The Garden Route, Frontier & Marine Research Unit grows and grooms!
The seed for a Grow and Groom event for the Garden Route, Frontier & Marine Research Unit was planted and watered in 2024 and finally germinated in mid-February 2025. The lingering effects of Covid-19 on staff, the geographically distributed nature of our unit, and the need to collectively energise each other and plan for 2025 gave impetus to meet up at Karoo National Park’s Grantham Environmental Education Centre. The purpose of this get-together of 24 colleagues (70% of the unit) was “learning from the past to energise and inspire us, understanding what motivates and drives us, and articulating a positive future for our unit and Scientific Services”. Various colleagues led sessions, which enabled diverse approaches as leaders were drawn from across the unit’s diversity spectrum (age, experience, race, gender and job function). Every attendee was expected to contribute, including some preparation beforehand, in the spirit of non-judgemental and honest dialogue, sharing and learning together.
Seven working sessions were interspersed with various activities such as a walk, a sundowner drive, evening braais and card games. Purposeful reflection through photovoice (i.e. narrating an experience around a photo from 2024) generated an appreciation for what motivates and enthuses each of us, sharing the joy of our jobs. The value of looking back by reflecting on what we’ve learned, was facilitated through a knowledge harvesting session. Each participant shared something that shifted their perspective or deepened understanding of their work and/or conservation generally over the past year. This could be practical, technical, or philosophical at any scale and from any source – a paper, book, quote, talk, graph, field experience, etc. This recognises that we all learn in different ways and on different occasions.
Two sessions focused on careers. The first aimed to inspire, energise and motivate one another through shared stories of the events, people and/or opportunities that have shaped our careers and to better understand our diverse contexts at work. It highlighted the critical role of mentorship and exposure to transformative events such as symposia (e.g. GRIN) and fieldwork. Staff generally saw themselves in one of three phases: (i) uncertain where to next; (ii) generally satisfied, but wanting more, especially field time (also for office-bound colleagues); (iii) excited, with a contagious passion to be shared and spread. The issue of career advancement is cross-cutting and critical, especially in a cohort of self-motivated, passionate staff with very low turnover. A further group discussion session focused on what makes staff happy in the workplace, identifying areas for improvement and sharing approaches to individual coping mechanisms.
Two practical sessions followed, namely brainstorming proposed contributions to the 2024/25 research report, and looking ahead to 2025/26 to chart the diverse deliverables and commitments over and above general work schedules. The aim was to generate a shared understanding of what the group’s workload looks like ahead and assist in prioritising resources in the unit.
The closing session was forward-looking through the lens of “jointly envisaging what a happy and successful 2025 looks like for our unit”. Appreciative enquiry was used to stimulate discussion around three questions, whereafter colleagues reflected and articulated their vision for a good year ahead for the unit.
‘Grow and Groom at Grantham’ was a time of reflection, appreciation and sharing – sharing our humanness, our challenges, our strengths and our weaknesses. It aimed to allow us to inspire and re-motivate ourselves and one another, and build a sense of connection, trust and common vision for the group and our unit. A number of simple yet powerful initiatives and opportunities were identified, and each member of the team should feel empowered to take up and/or lead on any one of these.
Reference: Freitag-Ronaldson, S., Roux, D., Smit, I., Lawrence, C., Hayes, J., Mpapane, N., de Morney, M., Petersen, R., Rikhotso, D., Durrheim, G., Kruger, N., Bissett, C. & McCabe, H. 2025. Growing & Grooming SANParks’ science function: Garden Route, Frontier & Marine Research Unit’s Grow & Groom Event, Karoo National Park, 19-21 February 2025. Internal Report 10/2025, Garden Route, Frontier & Marine Research Unit, South African National Parks, Knysna. 30pp.
