CSP 2017 Online Program

How to Deal with Ethical Issues of Human Subjects, Difficult Colleagues, and Networking (303371)

Keywords: ethics, conflict, illusion of control, teams, networking

The objectives for this Concurrent Session is to help attendees develop and improve their skills and perspectives thereby increasing personal effectiveness as statisticians in their roles as managers, leaders, strategists, consultants, and collaborators. Graduate school is typically inadequate for preparing practicing statisticians to be ethical decision makers and to have ways of dealing with self and colleagues in practical settings.

Many potential employers of statisticians include integrity (often under the category of Professionalism) as an essential requirement which highlights the importance of ethical business practices and behaviors. In graduate school, teaching ethics or integrity has the goal of preparing practitioners for the “real world.” In addition, the “real world” presents special challenges in dealing with ethical issues in clinical trials as well as managing self and colleagues in project teams which are typically not taught in graduate school.

Imagine you have been selected as an external advisor and leader for a Project Team in a pharmaceutical company that needs to design a new clinical trial. The company team members are: Mary, Henry, and Jack. Mary is not good at solving problems, doesn’t come to meetings, and no one on the team knows anything about her. Henry never gets anything done on time. Jack has been nothing but a problem. This concurrent session is designed to give statistical advisors tools for handling Lone Wolves, Couch Potatoes Hitch Hikers and Powerful People. The tools involved are Conquering the Illusion of Control, Values Clarification in Managing Conflict, SMART Goals, and developing your own ability to network.

The objectives of this Concurrent Session are to provide ways of:

Overcoming the illusion of control Dealing with the three fundamental ethical principles in human subjects research Knowing what to do about Hitchhikers, Couch Potatoes, Lone Wolves and Powerful People Practicing how to Love Networking and Improve Collaboration Overcoming the Challenge of Networking and How to Move from Coordination to Cooperation and Reaching Collaboration Quickly