On 27 June, Sustineo’s Executive Manager – Research, Tom Sloan, delivered a guest lecture to the ‘Qualitative Research Methods’ course at the Australian National University. A core message Tom conveyed was the importance of maintaining research integrity beyond academia and its importance in his work in the private sector. He highlighted that one of his key responsibilities is to ensure that Sustineo applies academically rigorous standards to our work to the maximum extent possible, while ensuring the outcomes are practical and relevant for project partners. Tom emphasised the importance of understanding the specific issue the client is interested in and designing an appropriate methodology, including data collection tools and analytical frameworks.
Tom reflected on some of the challenging situations he has faced, specifically the importance of working with integrity and in an ethically sound way. Beyond this, he reflected on lessons learnt in working with project partners in the Asia and Pacific, especially the importance of being humble, retaining your humility, and learning from your experience.
Tom’s lecture this year follows similar lectures he has delivered to the course since 2014. As with previous years, the lecture was well received by students in the class and has led to a number of follow up enquiries about our work!
Further information
If you would like to discuss our experience or work in this space further, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with Tom at tom.sloan@sustineo.com.au. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for more posts like this!