peer support sketch

Following the usual 1-1 chats, the first part of this month’s session was spent thinking about peer support and how we could create effective spaces for peer support within NABES.

The discussion revolved around the different ways we give and receive peer support, and how to make it easy to ask for help. For example:

  • Regular ‘lab’ meetings where everyone can bring a piece of current work and gather ideas on how to solve problems

  • More structured Consultant’s Forums where someone presents a problem / anything they need input on

  • Teams / Slack channels for more ad-hoc support

  • Using the mailing list with tags like [help] or [advice]

  • Quickly responding to or acknowledging direct requests for support to make it clear that you are happy to help

  • Regular coding challenges to foster an environment of working on a problem together and sharing solutions

We also agreed on the value of more informal, coffee break-style spaces for when we need help with the less technical aspects of work (e.g. dealing with nerves before a big presentation, being an isolated statistician), or when we just need to have rant and would benefit from having an empathetic listener.