all members of that company and resonate across all of the individual's actions while working. Honoring values extends across departments and affects infinite choices, including but certainly not limited to the products made, the growth strategy, the manufacturing processes, the level of corporate social responsibility, the recruiting and expulsion of employees, etc. Suppose an organization decides to value innovation, for instance. In that case, the value should influence all the decisions made to position the business as an innovative force and become attainable through senior officer priorities such as heavily investing in research and development, in this case. 

Values frame our perception of appropriate behavior. They are both and ends and means that shape our interpretation of any situation we encounter, and if they are "of value," they guide our actions subliminally. As such, we should take stock of what values are currently advising us and assess if those values are still significant as individuals, organizations, and societies. So what should we do to honor our values as we evolve them to better serve in the light of new information?

Recommendations for selecting and honoring a value system-

1. Start individually- Before you can determine what should be guiding an organization, you need to start with yourself. Some business values stem from the entrepreneur's values, but even if you're not considering starting a business, you should know what guides your choices and perception.

2. Engage a sounding board- It's easy to fall prey to partisan perception if you're working in a vacuum. One way to combat errs in judgment is to engage a sounding board. Ask another professional or colleague if your intended values make sense. Are there shortcomings or areas that may present difficulty that you should be aware of? Are a few of your values in direct conflict? (Note: It's not to say that you should change your values based on another's opinions per se, but you should be able to articulate your values and possess a keen awareness of the challenges that come with them.)

3. Benchmark them- Sometimes, the easiest place to start is to compare what values guide people or companies that you aspire to be associated with. What are their values, and how do they interpret their applications in daily decisions?

4. Make it visual- Reminders are good. Design supporting visuals to remind you what is essential and what you are working towards achieving.

5. Reassess regularly- Like many aspects of life, as we learn and grow, our values may need to evolve as well.

References:

Arnold, D. G., Beauchamp, T. L., & Bowie, N. E. (2014). Ethical Theory and Business. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

"Value." Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/value.

A New Year and a New Vision

It's the first day of a brand new year—a point in time ushering in collective feelings of potential, possibility, and motivation to make things happen. I cannot think of a better day than this for this topic.

Let's talk about vision, personally, and as a business:

A year's passing encourages an unusual phenomenon where people embrace change (naturally varying degrees of change aversion are a common factor for the majority.) In some cases, we not only embrace change, but we also go a step further to enact change through resolutions and subsequent behavioral corrections that can address any area of our lives. These resolutions are connected to an envisioned sense of ourselves: what we or our lives could be if we made specific changes to make things happen.

Businesses are no different. Somewhere within the genesis of a company, the founder(s) will declare a vision, where their efforts will seek to make their respective change or 'mark' on the world, creating a reality that would not otherwise be; referred to as a "vision statement." 

Vision statements serve businesses in several ways, but their primary value lies in building a higher purpose for employees, communities, investors, and other stakeholders to keep with them as framing and fuel for their work.

Guidelines for a vision statement:

Vision statements should be concise, memorable, and powerful. One lesson that comes to mind was from a grad school instructor discussing log-lines (a summary, usually limited to a single sentence, for a story or content concept).  

"For every word added to your log-line, add one million dollars to explain it when marketing it." 

- J. Baker 

While the cost is not a law, the point is exact: craft with intention. 

Vision statements are not realized immediately, akin to chasing a sunset at the end of the horizon; it's about the long-term pursuit.  Similar to changing one's life, the benefits of the sacrifices required may not present themselves until after significant repetition. We wouldn't expect one push up to make us superhumanly healthy. Similarly, we cannot expect to realize a vision overnight. If we could realize our vision within a short amount of time, it wasn't challenging enough, which leads to the next point.

Visions are grand.  They reside in the imagination of the one (or few) individual(s) who can see it in their mind's eye. It's not tangible. It's a concept that needs to be advocated to gain traction and enthusiasm. It needs to be vast to garner a higher sense of purpose, dedication, and motivation for your stakeholders. 

Visions are supported by clear values that show what the leaders and company as a whole are willing to do (and equivocally not do) to make this world real. The best ideas can have both positive and negative impacts on society. As such, the supporting values further clarify the means to reach the respective ends of this vision.

The lesson in this story:

Visions live in us. We 'see' them and work hard to realize them. A very wise professor once told me:

 "Meaning is not found; it's made."  

- Dr. Andrew Gold

How deeply we connect to a business vision may lie beyond simple professional goals in our employee's minds and hearts. 

Visions can live beyond us. Crafting a clear vision and accompanying set of values can proliferate beyond the existence of one person. Do so with care and intent.

Visions inspire us. If nothing else, visions remind us of the power of change. Change we can create. The power of possibility can motivate us to push past any unlikely probability to achieve something greater.

Let's bring a clear, purposeful vision to our lives and our businesses.   

Lessons from a Torrential 2020.

As 2020 comes to a close, the question that looms overhead is: Where do we start?

There are infinite lessons the COVID pandemic has impressed upon businesses, government, and consumers alike. Some businesses thrived while others incurred significant losses or closed altogether. The dependencies between business and government rose to a boiling point in the aftermath of the CARES Act. Companies that were able to access the needed PPP loans were enabled to endure, but as we saw, not all small companies had the same amount of access and ability due to a systemic failure to disperse and prioritize organizations that needed funds versus those that were accessing the funds for opportunistic gains. As a result, the government did not fully realize the intended effect.

Facing perspective and later enacted lockdowns, consumer behavior adoption sped up towards online shopping. At the onset, panic/prepping buying patterns deeply affected a weak supply chain and exposed a key disadvantage of outsourcing manufacturing. Despite the gains of profitability, supply could not meet the demand to provide necessary supplies like toilet paper. With case numbers rising, the dawn of the Zoom age infiltrated homes for those lucky enough to continue working through remote means. Along with this shift comes a melding of home and work life, and while the lasting impact has yet to be seen, hopefully, it brings humanity back into office life. The shift may include allowing workers to design a schedule that will enable productivity to be balanced with healthy home life and high performers to work on their terms.

One keen insight garnered from this year is that businesses must be aware of changes and create pivot plans to maintain operations and sales under new circumstances. Companies primed for the COVID shift were more likely to be successful; those who conducted "business as usual" more likely suffered losses.

2020 has given us all one gift, exposure. It has brought to light both areas that need to be addressed and a gut check to assess what is truly important in life and business. Businesses need to recognize that in exchange for their success brought about by their communities' support, they have a responsibility to reciprocate, especially in times of hardship. Measures taken by businesses to support their community, or stand for what is right, will, in the long run, convert customers to something far more significant, advocates.

One recognition is certain: 2020 was an unapologetic year of change. Whether or not the losses bring about significant responses is dependent on us. Here's the learning the lessons of 2020 to create a brighter future!