Derek Jardine

June 2024

Dialogue Between Disciplines - Post event reflections

Since the founding of the IES in 1972, the profession has grown considerably and now spans expertise across air quality, land condition, water, and beyond. In recognition of the interconnected nature of the challenges facing our environment and the IES's unique position in spanning disciplines across the environmental sector, we launched our inaugural Dialogue Between Disciplines Conference in May 2024.

The Dialogue Between Disciplines conference brought together the IES Communities with the aim to break down silos and encourage a collaborative approach to environmental challenges that brings together the unique strengths and perspectives of various disciplines. A Community is a group of members brought together around a shared professional interest, goal, or challenge.The IES Communities are an integral part of the IES ecosystem, providing thought leadership for their area of focus, and a forum for members to network, collaborate and shape their sector. The current Communities are CEDHE, Climate Action Community, Environmental Impact Assessment, EPIC, FWR, IAQM, Land Condition and Marine and Coastal Science.

The conference programme was designed to facilitate rich discussions between specialisms and facilitate collaborations that could lead to innovative and practical steps we can take forward individually and collectively. The morning presentations set the context of the day, and helped to expand our thinking, though thought-provoking presentations on topics related to interdisciplinarity and systems thinking.

Consilience

Consilience theory has influenced the application of systems thinking in management by providing a framework for integrating different disciplines and perspectives. It unifies common principles, new approaches, and supports paradigm shifts
Focuses on seeing all perspectives, developing a unified approach, and aiming for transformation
Involves fostering radical collaboration, developing adaptive pathways, and engaging in transformational journeys, supported by systems mapping and thinking
Participants should recognize their roles in the system, with clear narratives to address its complexity

Systems thinking in Practice

Donella Meadows' "Thinking in Systems" highlights the importance of setting system boundaries based on spheres of influence
Calibration on critical cross-cutting issues is essential given diverse perspectives
Work must be timed to inform decisions across various scales
Frameworks like integrated assessment and sustainability appraisal are highly valuable
Adequate time and follow-up are necessary to ensure impact

Science to Policy

International scientific assessments are the most rigorous evaluations of science
Politics and ideology hinder strong policy responses, leading to weak targets despite scientific clarity
Key barriers to implementing recommendations are human system failures like inequalities, power structures, and weak governance, making systems transformation largely about changing human systems
Solutions are possible but tricky, requiring adequate incentives and alternatives, though politically challenging to implement

Workshop 1 – Key Barriers and Challenges

The first conference workshop focused on the barriers and challenges faced by environmental sciences in their daily work in addressing the interdisciplinary and cross disciplinary challenges. We asked each group to think about the following questions and we have included some of the feedback below:

Where do you interact with other specialisms and what frustrations arise out of this (organisational, technical or other)?

Lack of collective thinking, understanding and information sharing
No strategic direction – project delivery takes priority
Developers want headlines and not real action
Conflicting targets, for example housing vs nature vs air quality or noise pollution
Lack of communication between specialisms, leading to them not looking at the bigger picture or considering the potential mutual benefits
Lack of skills in systems thinking and interdisciplinary working among project managers
Budgetary constraints
Reluctance to step outside comfort zone and professional protectionism
Lack of time to build the necessary relationships

Who do you need better engagement with (both in terms of stakeholders and disciplines)?

Local groups
Policy makers and regulators
Local authorities
Data sharing across specialisms

What are some of the challenges involved in engaging with different disciplines and stakeholders?

Lack of coordination of multiple agents, clients and customers active in the same schemes
Inaccessibility and lack of trust of data
Lack of national framework for interdisciplinary working
Lack of understanding how natural and social sciences interact
Exacerbated by reluctance to venture outside of their focus area
Lack of a common language and understanding

What policy or organisational barriers prevent better interdisciplinary work?

Lack of data sharing
Different priorities
Lack of awareness
Focus on risk rather than the benefits
Poor processes
Legislative barriers
Client silos
Lack of guidance and frameworks for supporting interdisciplinary working in action
Commercial profit-motive drives competition rather than collaboration

Following the first workshop we had five case study presentations to showcase interdisciplinary in action. This was to help the attendees start to think about potential solutions to some of the challenges discussed and explore how we can overcome the barriers and challenges raised at the first workshop. We wanted to make the day as interactive as possible so we asked the case study presenters to take part in a panel discussion and Q&A session.

Key points from the Q&A session

Assembling the team

We need to remember that cheap does not equal good! It is important to understand and access the necessary skills for a project and involve diverse perspectives. We should consider adding a facilitating layer and continually raise awareness of concepts and their integration with traditional options.

Clients & stakeholders engaging in cross-disciplinary working

Emphasise clear visions and policy hooks. Value service approaches with metrics suitable for multi-attribute decision tools. Strengthen the science-policy interface and adopt genuine co-design in transdisciplinary efforts. Provide continual reassurance, actively manage and adapt as needed, and inspire by demonstrating possibilities. Raise aspirations about what’s achievable.

