Lab Reorganization

It has been a while, but do not worry, this blog is not dead. Rather, we were very busy in the Frohlich Lab. We went through a major reorganization, based on feedback provided by my mentees. Several outstanding people left the lab (this is how an academic science lab is supposed to work, you train them and they move on) and I felt this would be the ideal moment to regroup to make sure we do not fall into a downward cycle.

The process was quite simple. I collected feedback from everyone, through group and individual meetings, and tried to establish what works and what needs to get changed in the lab. We started with the positive things to make sure we build on our strengths and not exclusively focus on our weaknesses. Then, we implemented a wide range of new procedures and policies (reflected in our standard operating procedures, SOPS, reach now more than 30...). We also tried to eliminate processes that we do not follow anymore or no longer make sense or were simply bad policies.

Overall, this was a very intense time and I have seen many confused (and perhaps annoyed faces) during that time but overall I am convinced that we made progress and have significantly evolved as a lab in a the short-time frame of few weeks.

Here are some examples of organizational aspects the lab liked and we worked to cement into our DNA:

• Lab collaboration day (everyone gets together in a neutral room to discuss science and exchange ideas/updates).
• Social events
• Individual development plan for all lab members
• Meeting of all undergrad researchers as a team with me
• Time off policy
• Use of cloud-based collaboration tools such as dropbox, evernote, and basecamp.
• Our organization into functional teams

I will follow up with an update once things have settled, in the meantime I am glad to be back at blogging.