From July 29 to August 1, 2019, the first module of the series of seminars “Continuity and Consistency of GxP in the Pharmaceutical Industry” was held at the Federal State Budgetary Institution of Medical Technologies of Russia. The goal of the project is to familiarize participants with the system of good practices and connect them with the communication environment. Within the framework of the first module, participants plunged into the GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) system of norms and learned the basics of building effective communications in the professional community. We present to your attention a material devoted to the second day of the past event.
The second day of the first module, July 30, 2019, began with an exchange of views on the trip to the FlyArena complex, where the aerodynamic simulator is located the day before. Participants actively shared their emotions and impressions:
“I would like to express my gratitude to the organizers of the course for the emotions and feelings of working on the simulator. Despite the individual work with the instructor, you feel in common with other people who are not yet very familiar to you. This is a feeling of excitement and emotions from the flight. There was an opportunity to share them with other participants and find out what they were up to. It brings people together, makes us more open to each other and to the world, ”said the head of the scientific laboratory of carcinogenesis and aging at the Federal State Budget Scientific Institution NN Petrov Oncology Research Center of the Russian Ministry of Health, Ph.D. Andrey Panchenko.
“This was the first flight in a wind tunnel. I can’t say that it was very scary, but still there was some discomfort. Nevertheless, the realization that the instructor is with you completely controls and helps you, it really helped me feel the joy of such an event and relax. The final flight, when the instructor lifted to a height of three meters, was not terrible, but there was discomfort due to fatigue. I think that all the guys are great fellows and everyone coped with the task one hundred percent, ”one of the participants of the event shared her impressions.
“The emotions from the flight are extremely positive! I was very impressed with how emotions changed at different times: from fear to complete delight. I liked the fact that this unites the team. It is interesting to observe how the faces of other participants changed. It’s great that everyone experienced similar feelings and they were positive, ”commented Anastasia Boyko, an expert at the Department of Organization of Preclinical and Clinical Research, NN Petrov Oncology Research Center for Oncology, Ministry of Health of Russia.
“The most important thing that you need to learn and the aerodynamic simulator – a great tool for this work – is that any communication barrier, no matter what type it belongs to, needs to be overcome. Only by taking a step towards your obstacle and disassembling it for spare parts can you solve the communicative problem. That is why, in the framework of our exercises on the aerobatic simulator, there were several approaches in order to work out and develop the correct techniques for working with one’s own body over and over again. So with regard to communication barriers – it is necessary to use different methods and tools, look for individual ways to overcome the blocks, but in no case give up, especially if there is a feeling that this or that barrier is interfering in the implementation or in building communication in life, ” – Summed up the discussion leading trainer Anna Plesovsky.
After the consolidation of the educational unit on communication barriers, an intensive course in preparation for communications began. Particular attention was paid to the techniques of preparing arguments and arguments for convincing the interlocutor, because often the adoption of important and necessary decisions depends on the ability to correctly argue and convey beliefs. In this sense, the method of arguments and arguments is the most correct and open way to influence the decision-making by another person.
In general, argumentation is the most difficult phase of persuasion. It requires knowledge, concentration, endurance, presence of mind, assertiveness and correctness of statements, the need for knowledge of the material and a clear definition of the problem. One should not forget that there is a dependence on the interlocutor, because it is up to him to ultimately decide whether he accepts the arguments of the communicator or not. In this regard, the training participants, in addition to obtaining a serious theoretical base on the factors of successful argumentation, argumentation methods, and argumentation tactics, devoted a lot of time to the practical development of the obtained material. So, the participants were divided into two teams, which proved opposite statements to each other, using different methods of argumentation.
After the section on preparation for communications was learned, the block of the direct communication process started, in which the participants not only learned the success factors, but also learned seven steps of the communication process through practical training. In particular, the training participants learned how to establish contact correctly, worked on Small Talk techniques, the content part, for example, received active listening techniques, and also realized how important it is to receive feedback from the recipient, because in fact communication is what the message recipient is aware of, and not what its sender means. In this regard, the practical development of the feedback exercise, when the leader had to set a task for his subordinates, who, in turn, verbally transmitted instructions to each other, became very obvious. Information distortion occurred, including at the stage when one of the participants did not insist on feedback on the transmitted message.
Despite a very busy day and intensive practical tasks, which in many ways challenged the participants for internal overcoming, everyone was able to adequately prove themselves to be excellent communicators with great internal potential. It is gratifying that the participants, in turn, remembered and celebrated this very day from the point of view of forming skills on the issues of building effective communications. So, in the feedback questionnaire based on the results of the training, Andrey Panchenko, head of the scientific laboratory of carcinogenesis and aging at the Federal State Budget Scientific Institution NN Petrov Oncology Research Center of the Russian Ministry of Health, noted:
“In general, the training is very positive: it develops communication skills and is rich in useful information. The most valuable thing is the understanding of how to build arguments and get feedback on the achievement of the goal. ”
Also, on the second day, the participants visited the office of the director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution of Information Technology of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency of Russia, in which they discovered real relics of the institution: the Order of the Red Banner of Labor with a diploma awarded by the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics for their services in the development of medical science and public health in 1985. As well as a rare typewriter, which lives here literally since the foundation of the institution in 1935, when the still famous academician S.V. Anichkov, the first scientific director of the Institute of Toxicology.
Director of the Institute, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Maxim Ivanov, said that the founders of scientific research at the Institute were such prominent scientists as academicians S.V. Anichkov, V.M. Karasik, N.N. Savitsky, S.N. Golikov, and professors S. S.Vail, A.A. Likhachev, N.A. Kharauzov, V.I. Rozengart, S.G. Kuznetsov, S.S. Krylov. Thanks to their efforts from the 40s-50s. of the last century, the Institute of Toxicology was developed as a center of scientific research, which laid the theoretical foundations for the treatment of intoxication, studied fundamental and applied issues of toxicology and pharmacology.
Institute staff has developed 13 drugs. In practical health care, such drugs as pyroroxan, an alpha-blocker, have received 5 foreign patents (England, the USA, France, Germany and Switzerland) and production licenses in the USA and Spain; butyroxan – a drug for the treatment of alcohol withdrawal syndrome; chlorazyl is an anticholinergic drug. For the development of antidotes for highly toxic substances, the Institute employees were awarded State Prizes three times (1951, 1967 and 1981).
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the SSR of January 24, 1985, for his services in the development of medical science and the national economy and in connection with the 50th anniversary of its founding, the Institute of Toxicology of the USSR Ministry of Health was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.
The following materials will provide details of the next days of the event, as well as the effect of the work done on the first two days of the training. To be continued.