Kathy Barkerkbarker715@gmail.com

March 3, 2011

Making your postdoc matter: Lessons from

P.I.s

Thanks to P.I.s and lab members.

As a scientist, you must be proficient in:

• Managing your science: Project choice, funding, colleagues.

• Managing yourself: Organization, time, career, personal life.

• Managing individuals: communication, teaching, mentoring.

• Managing a group: Building a team, maintaining lab morale.

You qualified for your job with one set of skills…

But you will keep it with another set of skills……

…Skills you can cultivate now.

The ability to work productively with difficult people.The ability to work in a high stress environment.Persistence.Circumventing the rules.The ability and courage to start something without knowing how.

Fiske, P. 1997. The skills employers really want. Science’s Next Wave, April 25, pp. 1-4.

What are the most valuable skills you learned in graduate school?

Getting tenure/promotion

at your institution increases your chances of flourishing in science.

Significant and continuous funding: at least 1 NIH grant and renewal.

Publication of a significant body of research in high-quality journals.

A national/international reputation: scientific presentations, invitations to meetings or seminars, letters from leaders.

Teaching excellence: student and peer assessments. Service: committee work, study section, editorial board.

A self-statement: Accomplishments, and plans.

What is in the tenure dossier?

Use tenure and promotion requirements to build a framework of good habits.

Year 1: Publish… Year 2: Year 3: Year 4: Year 5: Year 6:

Year 1…..• Hire a technician.

• Set up and organize the laboratory and office.

• Do preliminary experiments for an NIH grant and submit a grant by the end of the year.

• Define all promotion or tenure requirements.

• Find at least one mentor.

• Give a departmental seminar.

• Submit a manuscript for publication.

Year 2…•Resubmit grant, if necessary.

•Take on a student or another technician.

•Start teaching and clinical responsibilities.

•Committee work- match to your interests.

•Submit another manuscript.

•Give seminars outside the institution.

Years 3-6…

•Seek feedback on tenure likelihood.

•Speak at national/international meeting.

•Submit a major paper every year.

•Write a review article in your field.

•Hire/find students and postdoc.

•2nd project and grant.

Departmental duties with grace.

Attendance and participation in seminars.

Read grants, papers.

Be a good colleague- and don’t let yourself get isolated.

Top scientists in your field, etc…

Administrators, etc.. NIH Program officer,

journal editors, etc…

Support personnel, journalists, etc…

It’s all about relationships with:

Be competent with your emotions. •Learn to really take

criticism.•Establish trust with

predictability.•Assume best

intentions.•Understand your

baggage.

Establish a lab culture that supports transparent

communications, good relationships, clear expectations, etc.

The lab manual

Stocks

Ordering

Lab notebooks

Lab jobs.

Meetings.

Authorships.

Organize the lab to reflect the philosophical.

Make ethics part of your package.

Fit specific ethics into your framework.

Be up front about ethics- stress its importance.

Teach ethics by example.

Correct those who are behaving unethically.

What makes a good paper?

Who writes the paper?

Who handles revisions, letters, resubmissions?

How is authorship decided?

Be clear about authorships.

Keeping an organized and clear lab notebook is not optional.

The notebook belongs to the lab.

It is the P.I.’s responsibility to ensure that notebooks are properly kept and stored.

Documentation- the lab notebook.

Computerize reagents, etc.

Require as few entries as possible from any one person.

Have one person responsible for the overall maintenance of logs and orders.

Maintain maintenance!

Organize stocks, ordering, and record keeping.

Have explicit rules about: Radiation – data sheets, instructions,

background information, disposal.

Chemical storage, use, and disposal.

Pathogens, human material, and other biohazards.

Waste disposal.

Emergencies.

Don’t be cavalier about safety and compliance.

Know your grants and your institution’s rules.

Keep tabs on what is spent.

Teach fiscal awareness in the lab: Involve lab members in grant writing, in monitoring monthly spending, in strategizing funding.

Think and talk about funding.

Funding can come

from odd source

s!

Talk about research.• Formal lab meetings.

• Informal lab meetings.

• Multi-lab or topic meetings.

• One-on on meetings.

