Meetings & Communication

We use several different types of meetings in the Piacentino Lab, each with a different purpose. The goal is to make good use of our time together while creating opportunities for scientific discussion, project planning, professional development, and lab community.

The basic distinction between our two most frequent meetings is:

Lab meeting is where we work on the science. MWM is where we manage the work.

General Meeting Expectations

You are expected to attend all regular lab meetings and MWMs, or let Mike know in advance if you will be unable to attend. During meetings, everyone is expected to pay attention while others are speaking, actively participate by asking questions and offering constructive feedback, and be receptive to feedback when it is offered.

You may use your computer for meeting-related activities such as taking notes, viewing data, or presenting. Doing unrelated computer work during meetings is not acceptable.

If unavailable to attend meeting in person, please log in through Zoom.

Weekly Lab Meetings

We hold a weekly lab meeting in the Piacentino Lab. Each meeting consists of two parts.

Lab Business

(~10 min) We briefly discuss matters related to lab operations, including news, stocks and ordering, safety and cleanliness, scheduling, and events. Bring up problems that affect the group, including major experimental hurdles that might reflect a systemic issue (e.g., possible media, enzyme, antibody, or equipment problems); issues that are primarily individual should generally be discussed with Mike separately.

Research Discussion

(~60-80 min) The lab is divided into two groups that alternate presenting each week, so each person presents every other week. Each person will have approximately 20 minutes (~10 minutes presentation and ~10 minutes group discussion) to focus on one or two active research goals.

We are shifting this portion of lab meeting from a seminar-style format toward a round-table, work-in-progress format. The goal is to spend more of our group time thinking together about the science: experimental rationale and design, raw data, analysis, interpretation, and how we ultimately turn the work into a clear figure and conclusion.

At the end of the semester, we’ll do a round of more formal 25-minute seminar-style presentations as an opportunity to practice telling the complete story of your project and synthesize together the insights you gained over the semester.

What should we bring?

You do not need to give a status update on everything you are working on. Instead, choose one or two works in progress where discussion with the group would be useful. Depending on where the project is in its development, this could include:

  • Question & rationale: What are you trying to understand, why is it important/makes sense to ask this question now, and why does the experiment address that question?
  • Experimental design: What are you planning to do and how? What are the critical controls, comparisons, and readouts? What would different outcomes mean?
  • Pilot/raw data: What did you actually observe? Always bring the raw data ready to flip through – not just a summary or representative image.
  • Analysis: How are you quantifying or interpreting the data? Are there alternative ways we should analyze it?
  • Interpretation: What do the results tell us, and what do they not tell us?
  • Figure development: How would you present the result in a paper or presentation? What should the figure show, and what conclusion should the reader take away?
  • Next experiment: Given what we now know, what is the most informative next step?

A single experiment may therefore appear in lab meeting two to three times over its lifetime: when we are designing it, when we have pilot or preliminary data, and when we are analyzing the completed experiment and developing the final figure.

What should we take away?

A successful lab meeting discussion is not one where you demonstrate that you have been busy or have everything figured out. It is one where the group leaves with a better understanding of the experiment and its implications than when we started. Come prepared to show your work:

  1. Explain the scientific question and rationale clearly.
  2. Show the actual data or experimental plan, rather than simply describing what happened.
  3. Identify the parts you are uncertain about.
  4. Ask specific questions where you want input from the group.
  5. Be prepared to revise your interpretation, analysis, or experimental plan based on the discussion.

You do not need to have a polished story or finalized figures; bringing work to the group early enough for us to influence the experiment is an important part of this format.

Individual MWMs

Mike holds 30-minute 1:1 meetings (or “Mornings with Mike”) every other week with each member of the lab. MWMs are our time to step back from the experimental details and think strategically about your work. We will use this time to:

  • Keep track of the overall progress of your projects
  • Discuss priorities and competing demands
  • Decide what deserves your attention next
  • Discuss timelines and longer-term goals
  • Address professional development and other career-related topics
  • Identify obstacles that require Mike’s input or intervention
  • Make sure your work remains aligned with the broader goals of the project and lab

MWMs are not intended to be a second lab meeting. Detailed discussion of experimental rationale, raw data, analysis, figure development, and technical decisions should generally happen in group lab meeting, where the whole lab can contribute. If a technical issue affects a priority or decision, we can discuss it in an MWM, but we should avoid spending significant MWM time troubleshooting an experiment that would benefit from group discussion.

