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    Research@Queen's: Fixing financial fairy tales

    The Institute of Sustainable Finance based at Queen's Smith School of Business is dedicated to exploring how the many different ways in which we spend money might be adapted to reflect the principles of sustainability.

    [Illustration by Gary Neill]
    Illustration by Gary Neill
    Discover Research@Queen’s
    Did you know that the university launched a new central website for Queen’s research? From in-depth features to the latest information on how our researchers are confronting COVID-19, the site is a destination showcasing the impact of Queen’s research. Discover Research@Queen’s.

    When teenaged environmental activist Greta Thunberg addressed members of the United Nations Climate Action Committee last fall, she chided them for touting “fairy tales of eternal economic growth.” Her colourful language undoubtedly captured the way many people regard the tension between the profit-seeking motives of the business community and the much broader ambitions of those who would rein in humanity’s damage to the natural world. It might seem an impossible task to resolve the many conflicts that separate these perspectives, but an initiative at Queen’s University aims to do just that.

    The Institute for Sustainable Finance, which launched in November 2019, is based at Queen’s Smith School of Business. The Institute serves as the linchpin for the Canadian Sustainable Finance Network, which includes over 65 academic researchers and educators from 22 universities across the country, all dedicated to exploring how the many different ways in which we spend money might be adapted to reflect the principles of sustainability.

    Continue the story on the Research@Queen’s website.

    Start writing for The Conversation Canada

    Scott White, Editor-in-Chief of The Conversation Canada, to host two online, interactive workshops for faculty, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows on Sept. 17 and 21.

    The importance of fact-based, expert commentary in the news has never been more apparent. The public is seeking informed information on issues important to them, particularly as the world gets accustomed to the new normal of living in a global pandemic.  

    For researchers looking for an opportunity to reach the public and mobilize their knowledge, The Conversation is an ideal platform. It combines academic rigour with journalistic flair by pairing academic experts with experienced journalists to write informed content that can be repurposed by media outlets worldwide.

    Global Reach

    Founded in Australia in 2011, the online news platform has 11 national or regional editions with more than 112,000 academics from 2,065 institutions as registered authors whose articles attract 42 million readers monthly worldwide. The Conversation’s Creative Commons Licensing has meant that over 22,000 news outlets around the world have shared and repurposed content.

    As a founding member of The Conversation Canada, over the last three years the Queen’s research community has embraced the platform as a unique tool for sharing their research expertise and engaging with the media. More than 160 Queen’s researchers have published 270 articles that have received an impressive audience of over 4.3 million via The Conversation Canada’s website. Through the platform’s Creative Commons Licensing and newswire access, dozens of major media outlets, including Maclean’sThe National PostTIME, and The Washington Post, to name a few, have republished these pieces.

    For Queen’s researchers interested in learning more about the platform, University Relations and the School of Graduate Studies will host two interactive, online workshops in September. The workshops will explore the changing media landscape in Canada, why researchers should write for The Conversation, and how to develop the perfect pitch. 

    Online Workshops

    Faculty are invited to attend the workshop on Thursday, Sept. 17 from 10-11:30 am. Interested graduate students and post-doctoral fellows are asked to register for a specially designed workshop on Monday, Sept. 21 from 10-11:30 am that will also count towards the SGS Expanding Horizons Certificate in Professional Development. Scott White, Editor-in-Chief of The Conversation Canada, and members of his editorial team will host both workshops over Zoom. Participants are asked to bring an idea to pitch to the workshop to receive real-time editorial feedback from the team.

    In order to facilitate a collaborative workshop, spaces will be limited. Please visit the Research@Queen’s website to register.

    It’s time to join The Conversation

    Queen’s is looking to add to its roster of authors taking part in The Conversation Canada. Faculty and graduate students interested in learning more about the platform and research promotion are encouraged to register for the September workshops or contact Melinda Knox, Associate Director, Research Profile and Initiatives, for more information.

    Safely moving into residence

    New procedures for student move-in will support campus and community safety.

    Photograph of Leonard Hall
    Move-in for the reduced number of students living on campus will take place from Sept.1 to Sept. 5 at staggered times throughout the day.

    The Labour Day weekend is usually an incredibly busy one at Queen’s, with first-year students all moving into residence for the start of the fall term. It’s also an important milestone for the students who move in, as unpacking their boxes in their residence room marks the beginning of their Queen’s experience.  

    Due to COVID-19, moving in will look different this year for the reduced number of students living on campus. A new move-in process is being implemented to prioritize the health and safety of students, their families and supporters, staff, and the Kingston community.

    This year, move in will take place over five days from Sept. 1 to Sept. 5 at staggered times throughout the day.

    “Keeping students, families, supports, Queen’s staff, and the community safe during move-in is our top priority. Our new procedures will make it possible for everyone to maintain a safe physical distance throughout the process,” says Leah Wales, Executive Director, Housing and Ancillary Services.

    For the fall, Queen’s has reduced the number of students who can live in residence to approximately half of the usual total. And only 10 of the 17 buildings will be in use.

    During the move-in week, no more than 450 students will move into residence on one day, and students can bring a maximum of two people with them for assistance. When they arrive on campus, students will head to Richardson Stadium, where there is a contactless check-in station. Students will remain in their cars while they pick up the key to their room.  Queen’s staff will be present during the move-in days to provide information and directions, however the typical large numbers of volunteers will not be involved in move-in this year, in order to maintain physical distancing.

    Additional measures have been put in place inside the residences to promote safety during all move-in days. There is a planned movement flow throughout the buildings to maximize physical distancing, everyone must wear a face covering, and the university has placed COVID-19 informational signs and hand sanitizers throughout all buildings. There will be frequent cleanings of surfaces such as door handles and elevator buttons throughout each day.

    Traffic and parking

    Compared to previous years, move-in days will have limited impact on traffic and parking in the campus area. There will be no closures of public streets around residence buildings.

    Bader Lane will be restricted to one-way traffic, west-bound only, and no parking will be permitted on the street. These changes will be in effect from Tuesday Sept. 1 at 8 am through Saturday Sept. 5 at 9 pm. In addition, parking restrictions will be in place for the five-day period, on the following streets:

    • Lower Albert, from Queen’s Crescent to King St.
    • Queen’s Crescent
    • Collingwood St., from King to Queen’s Crescent
    • Stuart St., from University to Albert

    Representatives from the City of Kingston have approved the university’s traffic management plan.

    Safe return to campus

    While they live in residence, students will be protected by a variety of safety measures. No guests will be permitted into any residence building. All students will be living in single rooms and sharing a bathroom with only a small number of other students. To limit the number of people students are in contact with, floors are being organized by academic program.

    Queen’s is taking a variety of actions to ensure the safety of the campus and Kingston communities beyond residences as well. New and returning students are being asked to take important safety measures, including testing and limiting contact with others. The university has also launched a communications and advertising campaign that directs students to important information that will help them keep themselves and the campus and Kingston communities safe.

    Learn more about plans for residence move-in days and residence safety on the Queen’s Residences website.

    For more information about the university’s plans for the fall semester, see the Queen’s COVID-19 website.

    A national health data infrastructure could manage pandemics with less disruption

     

    A young man on a subway wears a mask
    Using data to manage the spread of coronavirus means that work and everyday life could quickly resume. (Shutterstock)

    If we did not know it before, we know it now: pandemics present dire threats to our lives, similar to climate change and nuclear proliferation. Confronting these threats requires social and technical innovation and the willingness to view potential solutions in entirely new ways.

    As Canada struggles with calibrating its response to COVID-19, the limits of our existing crisis strategies are plain to see.

    Political leaders are stuck between controlling the spread of the pandemic and resuming commercial and economic activity. How quickly should restrictions on confinement and social distancing be relaxed? And for whom? Their responses rely largely on the extensive use of personal protective equipment (notably masks), deployment of immunity tests and test-and-tracing technologies.

    There are two problems with this approach: first, they are based on after-the-fact views of COVID-19’s spread. And second, this approach treats the pandemic as a medical problem.

    Managing the unknowns

    The facts of this virus are becoming clear. While it is hard to know who is infected given that many may be asymptomatic, we do know that the vast majority of those who become infected will not experience severe symptoms. Data from France show that if everyone gets infected, only approximately one per cent of the population will experience symptoms severe enough to require admission to an intensive care unit.

    Instead of using the blunt instrument approach of designing public health policy for an entire population, would it make more sense to predict who would fall into that highly vulnerable one per cent group and then devote the state’s resources to protecting them. That way, those who are less vulnerable can continue about their lives, while those who are more vulnerable would be better protected.

    Different perspectives

    Governments are not following this path. They see COVID-19 as primarily a medical problem when it is really an information problem. If it were to be seen as an information problem, then potential solutions are possible. These solutions use advanced information technologies that have proven successful in other contexts.

    Consider personalized prediction. Machine-learning models fed with vast quantities of health data, for example, could be trained to make clinical risk predictions. Public health leaders could use these prediction models to identify those who are vulnerable and who would need to be quarantined and prioritized for access to scarce medical resources, such as personal protective equipment, dedicated health support, free delivery of groceries and other necessities.

    Personalized prediction, based on machine learning and artificial intelligence, has transformed businesses over the last 20 years. Netflix evaluates consumers’ characteristics and past choices to make personalized recommendations about what they might watch next. Amazon uses the same approach to recommend future purchases based on past spending behaviour.

    A similar approach could be taken to measure individuals’ clinical risk of suffering severe outcomes if infected during a pandemic such as COVID-19. What would this look like if rolled out on a country-wide scale?

    Each person would receive an electronic message with their clinical risk score, which would be derived automatically from their medical records and reflect how vulnerable they are to a particular virus. Those with predicted scores above a certain threshold would be classified as “severe” or “high risk.” They would be temporarily isolated and supported. Those with scores below a threshold would be able to return to a more-or-less normal life.

