bers. The content of the criticism should
address both the science and the effectiveness
of the communication.How the feedback is given is of paramount
importance. Criticism must be directed at
procedural or scientific issues. The challenge
for lab members is to learn how to expose the
weak points in the science and experimental
detail without attacking the speaker person-
ally. Sarcasm and condescension have no
place in a lab meeting. Even a little of this will
cause people to become taciturn and poison
the cooperative atmosphere of a laboratory,
enormously reducing its effectiveness and
productivity. The principal investigator and
senior people in the lab group serve as role
models for group meeting behavior, setting
the standards not only for rigor and ethics
but also for manners.The details of lab meeting organization are
variable among labs, although several con-
cepts recur. Food is crucial. Blood sugar and
creativity must surely be associated.
Attendance at lab meetings by all lab mem-
bers is usually mandatory (possibly also cor-
related to food). The time period reserved for
lab meetings is generally one to two hours,but some presentations stimulate large group
discussions which cause time limits to be
ignored. Most lab meetings occur in confer-
ence rooms, but some groups meet in the lab.
The lab setting allows the speaker to quickly
retrieve additional data, demonstrate a
unique piece of equipment or experimental
arrangement, or view a computer image.
Most principal investigators plan some
combination of regular short progress reports
and less frequent formal presentations which
include literature review, research strategy,
and critical evaluation of results. The
progress reports keep the group informed ofeach member’s progress, and permit feed-
back critical to keeping the research strategy
on track. Formal presentations provide an
opportunity for maturing scientists to hone
their speaking skills. Often the formal pre-
sentations occur in group meetings shared
with another laboratory with similar inter-
ests. This permits speakers to practice within
a strict time limit in front of a larger group.
Some groups alternate these two types of
meetings from week to week: one week with
data presentation, in which each lab member
uses five to fifteen minutes to briefly discuss
their successes and failures, followed the next
week by a journal club presentation or com-
prehensive research presentation by one
speaker.
For progress report presentations, speak-
ers use prepared overheads or slides to pres-
ent actual data. If no experiments have been
done since the last presentation, the speaker
can present future plans, ideas, or hypothe-
ses. Some principal investigators require the
speakers to write a summary of the presenta-
tion and distribute it to lab members before44 CAREER ADVICE FOR LIFE SCIENTISTS
Food is crucial.
The challenge...is to learn how
to expose the weak points in the
science and experimental detail
without attacking the speaker
personally.Effective criticism is a fine and
delicate art; achieving it in lab
meetings is challenging.