User guide to the head of the lab
I just updated mine...do other people have such documents?
A few years ago I wrote down a sort of onboarding document for the new people arriving in the lab. Among more technical things about how the lab operates, an important part of this document is the ‘user guide’ to me as the PI, the head of the lab. This is a living document, and I update it every once in a while.
I found this document to be quite useful. Before I put this information down in writing, I used to tell newcomers about how the lab works, but sometimes you forget stuff, and having things in writing seemed more complete, and it’s basically there to always go back to if needed. I also found it helpful for myself to reflect on the points as I wrote them.
Why did I write this user guide to myself in the first place? I think if you work with a person you start to understand how they tick after a while, at least most of the time. But it can take time to arrive at this insight, and the process can be difficult and lined with misunderstandings or the wrong expectations; and some people are likely much better than others at figuring all of this out. In addition, you may get some incorrect input from others. So, this ‘user’s guide to me’ just spells it out; it’s there for everyone right from the start.
I recently updated this part of the onboarding document with a few extra points. One of these additional points I added was about the importance of debate and about how to deal with perceived authority (I recently wrote a newsletter about it, since we had a Nature Career piece on this published). “I expect you to prove me wrong”, was something my own advisor once told me. I am now also passing this message on to everyone joining my lab. This is an invitation for people to critically question what I say, and it is an encouragement to debate. We recently read a paper that highlighted scholarly debate as an integral part of doing science. And just because someone with perceived authority says something doesn’t mean it’s right.
Does your lab (or other place where you work) have such a user’s guide to the PI? Did you find it to be useful? Let me know in the comments.