    A young man with a mask works at a laptop.
    Identifying and protecting the more vulnerable members of a population would enable the development of herd immunity, and a quicker return to work. (Shutterstock)

    Data-informed policies

    A personalized approach to clinical risk during a pandemic outbreak has multiple benefits. It could protect medical systems from being overwhelmed and communities from the economic pain of indiscriminate lock-downs. It could help build herd immunity with lower mortality — and fast. It could also allow a more targeted and fairer allocation of resources, from test kits to hospital beds. Unlike medical tests that are scarce, expensive and slow to deploy, a data-driven digital personalization approach could be applied quickly and is relatively easy to scale.

    An approach based on data science and machine learning could also enable safer de-confinement at a much faster rate than current best practices. In one study, my co-authors and I used COVID-19 data from France as of early May 2020 to understand the public health policies regarding the enacting and lifting of restrictions intended to control the spread of disease.

    Our simulations show that isolation entry and exit policies could be substantially faster and safer using personalized prediction models. Our simulations indicated that the complete lifting of COVID-19 restrictions could be undertaken in six months, with only 30 per cent of the population being under strict isolation for longer than three months — all without overwhelming the medical system. In contrast, using conventional methods, simulations indicated that the complete exit would take 17 months, and 40 per cent of the population would be subject to strict isolation for more than one year.

    This ideal scenario may seem like a moonshot, but a simple version could be designed and rolled out fairly quickly. Governments can focus on the data and models that can be deployed for COVID-19. For example, age, body mass index and hypertension and diabetes data for each person — all of which can be assessed at a community pharmacy for everyone within weeks and applied to an individual’s health card — can be used to train models. Even with just this information, public policy can be much more targeted.

    National data infrastructure

    What would need to happen to implement this new model on a province- or country-wide basis? For one thing, a deep data pool. Training a machine learning model for a pandemic such as COVID-19 would require data on thousands of people who tested positive and were hospitalized for the virus. It would also require medical data for everyone else in the population, akin to the information dossiers that big tech firms such as Facebook or Netflix have on consumers.

    This is why government commitment to building a robust health data infrastructure is so important. Unfortunately, in Canada as elsewhere, the state of electronic health records varies widely. Depending on the jurisdiction, records may be incomplete or difficult to access, and information may not be standardized. A commitment to address these shortcomings is paramount. Privacy protections and cybersecurity provisions would need to be developed and well communicated.

    As COVID-19 shows, the upside of applying advanced analytical tools used successfully elsewhere vastly outweighs the downside of staying the course. The question is not whether countries can apply artificial intelligence at a health-system scale. It is already being used at scale for commercial purposes that hardly involve life-or-death issues. The question for policy makers is: Can we afford not to go down this path?The Conversation

    _________________________________________________________________

    Anton Ovchinnikov, Distinguished Professor of Management Analytics at Smith School of Business, Queen's University.

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

    Supporting research at Queen’s University

    The Vice-Principal (Research) at Queen’s provides internal funding to help researchers accelerate their programs and engage in knowledge mobilization.

    Queen’s University has awarded more than $1 million in funding to its researchers. Through unique competitions such as Wicked Ideas, Queen's Research Opportunities Fund, and national programs like the SSHRC Institutional Grant (SIG), the Vice-Principal (Research) is supporting researchers at all stages of their careers and across all disciplines – from discovering innovative solutions, to artistic production, and knowledge mobilization.

    In its inaugural year, the Wicked Ideas initiative was designed to support research collaborations across disciplines tackling wicked problems, issues so multi-dimensional and complex that they require multiple perspectives to solve them. Some of the successful projects include exploring cleantech, Lyme disease, and microplastics.

    Additionally, through the internal funding initiatives several grants were also awarded to Queen’s researchers who have pivoted their research to help confront COVID-19. These projects ranged from determinants of self-rated health, to understanding resilience and fragility, and the spatial implications of the Bank of Canada’s response to COVID-19.

    “It is extraordinarily exciting to see the research ideas that are brewing here on campus, matched with the commitment we have to making things happen," says Kimberly Woodhouse, Vice-Principal (Research). "I truly look forward to the outcomes of these awards.”

    Learn more about the 2020 recipients and the individual internal funds below. For more information on the research happening at Queen’s, as well as Queen’s researchers’ efforts to confront COVID-19, visit the Research@Queen’s website.


    Wicked Ideas

    The Wicked Ideas Competition is a Vice-Principal (Research) pilot initiative to fund and support research collaboration and excellence. Wicked Problems are issues so complex and dependent on so many factors that it is hard to grasp what exactly the problem is, or how to tackle it. Wicked Ideas are needed to solve these problems and demand the input of multiple disciplines with relevant practical expertise.