Have an agenda- and stick to it.

Set a time limit- and stick to it.

Only invite the necessary.

Encourage participation.

Don’t let conflict get out of hand.

Keep a record and follow up.

Teach lab members how to give good presentations.

Make meetings

effective!

To discuss the current and relevant literature.

To teach critical thinking.

To teach the art of giving a presentation.

To establish and maintain the lab culture within science.

So don’t leave journal clubs up to chance.

Journal clubs are an important tool.

Find the right people

Train them well

Treat them well

Success will depend more on the people in your lab than on anything or anyone else.

Bad people are much worse than no

people!

Solicit applicants: work with HR..

Read resumes: approve or reject.

Call references: probe.

Interview candidates: listen!

Evaluate candidates.

Offer job to first choice.

Act during the probation period.

A hiring protocol: assessing people skills, technical skills, and motivation.

Call all recommenders..

Hire for character, not for technical expertise.

Don’t hire people who are self-centered, arrogant, can’t get along with others….

Use the probation period.

Make good use of the interview.

Follow your gut reaction.

Hiring lessons from P.I.s

Most of your investment is in salaries: maximize this.

Put your stamp on the way research is done in your lab.

Things to teach: Everything.

Train new people at the

bench.

Put new people to work with more experienced ones.

Facilitate collaborations outside the lab.

Maintain collaborations with lab members who have left the lab.

Encourage and reward a culture of collaboration.

Bench techniques, good science...

Writing a grant, budgets.. Writing, reviewing

manuscripts. Communication and

networking.

Anything that helps people become mature scientists is probably useful.

Mentoring will be assumed.

As a P.I.….will you give everyone the same attention?

Will you spend more time with the talented, the average, or the struggling?

Compact between Postdoctoral Appointees and Their Mentors

www.aamc.org/postdoccompact

Document and evaluate lab members’ performances

towards goals.

Formal self-evaluation: How do you think you are doing? (Otteman 2002, Science’s SAGE

KE:38, 5.)• Experimental.

• Productivity.

• Notebook, record keeping, and organization.

• Gain of scientific knowledge and critical thinking.

• Lab meeting participation.

• Lab citizenship.

• Communication within the lab, outside the lab, and with the P.I.

Consider pathways and

life choices other than your

own.

Remember that your mentee is NOT a clone of

you.

The kindness and wisdom of being caring and critical.

• It’s often the best thing you can do for a person.

• It is also one of the toughest tasks- it can be extremely intimate.

•Follow through- don’t dump and run. Be constructively critical.

•Follow up in the long term.

Incompetence Insubordination Troublemaking Fraud Safety

Firing is sometimes necessary….

Know before what makes firing necessary.

Speak with Human Resources (and perhaps the institution’s lawyer) for the specifics of the situation.

Document.

It is a process, not an act.. Warn the person, etc.

….but must be well thought out.

Health services. Ombudsman. Chairperson Dean. Personnel office.

Find a way to get help for those who need it.

Traditions: a chance to refresh the culture together…..

Celebrate scientific victories:

Paper accepted, grant awarded, thesis defense, good experiments.

Celebrate birthdays, holidays. Retreats, happy hours, tutoring, fundraising….

Project problems.

Authorship problems.

Personnel problems.

Personal problems.

Interaction with P.I. Should you intervene?

Common lab disputes…or negotiations.

You have to deal with problems.Very few

situations will fix

themselves.

Unaware of interpersonal conflict in team.

Unaware of personal agendas on part of team members.

Didn’t understand motivations, needs, or expectations of team members.

Didn’t listen carefully in team discussions.

Misread lack of argument as agreement.

Interpreted conflict as unhealthy.(Gemmill and Wilemon, 1997) in Cohen and Cohen, Lab Dynamics:

Management Skills for Scientists, 2005

How scientific and technical project leadersmisread events in project teams.

Some ways to deal with conflict:•Avoid it.

•Be accommodating.

•Take a position.

•Consider interests, not issues.

People get angry and confused when they don’t have their expectations

met.And yet, most do not make their expectations clear.

Many do not even know they have expectations.

.

