On Friday, October 15th, the MPA Lunch-and-Learn series hosted Dr. Heather Getha-Taylor of Kansas University. Dr. Getha-Taylor is a prolific researcher and writer who has authored or co-authored more than 60 articles, book chapters, and scholarly reports. Additionally, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of Public Personnel Management. She has received numerous rewards for her scholarship, teaching, and projects.
Dr. Getha-Taylor delivered a webinar titled “Connecting Bold Public Service Goals and Individual Efforts: Three Steps to Improving Your Collaborative Competencies.” The talk was attended by more than 20 students across campus.
The talk was visually appealing and engaging, with Dr. Getha-Taylor making use of interesting and novel metaphors to illustrate her theories. A particularly illustrative and central metaphor was that of “narrative polyphony.” Polyphony, literally “many sounds,” describes the interplay of instruments to produce a unified and rich arrangement. Dr. Getha-Taylor used this musical concept to elaborate on the process of collaboration in a group or organization, arguing that, like an orchestra, an organization relies on many voices to create a full and diverse but singular sense of direction and purpose.
Dr. Getha-Taylor also presented several concepts with which to understand the collaborative process. They included collaborative inertia, collaborative advantage, and collaborative resilience, which describes the ability of organized communities to overcome hardships which would overwhelm individuals. With these concepts, Dr. Getha-Taylor made a convincing case for collaboration, which is essential since “no one has the energy to solve many problems on their own.” Apart from illustrating concepts that would help students build collaborative competencies, Dr. Getha-Taylor also provided details about how to conduct studies on collaboration, including where and how to obtain data. Her talk had important implications for students, practitioners and academics.
The MPA Lunch-and-Learn series, which was launched in the spring of 2021, features academics and practitioners as speakers to introduce new perspectives on the field to both undergraduate and graduate students.