    2020 Recipients

    Investigator Project Title
    David Lyon (Sociology) &
    Dan Cohen (Geography and Planning)
    Big Data Exposed: What Smartphone Metadata Reveals about Users
    John Allingham (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences) &
    Chantelle Capicciotti (Chemistry)
    Design and Development of Novel Classes of Actin-Targeting Toxin-Glycan-Antibody Conjugates
    Susan Bartels (Emergency Medicine) &
    Stéfanie von Hlatky (Political Studies)
    Peace Support Operations (PSO) in Countries Affected by Political Instability, Armed Conflict, and Insecurity
    Joe Bramante (Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy) &
    James Fraser (Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy)
    Macro Coherent Quantum Transitions in Parahydrogen
    Kevin Stamplecoskie (Chemistry) &
    Cathy Crudden (Chemistry)
    Immortal Solar Cells
    Kerry Rowe (Civil Engineering) &
    Fady Abdelaal (Civil Engineering)
    Using Cleantech to Monitor Geosynthetic Liners in Frozen Grounds for Sustainable Development of Sub-Arctic and Arctic Mineral Resources
    Graeme Howe (Chemistry) &
    Philip Jessop (Chemistry)
    Solving the Water-Removal Bottleneck in Sustainable Chemistry
    Nora Fayed (Rehabilitation Therapy) &
    Claire Davies (Mechanical and Materials Engineering)
    SOCIALITE: An Emotional Augmentation System for Children with Profound Communication Disability
    Laurence Yang (Chemical Engineering) &
    Pascale Champagne (Civil Engineering)
    Reducing the Greenhouse Gas Burden of Livestock by Harnessing Carbon-Neutral Algae to Produce Milk
    Robert Colautti (Biology) &
    Nader Ghasemlou (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences)
    The E.D.G.E. of Lyme
    Mark Daymond (Mechanical and Materials Engineering) & 
    Suraj Persaud (Mechanical and Materials Engineering)
    Materials Performance in Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) Environments Proposed for Advanced Nuclear Systems
    Heather Castleden (Geography and Planning) &
    Diane Orihel (Biology)
    The Spirit of the Lakes and All Their Relations: Two-Eyed Seeing in Microplastics Research

    Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Institutional Grant

    Through its SSHRC Institutional Grant (SIG) funding opportunity, SSHRC provides annual block grants to help eligible Canadian postsecondary institutions fund, through their own merit review processes, small-scale research and research-related activities by their faculty in the social sciences and humanities.

    Explore Grant

    This grant supports social sciences and humanities researchers at any career stage with funds to allow for small-scale research project development or pilot work, or to allow for participation of students in research projects.

    2020 Recipients

    Investigator Project Title
    Cynthia Levine-Rasky (Sociology) The Good Fight: Voices of Elder Activists
    Theodore Christou (Education) Map Making and Indigenous History Education: Supporting Reconciliatory Education by Visualizing Canada’s Indian Day Schools
    Heather McGregor (Education) History Education in the Anthropocene
    Grégoire Webber (Law) Recovering the Good in the Law
    Jennifer Hosek (Languages, Literatures, and Cultures) Cultures of Resilience and Fragility under COVID: Does Money Matter?
    Leandre Fabrigar (Psychology) Exploring Objective and Subjective Measures of Attitude Bases
    Dan Cohen (Geography and Planning) The Spatial Implications of Bank of Canada’s COVID-19 Response
    Richard Ascough (Religion) Associations and Christ Groups under Roman Colonization: Assimilation and Resistance in the Western Provinces
    Gabriel Menotti Miglio Pinto Gonring (Film and Media) Audiovisual-made Museums: An Archaeology of Video as an Exhibition Platform
    Danielle Blouin (Emergency Medicine) Accreditation of Medical Education Programs: What are the Effective Components?
    Heather Macfarlane (English Language and Literature) How to be at Home in Canada: Literary Land Claims in Indigenous and Diaspora Texts
    Sergio Sismondo (Philosophy) Epistemic Corruption
    Collin Grey (Law) Humanitarianism and Deportation
    Martha Munezhi (Policy Studies) Determinants of Self-rated Health in the Midst of COVID-19
    Ian Robinson (Film and Media) Film and Placemaking
    Ruqu Wang (Economics) Modeling International Trade Disputes
    Marcus Taylor (Global Development Studies) Sustainability Transformations in Eastern Ontario Agriculture
    Alison Murray (Art History and Art Conservation) Teaching Science to Art Conservation Students: Threshold Concepts as a Revitalizing Tool
    Amanda Ross-White (Library) Predatory, Deceptive or Imitation: What Motivates Publishers and Editors on the Margins of Scholarly Literature?

    Exchange Grant

    This grant supports the organization of small-scale knowledge mobilization activities in order to encourage collaboration and dissemination of research results both within and beyond the academic community, as well as allow researchers to attend or present research at scholarly conferences and other venues to advance their careers and promote the exchange of ideas.

    2020 Recipients

    Investigator Project Title
    Elizabeth Brule (Gender Studies) Indigenous Resurgence, Decolonization and the Politics of Solidarity Work
    Elizabeth Anne Kelley (Psychology) Utilitarianism: A New Strengths-Based Approach to ASD

    Queen’s Research Opportunities Funds

    QROF represent a strategic investment in areas of institutional research strength that provide researchers and scholars opportunities to accelerate their programs and research goals.