Videos at http://grad.msu.edu/conflictresolution/vignette.aspx

Listen and learn.• Learn to listen.

• Try to understand.

• You don’t have to fill up all silences.

• Don’t interrupt.

• Avoid preparing what you are going to say while someone is still talking.

•“Always” “Never”

•“You ….. “

•Bring in older issues.

•Bring up character flaws.

Make the lab feel part of the bigger world of science.

Help each person feel part of the lab: don’t let anyone be marginalized.

Be vigilant about inside and outside influences.

Maintain lab morale.

Small lab, Big lab.

More competent personnel.

Failure and Success.

And the job will keep changing...

So, what can you do now?

What are you motivated by in science?

Will you be more effective at the bench or the desk?

Do you want to manage details, or deal only with the big picture?

Motivator or facilitator?

Do you work better with peers, bosses,

or subordinates?

Consider your own style and strengths.

Mission statement. 5 year plan.

Project and lab.

Career.

The other 5 year plan:

Personal goals.

Think 5 years (rolling) ahead.

Don’t run on default.

If you don’t plan, you won’t get there.

Day to day management is needed to achievelong term goals.

Time Management MatrixUrgent

I Crises, personal or

professionalPressing personal or

equipment problems

Deadline-driven projects

IIIInterruptions, some callsSome mail, some reports

Some meetingsMany administrative tasks

Impo

rtant

No

tIm

porta

nt

Not UrgentII

Reading journalsRelationship building

Lab meetingsThinking and planning

Recreation and relaxation

IV Trivia, busy work

Some mailSome phone calls

Time wasters

Adapted, with permission, from Covey, S.R. 1989. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Being busy is not the same as

being productiv

e.

It’s gotta be perfect.

The detail-hater.

Why should I?

Motivated by crisis.Do whatever it takes to keep

moving!

Procrastination.

Denial.

Scientific mentors.

Institutional mentors.

Personal mentors.

Be absolutely proactive in getting the help you need.

Find a mentor- find 2 or 3.

Learn to read and write grants. Make and keep contacts with

people. Be able to describe your

research to your grandmother.

Observe successful labs and P.I.s.

Gather skills and advice.

Study authorship. • While doing research, think of

papers.

• Help lab mates write- edit for others.

• Ask the P.I. to help review manuscripts.

•Read papers in the field critically.

• Write. Popular technique for writing- purge and edit.

Data = the currency of research.•Know your data.

•Show your data to as many people as possible.

• Know the data of other people in the lab and department.

• Collect and record data with clarity and integrity.

• Appreciate clean data.

• Be critical and accept criticism of your work.

Plan your future project.

List the resources and equipment you will need.

Consider the personnel necessary to do the project.

Ask for advice on budgets, etc.

Know what research you want to doand what it will take to do it.

Or you will squander your resources and energy.

Start in the right place!

Will administration support you with more than words?

Will you have good colleagues?

Will you be able to find people for the lab?

Will you have the research tools you need to do science?

Before you accept, find out…..

•Do a lot of listening- don’t push, suggest, criticize, take sides.

•Start writing- yes, already.•Sign up to journal club,

departmental seminars. Participate.

•Meet people.

In your early days.....

Your ideas of fulfillment might change.

“….I mean, you can take a piece of information, and you can do lots of things with it. You can try to publish it; you can try to develop a practical aspect of it, like a therapy, or a machine; or you can look at the implications in the public health arena, or the public policy arena. I guess I’ve always considered those a kind of continuum of ways that information becomes valuable, and ways that I take information and then try and go further with it.”

David Baltimore

Cyberactivism.

AAAS Science and Human Rights Program

Remind yourself to think BIG.

Conversing beyond the bench

• Tell a story. It isn’t about the data.

• Frame the discussion.

• Keep it brief.

• Don’t worry about nuance.

• Avoid jargon: speak the host’s language.

• Science is also somewhat faith-based…..

http://eloquentwoman.blogspot.com/2010/07/whats-difference-when-scientists.html

Get to your point!

It won’t always be easy.

But you can find a wayto communicate.

Prepare to be revolutionary.

• Be thoughtful.

• Be proactive.

• Stay connected.

• Be flexible.

The end.