Labs contain very experienced scientists and have multiple needs that usually exceed their budgets. Lab managers can get the information they need to make effective purchase decisions by getting constructive feedback from staff about their needs and priorities. The people who work most closely with the existing equipment will know about the limitations and challenges. They will also have insight into the needs for new specifications and how often the benefits of new capabilities would be used to deliver on stakeholder needs. Here are three tips to get better input from staff informing lab purchasing decisions:
#1 – Needs versus wants
Most labs have more needs than they have budget to buy new equipment. Help staff better differentiate between needs, capabilities that solve problems, and wants, which are capabilities that solve inconveniences. The more the entire lab can be aligned with the highest-priority needs, the better everyone is aligned regarding how funds for new equipment will be spent. It also helps to build a three-year capital plan that shows people the lab’s priorities and the plan to address capability needs in the near future.
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#2 – Listen to everyone
Everyone working in the lab is generating experience and expertise around the activities they complete. All this learning and knowledge is helpful and useful to lab managers making purchasing decisions. Making use of all that information helps lab managers make better and faster decisions. It’s not just the most senior or most educated staff in the lab who have useful information. Ignoring more junior team members leaves the lab vulnerable to the biases of a small group and increases the likelihood of groupthink during complex capability decisions.
#3 – Input options
Listening to everyone in the lab can be difficult. Some people may not feel safe sharing their ideas or observations, or to openly disagree with senior lab leaders. Lab managers can provide multiple options for staff to share their thoughts about equipment purchases to ensure everyone has a voice. Some examples to consider include:
- Small team meetings
- Individual one-on-one meetings
- Walking through the lab to talk to people individually at the bench
- Suggestion box
- Anonymous surveys
- Staff-only meetings (without senior lab leaders)
Each of these tools may enable staff members to feel sufficiently safe to share their ideas. A lack of open sharing in a lab may indicate a lack of emotional and psychological safety. Improving safety in the lab will lead to more people sharing more ideas.
Openly seeking broad input on the priorities for significant lab purchases helps create a more emotionally and psychologically safe team environment, surface important ideas and observations, and align the team around the biggest capability priorities for the lab to invest in. Getting broad input will help lab managers make better decisions faster.