    Catalyst Fund

    This fund was created to enhance areas of research excellence that are of strategic importance to the university by giving scholars an opportunity to accelerate their research programs. Ten awards were allocated with a minimum of six awards designated for Early Career Researchers, defined as those who are within 10 years of their first academic appointment. Applicants were required to hold Tri-Council funding or have applied for Tri-Council funding within the last two years.

    2020 Recipients

    Investigator Project Title
    SSHRC  
    Grégoire Webber (Law) Human Goods and Human Laws
    Meredith Chivers (Psychology)

    Racializing and Diversifying Sexual Response: The Effects of Racial Identification, Emotional Appraisal, and Racial Bias on the Physiological and Psychological Sexual Responses of Black and White Women Viewing Racially Diverse Erotic Stimuli

    Grace Adeniyi-Ogunyankin (Geography and Planning) Started from the Bottom: Youth Social Mobility and Affective Labour in Ibadan, Nigeria
    NSERC  
    Vicki Friesen (Biology) Using Whole Genome Sequencing to help Protect the Potential of Wildlife to Adapt to Changing Arctic Ecosystems, Focusing on Species Important to Indigenous Subsistence and Culture  
    Chantelle Capicciotti (Chemistry) Targeting Cancer Glycans with Imaging Probes - New Frontiers to Chemically Map Tissue Surfaces
    Jennifer Day (Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering)

    Investigation of Sea Stack Stability in Popular Geotourism Destinations, Prediction of Their Structural Collapse, Evaluation of the Effects of Sea Stack Collapse on Public Safety, and Forecasting Risk Associated with Climate Change Evolution

    CIHR  
    Nader Ghasemlou (Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine, Biomedical & Molecular sciences) Circadian Control of Pain and Neuroinflammation
    Eun-Young Lee (School of Kinesiology and Health Studies) Knowledge into Action: Development of Carbon Footprint Equivalences that Incorporate Lifestyle Behaviours for Dual Benefits of Environmental Sustainability and Human Health
    Susan Bartels (Emergency Medicine) Improving Emergency Department Care Experiences for Equity-Seeking Groups in Kingston: A Mixed Methods Research Study
    David Maslove (Critical Care Medicine & Medicine)

    Deep Learning Applied to High-Frequency Physiologic Waveforms for the Detection of Atrial Fibrillation in Critical Illness

    Arts Funds

    This fund makes an institutional commitments in support of artistic production and expression that strategically align with the university’s scholarly strengths and priorities. This includes supporting artists, their contribution to the scholarly community and to advancing Queen’s University. The Arts Fund is also intended to attract outstanding artists to Queen’s University each year.

    Artistic Production

    This fund assists in the actual production of a work of art, such as the creation of a piece of visual art; the writing of a novel, poem, play or screen play; the composition of music; the production of a motion picture; the performance of a play, a musical composition, a piece of performance art, or the production of a master recording.

    2020 Recipients

    Investigator Project Title
    Gabriel Menotti Miglio Pinto Gonring (Film and Media) Hollow Constructions
    Matthew Rogalsky (Film and Media) Highly Directional Loudspeakers: Research and Development for Distanced Sound Performance and Installation

    Visiting Artist in Residence

    To enrich the cultural life of the university and to encourage exchange between artists at Queen’s University and the broader community. It is intended to provide educational and scholarly opportunities for artists by facilitating the extended presence on campus of visiting artists. Residencies are normally two to eight weeks in duration.

    2020 Recipients

    Investigator Project Title
    Carolyn Smart (English Language and Literature) Writer-in-Residence for Queen's University: Kaie Kellough
    Juliana Bevilacqua (Art History and Art Conservation) Rosana Paulino: Project North-South Dialogues
    Karen Dubinsky (Global Development Studies) Cuban Roots in Canadian Soil: Canada's Cuban Musical History
     

    How to calmly navigate personal interactions during COVID-19

    Two men wearing masks speak with each other during an outdoor workout.
    Across Canada, as we enter new, expanded phases of reopening and increased contact, we may feel uncomfortable interacting in person again. There are many options available. (Unsplash / Kate Trifo) 

    Thanks to COVID-19, we’ve slowly built new routines centred on being at home. But as we start to enter various phases of reopening and increased contact, we may feel uncomfortable interacting in person again.

    Treating each interaction as a type of micro-negotiation provides a helpful road map for navigating these potentially tricky situations.

    What once were automatic interpersonal behaviours now require explicit agreement.

    What do you do if someone enters the elevator with you without a mask?

    If a friend rushes close to greet you?

    If someone stands too closely in line?

    What if you are (perhaps unintentionally) the offending party?

    These situations are increasingly common and can escalate quickly into full-blown conflicts if not handled carefully. I draw on research on effective negotiations and conflict management to offer concrete suggestions and practical tips for how to ensure everyone walks away happy — and safe.

    Overall, treating each interaction as a micro-negotiation first involves a change of mindset. Productive changes to your behaviour will then follow more easily.

