Creating the conditions for professional services scholarship at a Russell Group university: A critically reflective account of staff development, mentoring and systems thinking

This reflective essay examines the establishment of the Research Guild in King’s Digital, a department at King’s College London specialising in online and blended postgraduate education. The Research Guild is an internally created, mentor-supported community of practice designed to help professional services staff engage more confidently in educational research and scholarship. Using an autoethnographic approach and a systems thinking lens, I explore how the Guild emerged in response to a recurring pattern: teams highly effective at delivery but lacking time, infrastructure and perceived legitimacy to undertake inquiry. The essay describes how mentoring through the ALT ELESIG Scholar Scheme, a training needs analysis survey and three structured development pathways (literature review, conference participation and research projects) combined to make evidence-seeking feel more normal, safe and worthwhile. I highlight key outcomes and persistent tensions around time, equity and sustainability, arguing that staff development is most transformative when treated as a deliberately designed ecosystem of scaffolds, feedback loops and shared identity rather than a series of isolated activities.