The ASCCR Frame for Learning Essential Collaboration Skills

Abstract

Statistics and data science are especially collaborative disciplines that typically require practitioners to interact with many different people or groups. Consequently, interdisciplinary collaboration skills are part of the personal and professional skills essential for success as an applied statistician or data scientist. These skills are learnable and teachable, and learning and improving collaboration skills provides a way to enhance one's practice of statistics and data science. To help individuals learn these skills and organizations to teach them, we have developed a framework covering five essential components of statistical collaboration: Attitude, Structure, Content, Communication, and Relationship. We call this the ASCCR Frame. This framework can be incorporated into formal training programs in the classroom or on the job and can also be used by individuals through selfstudy. We show how this framework can be applied specifically to statisticians and data scientists to improve their collaboration skills and their interdisciplinary impact. We believe that the ASCCR Frame can help organize and stimulate research and teaching in interdisciplinary collaboration and call on individuals and organizations to begin generating evidence regarding its effectiveness.

Setting the Stage: Statistical Collaboration Videos for Training the Next Generation of Applied Statisticians

“…Discussing statistical concepts with a non-statistical audience is an essential skill that requires practice (Derr, 2000;Love, 2016;Nussbaum, 2017;Vance and Smith, 2019;and Zahn, 2019). To quote Nussbaum (2017), "It's not what we said, it's not what they heard, it's what they say they heard."…”

“…One particular focus in Statistics courses covering collaboration or consulting is communication in challenging situations frequently encountered by applied statisticians or data scientists. Available resources include publications describing a curriculum across an entire program (Greenhouse and Seltman, 2018;Parke 2008), those describing best practices for teaching collaborative skills (Davidson, Dewey, and Fleming, 2019;Smith and Griffin, 1990; Vance and A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t Smith, 2019), as well as a few statistical consulting textbooks that can be used to help lead discussions on consulting skills. The books include James Boen and Doug Zhan's 1982 book The Human Side of Statistical Consulting, Janice Derr's 2000 book Statistical Consulting: A Guide to Effective Communication, Javier Cabrera andAndrew McDougall's 2002 book Statistical Consulting, and, more recently, Doug Zahn's 2019 book Stumbling Blocks to Stepping Stones: A Guide to Successful Meetings and Working Relationships.…”

“…Resources about communication skills also include helpful frameworks and collaboration best practices, such as the ASCCR framework, POWER process and LEARN frameworks (e.g., Vance and Smith, 2019;Zahn 2019). However, many students do not have the necessary background to productively engage in realistic mock meetings, making supplementary resources an important tool, particularly for students who will not have the opportunity to engage in a consulting or collaboration practicum.…”

Incorporating professional recommendations into a graduate-level statistical consulting laboratory: A case study

“…Description of productive collaborative relationships [19][20][21] Strategies to achieve productive collaborative relationships [22][23][24][25] Written communication skills [26,27] Ethics [28][29][30] Week 1 Description of productive collaborative relationships [19][20][21] Strategies to achieve productive collaborative relationships [22][23][24][25] Written communication skills [26,27] Ethics [28][29][30] BCL policies and procedures…”

Tverrfaglig, prosjektbasert innføring i statistikk på universitetsnivå

“…Men ny innsikt forutsetter at domenekunnskap fra spesifikke fagfelt kombineres med gode analysemetoder og kyndig tolkning. Anvendt statistikk er i sin natur tverrfaglig (Ben-Zvi, 2007;Vance & Smith, 2019), og forståelse for statistikk og kvantitativ forskningsmetode er på denne måten en av baerebjelkene i kunnskapservervelse og -kommunikasjon innen naturvitenskapene. I et pilotprosjekt på NMBU høstsemesteret 2018 ble en gruppe studenter tilbudt prosjektbasert undervisning i innføringskurset i statistikk, STAT100.…”