39. Ground Rules for a KIND Team
- Sunny Sokhal
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
The KIND (Kingston University Intellectual Disability) Research Group is a big team -there are 12 of us, working on different research projects! It is also a unique team - we are the only research team in the UK that has salaried researchers with and without a learning disability in salaried academic posts.
Last month, Irene Tuffrey-Wijne, who leads the KIND Research Group, brought us together. She asked us to think about how we work. She asked us to make some ground rules to help us in our jobs. This blog is a chat between DAPPLE researchers Sunny and Fred about our new ground rules.
Sunny: I think ground rules are very important. They help us understand how we can work together. They help us feel respected as colleagues.
Fred: When we made the rules, we talked about lots of everyday things. We talked about how we take breaks during the working day. We talked about how we use our phones. I realised something about myself. Sometimes I answer a work call on my mobile phone, but I forget to say it is a work call. So someone in the office might think I am talking to a friend about weekend plans or a film I want to see. That can be confusing. Hopefully our ground rules will help us to be clear with each other.
Sunny: We also talked about what to do if we cannot come to work. We talked about our WhatsApp group too. We use it a lot, and it is good, but we need to use it in the right way. It is good when everyone knows what is expected.
Fred: I feel the same! In all workplaces there are rules, but people often do not say them out loud. So these are “unwritten rules”. They can be very confusing! I used to work as a Job Coach, and supported many people with learning disabilities in their jobs. They were often expected to understand the rules, even when nobody explained them. That is not fair.
Fred: Can I ask you something Sunny? Does having ground rules feel like ‘school’ to you?
Sunny: Not at all. This is not school. This is work! We are employees at Kingston University. We are all getting paid to be here. We are doing important work that makes a difference. Ground rules do not feel like school. They feel professional. They help us know what we need to do. In our team everyone has different skills. Everyone has different needs. I have my “lived experience”. My lived experience helps me do my job. Ground rules help me use my lived experience in a good way, so we can work well together.
Fred: Hopefully these rules make things easier for the whole team. And help us support each other and understand each other better. Mo and I are making an accessible version of the ground rules. We hope to share those very soon.
Watch this space for more updates from The KIND Research Group. We will keep talking about how we work and how we keep learning from each other!