Within research groups, one element is fairly universal: lab meetings. Teams structure these sessions in many different ways, all aiming to provide productive updates on researchers’ progress in a group.
A common struggle with these meetings is how to make them engaging. This was exactly what Daniel Gonzales, a neuroscientist and engineer at Vanderbilt University, was thinking about as a new principal investigator (PI). “I'm interested in tweaking things and playing around just to see how can we try new things? How can we make things better?” he said.
He said that his group had a good flow to their meetings, but “it was missing that group-led feeling.”
The team had tried a few different strategies to encourage more group discussion. They used a shared Google Slides document so that everyone could view each other’s results, and Gonzales had also given them reminders about asking questions. Still, he found that he was the primary person providing feedback.
He heard this challenge reiterated at a professional development meeting for new faculty. While the researchers exchanged strategies they had tried, from introducing brainstorming sessions to journal clubs, many still didn’t feel their lab meetings were as engaging as they would like them to be. Gonzales knew that adding more meetings to people’s weeks took more time away from doing lab work or other tasks, though, and he said that he already felt like he had too many meetings in a week.
Daniel Gonzales (right side of image) and his team are undertaking an experiment over the summer to improve group-led discussions in their lab meetings. Gonzales is skipping the sessions to encourage the other group members to share more ideas and feedback on the others’ projects.
Submitted by Daniel Gonzales
Gonzales also had heard similar complaints from colleagues at his institution, but he said that because of time constraints, many stick with the system that they already established. In the vein of wanting to avoid becoming stuck in one approach out of habit, though, Gonzales refused to stick to the norm and just accept that lab meetings will be boring. “I'm pretty sure that group meetings can actually be really memorable and really awesome, but we do have to work at it,” he said.
As the school year came to a close, an idea struck Gonzales. Since his goal was to promote discussion amongst his team, what if he, as the PI, just didn’t attend lab meetings?
The more he thought about it, the more he felt it would be an interesting experiment with few downsides. On the one hand, his team might tell him that they wanted him to continue to join the meetings. “It would be sort of confirmation for me that I am useful,” Gonzales said. Alternatively, his absence might successfully promote the group discussion and collaboration he wanted to happen, which he said would also be a “fantastic outcome.”
When he brought it up to his group, Gonzales said that they were initially surprised but that they were used to trying new things and understood the intent. “I think they were honestly excited,” he said. So far, he’s noticed that the group has met outside of their normal conference room. He said that as long as everyone still shares their results and the group discusses them, he doesn’t mind this at all.
Gonzales also received several positive responses when he announced his experiment on social media, but he said he knows that may not be everyone’s reaction. “I'm okay with a ton of people also thinking that it's naive or isn't going to work,” he said.
“There's a big appetite out there for just ways of trying new things and seeing what works and seeing what doesn't and talking about it and sort of brainstorming at the PI level,” Gonzales said. “Maybe this is one that a few other labs try because they're inspired by our ideas too.”
Gonzales and his team are continuing their new lab meeting format through July. While he will wait to see what his team thinks about the structure at the end of the experiment, the feedback he’s gotten from members in individual meetings is promising. “It's been extremely positive so far, and people [are] saying that they think it works.”
Part of why Gonzales thinks that this format could be successful is because his lab members can still connect with him often. He holds weekly individual meetings, where he can discuss everyone’s projects in depth, and his office is near the lab, so people can pop in easily for quick questions.
“The jury is still out, but I'm hopeful that this is maybe the new normal for us. But we'll just have to see over the next month,” he said.