    It is important to note that many interactions won’t require all the recommendations below. But thinking about each in advance can help you be ready in the moment. A negotiation done well in this case may be one in which you don’t even realize you’ve successfully negotiated until after it’s over. Practice and preparation are key so that these tactics become second nature.

    Prepare and have a plan beforehand

    In negotiations, an important concept is what’s known as BATNA, which stands for the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. It is what you will do instead if you don’t reach agreement with your negotiation counterpart.

    For daily interactions during the pandemic, this means you should have a clear idea in advance of what you will do if a situation gets too uncomfortable. Research shows that having a defined, desirable alternative in mind helps negotiators perform better; the psychological comfort of having an attractive backup plan helps you feel more powerful and removes unnecessary stress in the current moment.

    Rather than storming away in a huff, or escalating a conflict unnecessarily, plan ahead and have explicit options in mind. For example, if mask-wearing doesn’t seem to be enforced in a particular place, know before you leave your home what you will do: you might get takeout from a different restaurant, order groceries for pickup or delivery or simply come back at a different time.

    Having your alternative in mind will help you remain calm, knowing that you always have a perfectly acceptable alternative. In fact, research shows that simply feeling that you can handle a tense situation can help you avoid reacting unproductively.

    A couple wearing masks descend concrete stairs.
    Despite our best intentions, it is likely that some interactions may lead to strong emotions, even anger. (Unsplash / Cheng Feng)

    Respect other perspectives, but be creative

    Although it might seem inconceivable that someone may have a different comfort level in terms of interactions than you do, it’s bound to happen and doesn’t mean the other person is crazy. (In fact, they may be thinking you are the crazy one.)

    A more productive approach is to try to understand the other person’s perspective, and how you can satisfy both of your underlying needs in a creative way. Separate the position (the behaviour, or the “what” that makes you feel uncomfortable) from the interest (the “why” of the behaviour).

    For example, if you’re not comfortable attending the “small” get-together of friends that somehow grew much larger in number, that’s OK. Simply say so explicitly, but also suggest an alternative that could meet both your and the host’s interests (to connect with an old friend) in a different format (taking a physically distant walk together later in the week).

    Remember that respecting the other person doesn’t mean you have to agree with their position.

    But by being creative and focusing on deeper, underlying interests rather than more superficial positions, you can keep everyone happy.

    Don’t take it personally, and use threats wisely

    Despite our best intentions, it is likely that some interactions may lead to strong emotions, even anger.

    However, rather than reacting angrily to a situation, which can backfire depending on how it is received, take a step back and reconsider the situation from an open-minded, problem-solving perspective.

    Use the other person’s reactions and emotions as a trigger to help you find out what’s really going on at a deeper level, which research shows shows can help you reach a more mutually beneficial solution without having to simply give in to the other person’s demands.

    If you feel that you need to resort to ultimatums, do so carefully and purposefully. Research suggests that WISE threats — those that you are willing to enact, that serve your underlying interests, that help the other person save face or maintain their dignity and that are exact rather than vague — are more likely to lead to effective conflict resolution.

    Thinking about each interaction you have as a form of micro-negotiation will help you practise a few fairly minor behavioural and mindset changes so that you, and those around you, are more likely to have positive interactions and avoid unnecessary conflict.

    It’s important to remember that we’re all navigating uncharted waters, and negotiating what used to be mundane but now feels uncomfortable may not come naturally. However, with conscious practice and an open mind, it’s possible to approach even the most challenging interactions from a productive problem-solving mindset.The Conversation

    ____________________________________________________________

    Laura Rees, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behaviour, Smith School of Business, Queen's University.

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

    To change coronavirus behaviours, think like a marketer

    A couple wear facemasks and glasses
    Wearing masks in public is the new norm, however, there remains some significant resistance and rates of COVID-19 infection continue to rise rapidly across the United States, as well as among Canadians aged 20-29. (Unsplash / Nathan Dumlao)

    COVID-19 has been a humbling experience. From a frayed pandemic early-warning system to a shortage of personal protective equipment for front-line workers, public health experts have been playing catch up.

    But it has also been a teachable moment. We now know, for example, that the usual approaches to convince fellow citizens to prioritize societal well-being over personal desires are not working. Rates of COVID-19 infection continue to rise rapidly across the United States, but also among Canadians aged 20-29. Public health messaging is clearly not convincing this age cohort to change behaviours.

    This is a call to action for social marketing to evolve and leverage powerful behavioural and technological tools that successfully engage hard-to-reach groups. There is compelling evidence from here in Canada that such an approach can work.

    Social marketing applies commercial marketing technologies to motivate voluntary social behaviour. These techniques have been used to boost home-based recycling, safe sex, to encourage people to quit smoking and use seat belts, among many other behaviours.

    Good social marketing is more important than ever, particularly during a pandemic. In general, however, public health officials have been slow to adopt approaches that have been used successfully in the for-profit world.

    The four Ps

    In marketing, the shorthand for selling a product or service is “the four Ps”: product, promotion, price and place. Social marketing takes the perspective that selling an idea can be approached in the same way. This includes aligning and customizing messages to specific audiences, rather than assuming everyone will respond the same way.

