Research as ‘Driven’ Process

Like any journey, Research has to start somewhere and finish somewhere: the trick is knowing where you want to finish and the best way of getting there.  Not too much of a problem, chez nous, as my wife must be the world’s best (non-professional) navigator… but a problem if I am on my own.

There really is no substitute for planning a journey in advance: ask any rally driver. Tom-Toms and Garmins really aren’t anything like a perfect substitute… and here’s two examples why:

1. stationary at the lights at the bottom of a motorway slip road, my car was hit by a guy whose wife paniced when his Sat-Nav came to life and suddenly started telling him what to do.  He put his head down and tried to shut the thing up, but before he had resurfaced he slammed into my car at a not inconsiderable speed and wrote off the back end.  It was new.  Had barely had it an hour!
2. travelling in a friend’s car… a friend who has to wear different glasses for close up AND long distance.  Driving down the carriageway he decided he needed directions so he pushed up his distance glasses and put his head down to the dashboard to peer at the screen.  All I knew was that he could neither see the road nor the sat-nav and it made me feel somewhat uncomfortable to say the least.  We survived without accident thankfully.

Research is a similar process, but before you race forward to data collection and methodology – you MUST have a very clear idea already of where you are going and how you are going to get there.  You need to understand the route so well before you set off that not even an unexpected diversion can make you lose your sense of direction.

I hope to be able to give you a sort of internal ‘compass’ or gyroscope by means of which you can stay always on-course.  For me this means viewing Research as a process where each stage ‘drives’ the next: