AsianScientist (Jul. 13, 2018) – Some things are commonplace across all work environments, whether you spend your 9-to-5 at a desk or a lab bench. Conflict, unfortunately, is one of those things.
“The lab is filled with people, and people are very similar everywhere,” says Dr. Wan Yue, a senior research scientist at the Genome Institute of Singapore.
Disagreements in the lab can vary from the “very absurd to the unethical,” says physicist Associate Professor Nathaniel Hermosa II from University of the Philippines Diliman. Resources, ideas, division of labor, credit and authorship are just some of the many things lab members fight about.
“It’s the nature of being a scientist—we can be open but stubborn at the same time. We’re like kids in a playground,” Hermosa says.
While conflict may be unavoidable—sometimes it finds us, even when we’re not looking for it—there are ways to manage it well. By recognizing conflict and understanding its nature, we can then attempt to handle it before it gets out of hand. Here are some of our top tips for dealing with conflict in the lab.
Talk, but also listen
Communication is key to resolving conflicts. When tempers flare, we’re often too focused on what we want to say, rather than concentrating on what we hear. But hard as it may be, it’s important to take the time to listen to the other person’s point of view before giving your reply.
“Silence and listening are actually very important,” says Hermosa. Take a walk or leave the room to help you cool down first, he suggests. That will prevent you from “saying a lot of things that you might eventually regret.”
And when you’re ready to have a discussion, it’s important to remember not to make it personal.
“You have to be careful not to attack the person,” says Wan. “Try to keep it very specific to the experiment or task at hand.”
Get to the root of the problem
Many a dispute arises because of poor miscommunication, so Wan always advises her lab members to “ask more questions” before jumping to any conclusions.
“It’s very easy to assume intent and most of the time, you’re wrong,” she explains.
It also helps to understand where the other person is coming from. Sometimes, the source of stress may not even originate within the lab itself, but may be due to personal problems.
“No matter how much we try to separate work from home, it’s difficult not to let your negative emotions flow over,” says Wan. “If you’re facing problems at home and it’s affecting your work, you should say it… people will cut you some slack.”
“I think communication is key to a healthy work environment,” she says.
Be a supervisor who steps in
When difficult situations arise in the lab, supervisors can and should take an active role in helping to diffuse them. Conflict rarely resolves itself, and often escalates if not dealt with quickly and properly.
“Having a happy lab and a good working culture is very important,” says Wan. “Science is hard enough as it is. If you have a hostile environment on top of that, it’s just too hard.”
Bioprocessing engineer Associate Professor Show Pau Loke from the University of Nottingham, Malaysia, agrees.
“I try to make sure things are harmonious because if something happens, it may affect other lab members.” Supervisors should adopt the role of impartial mediator, and hear both sides of the argument before taking action, he says. “It’s important not to be biased to either side.”
Hire the right people
In her lab, Wan tries to prevent conflict from happening even before a person steps through the doors.
“I realize it’s more about the personality of people. Conflict seems to happen when you have two people with very strong personalities and strong emotions can get stirred up… people tend to take sides,” she says.
The solution? Be careful with your hiring, says Wan.
“Nowadays, I tend to hire fairly nice people. If people are more easy-going in general, you can feel unhappy but then it just blows over. But with really difficult personalities, it tends to blow up instead.”
Train up your soft skills
An overlooked portion of a scientist’s training is often the development of soft skills or people skills.
“Our environment is very focused on academic IQ, but there is a huge gap between doing well in school and knowledge assimilation versus actually being able to communicate and work well with people,” says Wan. “Of course technical skills are important, but at the end of the day, your ability to interact, to communicate and to have a productive working relationship with people is even more important.”
Institutions can definitely play a bigger role in this, says Show, whether that takes the form of social psychology classes, conflict management courses, or laboratory leadership training.
“I think it’s important for universities to provide this kind of counseling,” he says.
But, as we all know, theory is one thing and practice is another.
“You can’t always learn from books,” says Hermosa. “My stance is that you learn how to deal with people by being around people.”
Ultimately, he says, you need to remember that these are your lab mates.
“You’re going to need their help or they will need yours. Your topics will always be intertwined and even if they leave the lab, eventually you will meet them in some conference or the other. So you need to learn how to work together.”
This article is from a monthly column called Beyond The Bench. Click here to see the other articles in this series.
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Copyright: Asian Scientist Magazine; Photo: Shutterstock.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
