Relationships are Like an Onion Posted on February 14, 2006 Oscar A. Barbarin (bio) advocates getting to know someone before embarking on collaboration.

The success of most collaborative research projects is highly dependent upon the quality and the success of the interpersonal relationships between the people involved.

And I can point to both successes and failures. When you have different cultures, first of all you have to accept the fact that even though, in many cases, you're speaking the same English language, you often mean different things. Different sets of experiences, different aspirations, all play a role in creating potential obstacles to be overcome in working together.

It's like any relationship. When I start talking with students about these relationships, I say it's like, think about the relationship like an onion, with all of these different levels. First of all, you start with the outer level, so you get to know them, their family, where they live, what their lives are like. Sort of the observable things.

Then you go a little bit deeper, whether they have religious beliefs, or other kinds of values, moral, political values. But you can't do this all at once. You do it little by little where gradually you peel away the layers of the onion to get to the core of the person. And sometimes you find that you don't like the person, there's just not the chemistry. And so whether you have similar research interests or not, it's not going to work.

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