Inspiring people @WUR: Dirk van Apeldoorn

Wageningen University & Research is committed to inclusion, diversity and equal opportunities because we believe that this contributes to better research and teaching. In this interview, Dirk van Apeldoorn, research lecturer in the Farm Systems Ecology Group at the Department of Plant Sciences within the PSG, responds to questions on diversity and inclusion (D&I).

Inclusion

Can you be 100% yourself at WUR?

I would say fortunately not. According to the Insights Discovery colour test, I’m bright red: which is correct, because my natural inclination is to take the lead. I’m very passionate about sharing my perspective, but I don’t want to do so at the expense of others. Selection processes favour people who like to talk: I’m an example of that (ha ha). I’m conscious of that and try to keep a lid on my enthusiasm, as it can sometimes be interpreted as arrogance. Because I know this about myself, I try other approaches, and ask for feedback as to whether I’ve been sufficiently respectful of others. We really ought to listen more. That’s why I’m so happy about the Dialogue Centre, where we’re asked to listen. Because I firmly believe that the only way we can achieve our goals is by considering every perspective.

How long have you been working at WUR? How is WUR different to your previous employers and what stands out in terms of diversity and inclusion?

Almost 25 years! I started studying Tropical Land Use here in 1999 and then completed my PhD on soil geography in the Plant Production Systems group. In the second year of my PhD, my daughter was born and we shared the caring responsibilities. That led to a delay in the completion of my PhD. To help pay for childcare, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher (sic) in Utrecht for two years during my PhD. I currently work in the Farming Systems Ecology group as a lecturer and as a researcher in Field Crops, with the latter mostly done in Lelystad.

The Lelystad group is less international than the one in Wageningen, partly because the work there is aimed at Dutch businesses and carried out in partnership with them. In Wageningen, we take a more abstract view and a broader perspective of challenges, whether local or global. I get the sense there are fewer women working in the Lelystad group, and that there are even fewer in executive posts. Within the department women outnumber men when it comes to postdoctoral researchers and PhD students. It shows that even within a single department you can have different kinds of gender distribution, and it depends to a great extent on the workplace.

Amongst professors, I can understand the lack of diversity. Traits such as dominance and quick thinking are highly valued in a university setting (see also academic wheel of privilege). But if we want to solve the complex problems we’re facing, we need more than just alpha males, for example. I feel that selection criteria aren’t fully attuned to that, and are still mainly focused on privileged traits. My wife wasn’t given enough seniority during her tenure track. And when she was applying for a position as professor, the Appointment Advisory Committee insisted on a vision, but that was something she really wanted to develop jointly with the group. Happily, she did get appointed.

That game – selecting in favour of dominance – is one of the reasons I decided not to participate in tenure track (TT). I was lucky enough to escape from the postdoctoral researcher carousel, by way of a permanent job, and so I was able to decide not to want to contribute to that competitive system. My ambition is to improve biodiversity(bending the curve) while also sustaining the livelihoods of farmers in the Netherlands. That’s what I want to work on, and so the TT criteria aren’t a good fit for me. If I were to go for TT, I don’t think I would be able to do enough to achieve my goal. But if you don't play along, you do get passed over at key moments. The tenure track gives status. Journalists also always want to speak to the professor, but an individual professor can’t be fully versed in every complex issue either. The expertise is spread across multiple disciplines and multiple people. But journalists feel rebuffed when a professor refers them to one of his coworkers.

People make so many assumptions. The image of a professor is still a white man, but with me and my wife it’s actually the other way round.

You’ve spoken about the privileged white man. As someone with ‘seven check marks’, what can you do to improve inclusion?

(The notion of having ‘seven check marks’ comes from Joris Luyendijk’s book 'The seven check marks’: 1) at least one highly educated and/or well-off parent; 2) at least one Dutch-born parent; 3) male; 4) heterosexual; 5) white; 6) Gymnasium or VWO school; 7) university.)

I do indeed have seven check marks. I try to use my privileges to maintain team spirit and to work together towards a shared ambition. I’m a fan of teamwork. My challenge is for everyone on our team to get credit for his or her work and for all team members to feel seen.

I like working with women. There are quite a few power women in ‘my’ team who say ‘I can achieve more by working with you’. But sometimes I get feedback saying that my enthusiasm causes me to steamroll over others. I appreciate having that pointed out to me, because then I can do something about it.

