How Do You Run a Successful Research Lab?
Posted February 10, 2015
By Todd Kashdan
@toddkashdan
This year is the 10th anniversary of my Laboratory for the Study of Social Anxiety, Character Strengths, and Related Phenomena. I chose to be a scientist because of a hunger to understand the complexity of human behavior – what people do and why. I chose psychology, specifically, because of the hope that these questions and the answers gained can help reduce the amount of suffering in the world. It is wonderful to be able to ask questions that I can then test in my laboratory that might improve people’s lives. Over this past decade I’ve had some successes and failures that I thought I would share by way of offering advice on how to run a successful research lab:
My research accomplishments are a direct result of being surrounded by amazing collaborators and students. There are two moments in the scientific process that capture the essence of these unique relationships.
• Before I start any project, I meet with my research team of fellow professors, graduate students, and undergraduate students. We have provocative conversations about what we learned from prior studies in our lab, other people’s work, and observing what is happening in our daily lives. From this, we find unanswered questions, anomalies, and the unusual ideas that arise from improvisational conversations where each person builds on what was said last. These conversations spawn new research directions and concrete plans for the next study to embark on.
• When a study is complete (every research participant has been tested, every question has been entered into a database, and every bit of data has been cleaned), the denizens of my laboratory take a deep breath before pressing the enter key – to test our initial question. The results churn out, graphs are created, and we digest what has unfolded. Together, my collaborators and I interpret what we learned. In this moment we possess knowledge that nobody else knows. In this instant of discovery it is invaluable to be surrounded by other curious, passionate, hard-working characters. We consider the results from as many vantage points as possible. There is excitement. There is profanity. There is deep thinking. There is love.
So how did we create an environment where these moments are frequent and bountiful? Let me offer the following five lessons about running a successful laboratory:
1. Create a clear culture. Every member of my lab receives a 30-page handbook about what they will gain, what is expected of them, and what they can do to maximize their experience. There is a section on how the lab is first and foremost a community where each member is viewed as an integrated person with a life outside of scientific pursuits and career aspirations. Each person has a unique perspective based on their life history, personality, baseline talents and responsivity to training. These individual differences are honored but more than that, they are to be harnessed to get the best possible outcomes in all that we do. Science occurs in a social system and I constantly remind everyone to attend to relationships. Those students that are the most successful are those that form strong relationships with myself and other lab members. The only way to form these relationships is to be generous, be vulnerable, and be intentional in trying to form them. These relationships require effort and constant renewal. I am of the strong belief that your mentor should be somebody that you would want to spend time with at an Irish pub.
2. Hire well. One of the lab rules is that we will never accept jerks, even if their experience, knowledge, and strengths would be of great benefit to the projects being pursued. The interpersonal culture is too precious to afford the introduction of toxicity. No matter how much I might like an applicant, if the existing students don’t want them, they do not receive an invitation.
3. Empower people. One of the first things newbies are told is that a lack of knowledge about psychology offers an advantage in that they can recognize gaps that those of us who have read too much miss. From day one, students are encouraged to take risks, say what they think, and be willing to make mistakes. Unheard ideas/criticisms are too valuable to lose. I encourage people to be skeptical – challenging what I say, what they read, and what is the status quo in the field. Confidence and humility are both nurtured.
4. Hold people accountable. The other side of empowerment is responsibility. When somebody tries to cover up a mistake, problems multiply. In a research environment, mistakes are learning opportunities. This is not lip service, this is the reality of how scientific knowledge progresses. There is no value to pretending to know more than you actually know or to hide errors/mistakes that arise. It is essential that everyone is open about the mistakes they make to ensure a culture of candor.
5. Err on the side of generosity. Because the lab is a community, there is a responsibility to support every person and project, even if the rewards that arise are often unclear. To do this, people are expected to be visible and accessible. This means speaking up in lab, responding to emails in a timely manner, and helping in the development of ideas, projects, and analyses. This means helping in running projects, collecting data, writing, photocopying, recruiting participants, running to the library, making snack food runs, whatever gets the work done. When it does come time to offer opportunities for authorship or to lead projects, sweat equity is given heavy consideration.
It is necessary to provide a caveat that I am not the ideal mentor to everyone. I have high expectations. I expect people to produce their best possible work, regardless of whether somebody is watching them. I expect a blue collar ethic - where there is a willingness to do whatever it takes for however long it takes for a project to move forward. I expect people to have a stronger mastery orientation, where the goal is to continually learn and improve, than achievement orientation, where the goal is to collect as many gold stars and badges as possible. I expect people to be fully engaged in the lab’s endeavors. I expect people to attend to both things that matter in this career: the work itself and the relationships. I expect people to respond to feedback in a healthy manner, and offer it in a constructive manner.
I do my best to be a role model, holding myself to the same standards of excellence. And for those students who can be counted on, I open every door possible for them.
It is my hope that others create similar nurturing, cohesive, challenging environments for their students. As for students, I hope they take advantage of these opportunities as what you learn in the classroom pales in comparison to what you gain from hands-on mentoring.
[Dr. Todd B. Kashdan is a public speaker, psychologist, and professor of psychology and senior scientist at the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason University. His new book, The upside of your dark side: Why being your whole self - not just your “good” self - drives success and fulfillment is available from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Booksamillion , Powell's or Indie Bound. If you crunch the numbers on his history of mentoring students, in the past 3 years alone, students have been co-authors on 32 journal articles (15 with students as first author), 5 book chapters (3 with students as first author), 10 conference talks (5 with students as first author), and 31 poster presentations (30 with students as first author). He will be conducting research and communicating this work to the public until his vital organs collapse.]