Tackling multiple different priorities & perspectives

We need to set broad objectives and goals, build necessary relationships and networks, and create spaces to facilitate these connections. Avoid getting lost in details and invest time in effective dialogue using systems thinking tools like Rich Pictures. Consider bodies for facilitating layers and employ knowledge brokers to integrate diverse views and perspectives, recognising the essential skills for effective knowledge brokering.

Digital platforms for collaboration

Online collaboration can work really well and can widen reach and inclusivity – but face-to-face remains really crucial for certain aspects of collaboration. There are roles for asynchronous platforms to enable on-going, not real-time, dialogue. Developments in digital workspaces, such as those used in Digital EIA, can be effectively used to support collaboration across project specialists and can support wider stakeholder engagement through innovative data visualisations and interactive environmental reports.

Extending the role of ‘values’

It is essential to understand the range and significance of different value-systems in thinking about, understanding and responding to challenges; we need to be aware of own value-biases and (as far as practicable) set these aside, crucially avoiding a “we’re right, they’re wrong” mindset and work in a way that fosters genuine co-creation with multiple inputs, treating all with equal respect.

Workshop 2 – Solutions and coping strategies

The purpose of the second workshop was to start to flag potential ‘solutions’ to the challenges emerging. We wanted attendees to focus on potential solutions at an individual, specialism and/or interdisciplinary perspective. We wanted to identify what we ‘need’ to facilitate these solutions and what we think we can ‘offer’ at each level. The questions and feedback from these workshops are detailed below:

Reflecting on what's just been discussed, what are some of the ways that interdisciplinarity and systems thinking can be embedded in solutions?

Education, upskilling and training across disciplines in systems thinking and interdisciplinary approaches
Enable/enforce existing mechanisms that aren’t used
Shift the focus to developing solutions with multiple benefits, with an understanding of where trade-offs are needed in certain areas
Adopt mechanisms for genuine partnership working
Undertake positive (benefits-led) and negative (risk/harm-led) assessments to feed into decision making
Utilise the opportunities available through use of digital tools and machine learning
Reframe the value proposition of environmental professionals - how can their expertise be used to improve overall project design and environmental decision-making?

How do you make it happen (overcoming technical and organisational challenges)? What resources or changes in work practice are needed? Where is more collaboration needed?

Focus on data sharing and interoperability
Expand the awareness and use of different integrating frameworks and cross-cutting concepts/terminology (e.g. risk and resilience; significance)
Engage with the ‘right’ people, bringing people with us
Understanding different values and being able to align these as far as practicable
Challenge the idea that all disciplines should be judged against a common benchmark
Develop a common language that can be used by all specialisms and stakeholders

What will you take forward and what should the IES take forward to support interdisciplinary practice?

IES could do more to ‘war game’ some of the issues identified and could do more to tell convincing stories with clear accessible language about the benefits and approaches to working across disciplines
Draw out the financial sector as key agents of change towards adopting systems approaches
Provide guidance on adopting the systems approach fitted to the culture of organisations and throughout value chains
Re-run this event with additional stakeholders, such as clients, EIA coordinators and lawyers
Emphasize interdisciplinary working skills through competency frameworks and qualifications, such as Chartership

Keynote Speaker

Our Keynote Speaker on the day was Catherine Ross, Chief Scientific Officer, Scottish Government. Catherine discussed how they brought together the Scottish Government, NHS and NatureScot in a multi-stakeholder process. Some of the key points from Catherine's presentation were

Cross-boundary work is essential, with diverse groups solving problems and driving systemic change
The Scottish National Performance Framework is key for aligning disparate policy areas and guiding actions
Partnerships across all sectors are vital for tackling healthcare and climate connections
Innovation, both bottom-up and top-down, with a focus on sharing learning and scaling up, is crucial
Monitoring is key, with the National Sustainable Assessment Tool and mandatory reporting aiding national targets
Clear communication of progress on shared goals and objectives is important
Trust, respect, and defined roles enable effective relationship building and value addition
Cultural competence is critical, ensuring diverse perspectives are respected

Reflections

Reflections from the IES Communities

Communication is key. We need effective communication to develop coherent aims, priorities and targets. This will require a common language and understanding of key values. Building narratives and supporting story-telling across disciplines will be key to bring stakeholders along with us - we need to make sure we are communicating with the right people, in the right ways at the right times.
Educational institutes can play a key role in supporting the development of interdisciplinary skills in the environmental scientists of the future
Forums/mechanisms to support knowledge exchange across disciplines are fundamental
Truly effective partnership building requires establishing mutual trust and respect
Interdisciplinary working is essential for effective policy implementation that addresses environmental challenges and supports environmental improvement
Supporting competency and upskilling in systems thinking and interdisciplinary working is essential to allow for knowledge brokering
Greater collaboration is needed across the sector to identify multifunctional solutions and support decision making from the project level to the government level
We need to embrace change where it can support us in improving outcomes for people and planet
Ensure that there is sufficient time and investment to embed these values across sectors, organisations and projects

What is next?

Interdisciplinary and boundary issues will feature in the new IES strategy
The strategy can only be delivered with the help of IES members
This conference is the beginning of the the journey and not the end
We will be running Dialogue Between Disciplines in 2025 - watch this space!

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