I think that if you’re a Tenure Tracker, you have to claim as your own the successes that you’ve actually achieved with your team, or to present them in a way that makes them seem like a personal success. I don’t think that’s fair. So the challenge is to work with people with different qualities, with everyone in the team being duly recognised.

Do you have any tips for making WUR more inclusive?

Like I said, we don’t tend to select people for their ability to listen, but you can train yourself in that. You need to make sure everyone can provide input during a meeting, or perhaps later over coffee in a smaller setting. It’s a way of ensuring you include the input of more introverted people in the decision-making process. I’m conscious of this, but still make mistakes regularly. That’s the thing I struggle with: how to harness someone’s strength and use it for the good of the team. People need to be able to contribute, and they need to feel valued, be able to develop and enjoy their work.

As far as I know, the Impact Award is the only award used by WUR to recognise the value of teams. It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough. What’s the best way to emphasise the importance of teams within research and education? How do you contribute to a team? That’s something that should be included in our reward system, like the Recognition and Reward programme. At present that’s mainly geared towards individuals, but you need teamwork to address the complex challenges we’re facing.

Diversity

WUR’s vision is that it doesn't matter who you love, what language you speak, where you were born or what you believe in. How does that align with your experience?

As a researcher at Wageningen Research, I work a lot with Dutch farmers on strip cultivation. I do that because I believe in local solutions. Sometimes I can get an international student interested in that topic. A Sikh from India (with his distinctive turban) went to work with farmers in Lelystad and it was fantastic. It was initially a bit awkward on both sides, but ultimately everyone involved felt very positive about it. I think that’s an example of added value to society.

I conduct research into crop diversityand I like to use this metaphor: You can mix red and white cabbages, but there is little benefit to doing so. Maybe you should plant broad beans with them instead. Broad beans may not be sufficiently profitable in purely financial terms, but the environment and the cabbages will benefit from it. That’s important too.

Similarly, you need to avoid uniformity in work environments. A quota for women isn’t the solution, in my opinion. You need to look at systemic selection. I think if you select more for team composition, you’ll get a better and more diverse team and in the long run you’ll automatically get an equal male/female ratio. I think positive discrimination always comes at the expense of other groups, which in this case would be more junior men who might themselves also have under-represented characteristics. It’s important though to have role models for all those different positions in the team. I do think you could use positive discrimination for age groups or for certain positions.

Do you have suggestions for ways to improve our diversity?

We really need a greater diversity of role models, but I still don’t see many role models of good team players. For me those role models are often women, because I like working with them, but sometimes it’s men. I think team players don’t progress in the organisation precisely because they don’t take centre stage. And do we have enough role models for all kinds of other traits?

If we’re going to improve diversity, then the first thing I’d say is that we (as managers) need to lead by example. Don't select by gender or by lists of published articles; instead, look at the person and what they can contribute to the team. Work on your prejudices, because everyone has those blind spots. How? By encouraging feedback from my students, for example – when I’m guilty of reinforcing stereotypes again, or referring to a farmer as ‘he’ when there are more female farmers in the world.

Equal opportunities

Does everyone at WUR have equal opportunities for career progression?

Equal opportunities should be about the person. I firmly believe that when people advance within our organisation it’s not the result of equal opportunities; rather, it’s related to luck (like I had) and circumstances. It’s about the group you end up in, whether your proposal is approved, whether there is enough money to attract PhD students. You have to meet so many requirements instead of being recognised for what you contribute to the team. And individual success attracts further success. The top 10% of people are also clearly the cream of the crop, but I think all further classification is arbitrary.

Conclusion

How do you remain inspired and motivated at work?

I’m motivated by the impact my work can have. I see farmers adopting ideas for improving biodiversity on their farms. Sometimes they message me to show me an unusual bird or insect they’ve spotted on their land. That gratitude is what it’s all about for me. At times I’ve wondered whether WUR was really the right place for me, but if I left, I would miss the students and farmers and I don't want to let them down.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Do you think you’ll still be working at WUR then?

Haha, I've been hanging around here for almost 25 years already. I’m employed at the very best university in the world for work on these topics. I’m Dutch, I grew up in the countryside, and I’m on the same wavelength as farmers. I can make an impact here and achieve more than I could at any other organisation.