    In the case of COVID-19, data suggest that people don’t share the same perceptions of risk, and this can be seen in their individual behaviour and resistance to public health messages. Similarly, there is a mismatch between the audience and medium. The current approach of relying on traditional news outlets and advertising, media releases and news conferences to communicate critical COVID-19 information is not proving effective at reaching younger adults.

    Think of the difference among law, public health and marketing as sticks, promises and carrots. During COVID-19, there have been lots of sticks and promises (“stay home, stay safe”) and not much in the way of carrots. But carrots are needed.

    Being confined to your home is a fundamentally unpalatable product for people for whom isolation is a significant psychological burden. Families with small children that are struggling with working, teaching and general caretaking and need specific guidance on how to meet child-care needs safely. Everyone needs access to outdoor space for transportation and recreation, regardless of preferred activity, especially when those correlate with income and race.

    At the outset, little attention was paid to recognizing and addressing these barriers to compliance with the desired behaviour. Yet we have a Canadian example of how to take a complicated issue and break down barriers, in the context of physical activity.

    Worldwide leader

    ParticipAction has been a worldwide leader for decades in presenting a range of possible activities that people can do in small bursts throughout the day or week to meet recommended guidelines, all without having a gym membership or being part of organized sports.

    By recognizing barriers that prevented people from being active, it opened up possibilities to Canadians who considered the product and place of physical activity unattractive.

    The social marketing version of price has always been the most challenging of the four Ps to tackle. It is difficult for individuals to change a behaviour they enjoy or one that provides personal benefit, especially when such change may not benefit them directly.

    But the behavioural economic concept of “nudging” that includes small financial incentives has proven to be financially more efficient than expensive advertising campaigns in convincing people to change behaviour.

    Our research on a now-defunct made-in-Canada mobile app demonstrates the potential for using cutting-edge commercial marketing techniques and technologies to tackle the challenges of social marketing.

    Carrot Rewards was a mobile app that gave users points from their loyalty program (such as Aeroplan, Scene and Petro Points) immediately after they completed a health intervention, such as completing an educational quiz, getting information about the flu shot or walking a certain distance or length of time. (Carrot Rewards folded in June 2019 but was purchased later that year by a technology firm with a plan to relaunch the wellness app.)

    A woman shops while wearing a mask.
    Social marketing applies commercial marketing technologies to motivate voluntary social behaviour. These techniques have been used to boost home-based recycling and encourage people to quit smoking. (Unsplash / Arturo Rey)

    Canadians love their loyalty programs

    Loyalty programs are tremendously popular in Canada. Some 90 per cent of Canadians are enrolled in at least one program. Studies show that, on average, there are four programs per person and 13 per household.

    Carrot Rewards leveraged the desire for small financial incentives (in the form of reward points for movies, groceries and the like), and attracted an engaged and involved audience.

    It employed a digital platform that allowed for customizable content and high message complexity. Using multiple choice “quizzes” of five to seven questions each, it both involved users through gamification as well as provided additional information on the topic in question.

    The app was also able to target content to specific audiences based on demographic characteristics and answers to previous quizzes, as well as track physical movement and location via a smart watch or smartphone.

    Engagement stayed high

    With an existing base of 1.1 million users across Ontario, British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador — and 500,000 active monthly users — Carrot could have quickly expanded into other provinces as a key component of an integrated federal COVID-19 campaign for education, contact tracing and possibly even symptom tracking.

    Our research has demonstrated that Carrot rapidly attracted and enrolled users, and maintained consistently high levels of user engagement over time, even as rewards diminished. That engagement remained high even at a modest average reward per user of 1.5 cents per day. The age and demographics of the users varied by loyalty program, and the app provided a relatively representative cross-section of Canadian society in terms of education, income and urban/rural/suburban locations.

    All in all, Carrot showed impressive results.

    Financial sustainability challenges aside, policy-makers and public health officials would be wise to consider maintaining this modern, data-driven approach to social marketing in their tool box. It would not only prove tremendously useful in the COVID-19 era, but it would place Canada at the forefront of innovation in social marketing around the world.The Conversation

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    Monica C. LaBarge, Assistant Professor, Marketing, Smith School of Business at Queen's University and Jacob Brower, Associate Professor and Distinguished Faculty Fellow of Marketing, Smith School of Business at Queen's University.

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

    Congratulating new graduates

    Over 5,500 diplomas are being mailed to new Queen’s graduates.

    Photo of diploma and congratulatory letters
    Diplomas are being mailed with congratulatory messages and alumni pins, among other items. (Supplied photo.)

    Queen’s students work hard to earn their degrees, and their achievements are typically celebrated with pomp and circumstance at convocation. While COVID-19 delayed this spring’s in-person ceremonies, the university is sending 5,554 special diploma packages to new graduates by mail this month.

    In-person convocation ceremonies will be scheduled for the Class of 2020 when larger gatherings are permitted.

    “Graduating from Queen’s is a great accomplishment, and it is disappointing that we were not able to celebrate with our new graduates in person this year. When they receive their diplomas in the mail, I hope they will reflect on all their hard work and feel proud of what they’ve achieved,” says Stuart Pinchin, University Registrar (Interim).

    To help mark the occasion, Queen’s is sending three congratulatory letters along with the diplomas. One comes from the dean of the student’s faculty or school; another is from Alumni Services; and the third comes from Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada.

    The university will also be mailing the objects typically presented to students during convocation ceremonies or shortly before. Indigenous students will be receiving a Blackfoot Peoples Mountain Blanket, graduates of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science will be receiving iron rings, and all graduates will receive an alumni pin.

    During the period convocation ceremonies would have occurred, Queen’s developed a website about degree conferral and graduation activities to help congratulate graduates. This website features video messages from the principal, the chancellor, and the rector, who typically all address graduates during convocation ceremonies. And it also features a recorded message from members of the Indigenous community at Queen’s.

    To view these messages and to learn more about how each faculty and school recognized graduation this year, see the spring 2020-degree conferral and graduation activities website.

    Smith launches Canada’s first Master of Financial Innovation and Technology

    ​New program addresses a gap in formal education in a quickly-evolving industry.

    Master of Financial Innovation and Technology

    Smith School of Business at Queen’s University has launched the Master of Financial Innovation and Technology program, the first program of its kind in Canada designed to address the significant gap in financial technology education.  

    Technology is transforming the financial sector on multiple fronts – including the management of vast amounts of data and customer intelligence, mobile as a dominant payment channel, the impact of non-traditional fintech providers, and block chain currency – at an explosive rate. According to the latest EY Global Fintech Adoption Index, consumer adoption of fintech services has increased by 64 per cent since 2017. Further, a PwC global fintech report found that 28 per cent of the banking and payments sector, and 22 per cent of the insurance, asset and wealth management sector were considered at disruptive risk due to technology. 

    Designed for professionals already employed, the first Master of Financial Innovation and Technology (MFIT) program will begin in November (pending approval by the Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance) and will be delivered in evening and weekend sessions so students can earn a world-class degree without taking a break from their careers. Graduates will receive training in finance, data science and machine learning technologies that will equip them for success in the constantly evolving industry of finance. Applications are now being accepted. Learn more at smithqueens.com/mfit.

    “Until now, employers hiring in the financial technology sector have had to choose between candidates who specialize in either finance or technology; it’s been a challenge to find talent with strengths in both who understand how one impacts the other, including the opportunities and risks,” says Ryan Riordan, Director of the New MFIT program, as well as Distinguished Professor of Finance and Director of Research at the Institute for Sustainable Finance. “With the launch of this new program, we’ve created a unique educational path that bridges both sectors and equips graduates to succeed in a quickly evolving marketplace.”

    MFIT will expand Smith’s program offerings for students who focus on finance but also want a professional footing in the industry’s ongoing digital transformation, or for technology specialists who want to build their career in the finance sector. The new program will be supported by Smith School of Business faculty with active research agendas in financial innovation, analytics and financial technology.  

    Before developing the MFIT program, Smith School of Business surveyed more than 2,500 alumni of its existing finance and analytics masters programs to better understand the demands of today’s job landscape. Eighty-five per cent identified a need for a program like the MFIT.  

    “Smith has a strong history of recognizing the changing needs of business in Canada and around the world, and quickly developing programs to help fill the talent pipeline with qualified candidates,” says Brenda Brouwer, Dean of Smith School of Business. “The new MFIT program is the latest of our new programs that address the changes taking place in how business is done including the Master of Management in Artificial Intelligence in 2018 and the Global Master of Management in Analytics last year.”  

    The new MFIT program will take 12 months to complete and will consist of 12 courses delivered through a mix of remote and in-person sessions. Courses will be offered one evening per week and on alternating weekends to allow for the demands of a fulltime career. Classes, collaboration and course work will be managed online through the Queen’s Learning Management System, Brightspace. 

    Provost announces restart of search for next dean of Smith School of Business

    Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Mark Green announced on Wednesday the resumption of the search process for the next Dean of the Smith School of Business

    The provost will chair the Principal’s Advisory Committee to advise on Smith’s future direction, and on the selection of the next dean.

    “Much has changed since the previous committee last met in October, and thus I have decided to form a new search committee,” Provost Green says. “I think the community needs the opportunity to reflect on the appropriate composition of the committee for current circumstances, which include an enhanced focus on equity, diversity, inclusion, and Indigeneity within Smith and across campus.”

    Provost Green thanked those who participated in the previous committee for all their hard work and dedication and invited members of the community to suggest individuals who might serve on the new Principal’s Advisory Committee.

    Committee member suggestions can be sent to provost@queensu.ca by Tuesday, Aug. 18.

    “Principal and Vice-Chancellor Patrick Deane and I would like to thank Interim Dean of the Smith School of Business Brenda Brouwer for her ongoing leadership as we continue the search for the next dean,” Provost Green adds.

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