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general-information.md 7.85 KiB

General Center Information

Core Business Hours

Our team core work hours are defined as 9.30am to 3.30pm Monday through Friday. These are the hours that team members should be present in the office or in meetings that are a part of their core work activities. We set these hours for the purposes of making it clear to team members when they should expect their colleagues to be in the office and available for discourse. That does not mean that a work week is 30 hours of course; everyone is expected to work outside those hours too.

The expectation (for salaried team members; hourly employees would have an agreement in place with Liz), is that you will work when you need to work to complete tasks and projects with care and on time. The answer as to how many hours a team member should put in a week is; as many hours as it takes to do the job; on average, team members work up to ~44 hours per week. If you find that you are consistently spending fifty-five or sixty hours a week on a project then you should discuss this with Liz; that can happen at times e.g. when working on a paper, a release, or a grant, but it isn’t healthy in the long term and should be reviewed.

Daily Stand Ups

Daily stand up meetings are for all hands. The daily standup is an opportunity for the team to share and plan for the next twenty four hours. The team should interact with each other to plan how to solve the remaining challenges.

In standup, each person covers:

  1. Recent Major accomplishments (past 48 hours).
  2. Plans until next standup.
  3. Any blockers are impeding progress on tasks.

Standup should be short. When blockers occur or tasks are stagnating progress, the team can work together to adjust and figure out a better path forward. Discussions that are relevant to just a few team members are side-barred to a separate meeting after standup with those interested in the topic. At the end of the daily standup everyone is given an opportunity for a “go backs” to clarify topics.

Weekly Group Meeting

Weekly group meeting is for all team members regardless of their area of focus. The format of the weekly group meeting is split into two parts:

  1. Each team member briefly reports, in turn, progress on our projects
  2. A review of all major tasks that have gone past due to re-evaluate task size and date due
  3. A 30 minute presentation by an individual or group of the following nature:
    • detailing specific work done by team member(s)
    • review/update of current works/research in the field
    • presentations from outside collaborators or stakeholders

All team members are expected to attend group meeting and be an engaged audience member; think about what is being discussed and ask questions when you don’t understand. Whenever possible, provide the presenter with thoughtful and constructive discussions that will help them move forward to improve the effectiveness of their presentations and work. Do not supply criticism without suggestions for improvement. All speakers, whether from within or outside our team, should be treated with kindness and sincere interest.

Group Meeting Presentations

Prepare your presentations for group meeting as if they were an external talk to scientists unfamiliar with your work; start with an introduction, work through the question(s) you are trying to answer, provide info on methods, then tell us your conclusions and next steps. Don’t just jump in to the answer without stating the problem that you are working on solving. You are telling a story!

Capture Processes

You MUST document your work, protocols, and procedures. Initially these can be stored within Wrike for other members of yhe team to view and potentially use. Comment your code! We should aim to reduce (throw away code), reuse (existing templates or patterns), and recycle wherever possible. Talk to others to make sure the problem you are working on hasn’t been solved elsewhere; let’s not all work on step one when we have ninety-nine more to go. This also helps share experience and expertise. Consolidating tribal knowledge can help mitigate single points of failure on the team.

External Collaboration

External collaboration is an integral part of success in science and medicine. If someone from another group or team comes to you looking for assistance, you are expected to try to lend a hand in a friendly and forthcoming manner. If you find that you cannot help, try to direct to them to someone that you think can help but follow-up; do not just hand them off to someone else because you are too busy or haven’t taken the time to really gain an understanding of what they need help with. As a team we will strive to be efficient and effective translators between the various collaborators and stakeholders we work alongside.

Journal Club

UAB provides a unique educational ecosystem. A biweekly journal club is in the works; we will seek to organize something joint with other like-minded groups on campus. Also, plan to attend seminars on campus that expand your general knowledge in science and medicine. Grand Rounds and departmental seminars are excellent examples of things you should plan on attending. This will help you to make connections between the work we already do and what others work on. Ask questions when you have them at these meetings, but don’t be the person that asks questions just for the sake of doing so. Often a solution can be ported to other areas of need; this is what will help us to help patients, their families, and the people that take care of them.

Freedom to take initiative

Search out and apply for all available fellowships and grants. Seriously; take the initiative to find new opportunities to showcase your ideas or products!

A Conference a year

You should plan to attend one conference per year to expand your scientific knowledge and present your work. If there are other conferences you wish to attend

  1. First get approval from Liz.
  2. Submit a meeting abstract.
  3. Have your abstract selected for poster or oral presentation.

If you are invited to a conference

  1. Congratulations; you are clearly working hard and making a difference!
  2. Check in with Liz for her approval to attend.

Continuing Education

See Continuing Education section to learn more about CGDS requirements.

Pitch your passions and interests

We like to innovate! Twice a year we will set up an event where team members can pitch science, education, and/or research passions of interest. This will have a Shark Tank type set up and you will be expected to participate. You should develop your concept and plan a presentation for sharing your idea with the team. The team as well as potentially external judges will vote for the best idea, and time and/or money to support your idea will be offered if at all possible.

Conflict Resolution

We work in close quarters, at times physically but also within a project many people may feel 'ownership'; sometimes problems or tensions can arise. To avoid serious escalation of problems:

  1. Be clear about your own and your perception of others’ expectations, intentions, and feelings. If appropriate, discuss any informal agreements, collaborations, authorship of manuscripts, etc. in advance of the work. A few basic agreements at the outset can prevent trouble at a later time. Don’t assume; ask!

  2. When problems do arise, all parties should be committed to resolving them in a professional manner. Don't hesitate to talk with Liz at an early point in a dispute however think through in advance of the meeting so you are clear and specific about the issues and your position. If the issue is affecting you, it is already affecting the team, it needs to be addressed ASAP. Liz will work to resolve issues with parties individually and jointly, as needed. If you feel that you are not treated fairly, or that a bias exists over a certain issue, then a third party can be appointed to help mediate the discussion.