MWM Agenda

The MWM agenda is primarily a project-tracking and planning tool. It should give both of us a quick picture of where things stand and provide a record of what we agreed should happen next. Please prepare an agenda in advance and send it to Mike at least 12 hours before your meeting. After the meeting, send an updated version incorporating any changes or decisions we made. The agenda should contain three sections:

Business to discuss

  • Anything you want to discuss with me, such as conferences/workshops, upcoming talks or committee meetings, professional development, or other issues where you need a decision, feedback, or input.
  • Include anything that may affect your priorities, timeline, or ability to make progress.

In the past two weeks I did…

  • Briefly describe the major things you worked on and the important outcomes or developments.
  • Focus on information needed to understand the current state of your projects.
  • You do not need to provide a detailed account of experiments, data, or analyses that have already been or will be discussed in lab meeting.

In the next two weeks I plan to…

  • Describe what you plan to accomplish, including the major steps and why they are the priority.
  • Identify the one or two highest-priority goals for the next two weeks.
  • Flag anything that may prevent you from accomplishing those goals or where you need input from Mike.
  • We will use this section to adjust priorities and make sure your planned work is realistic and appropriately focused.

Please Come Prepared With

  1. Your MWM agenda, sent at least 12 hours in advance.
  2. Your notebook and raw data up-to-date and organized, so that the work discussed in your MWM can be readily traced back to the underlying experiments.
  3. A clear understanding of your current priorities and what you plan to accomplish next and why.

You are responsible for maintaining your notebook and data organization; routine inspection by Mike is not part of the MWM process. Raw data should be organized and available on the server, but routine review of raw data, detailed analysis, and technical troubleshooting belong primarily in lab meeting. We will periodically audit documentation to make sure our system is working.

What Does a Successful MWM Look Like?

At the end of the meeting, we should have a shared understanding of:

  • Where your projects stand
  • What matters most right now
  • What you will focus on next
  • Why those things are the priority
  • What decisions, feedback, or support you need from me

The goal is not simply to report what you have been doing. It is to make sure you are spending your time on the right things and have a clear, realistic path forward.

In Short

Lab meeting: Let’s work through the science together.

MWM: Let’s make sure you’re working on the right things.

Other Meetings

Journal Club & Reading Roundtables

We hold a weekly journal club with the Miao Lab, where we discuss papers in developmental biology. See the “LabMeeting_JournalClub” folder on Google Drive for the schedule and presentation guidelines; everyone should volunteer to present approximately 2-3 papers per year.

On some weeks without a formal journal club, we will instead hold a Reading Roundtable, where everyone briefly shares something they have been reading or thinking about and explains why it is interesting or relevant to their research.

Professional Development

On some weeks without a formal journal club, we will use the meeting for professional development, including topics such as CV development, writing abstracts or papers, preparing talks and posters, and broader career skills. Please let Mike know if there are topics you would like to discuss.

Career Development

In addition to our regular MWMs, Mike will meet annually with each lab member to discuss career goals, Individual Development Plans (IDPs), and progress toward those goals. This provides dedicated time to think beyond immediate project priorities and consider longer-term professional development.

Cell Migration Meeting

The Devreotes, Robinson, and Iglesias labs host a joint Cell Migration meeting on Thursdays from 10:30 AM-12:00 PM in our conference room. If your project is aligned with cell migration questions, this is a valuable opportunity to get feedback from researchers outside our lab and to practice presenting your work to a broader scientific audience.

Office Hours

In addition to scheduled meetings or me wandering through the lab, if my door is open, feel free to step in and ask to talk. I’ll say yes as much as possible, though I may let you know I only have a few minutes or ask you to return later.

If the door is closed, I am either gone, in a meeting, or need to work undisturbed, so please email/Slack instead of knocking.

If you need more time with me (we run out of time during our MWM, you want to discuss something in a larger dedicated time block, etc), reach out on Slack or email and we’ll find a time.

Communication

Communication is key to maintaining a supportive and productive environment, so we all need to practice clear communication skills. It is critical to identify what you are trying to get across, voice it clearly and appropriately, and then be receptive to feedback. We also should practice active listening to fully appreciate what our colleagues are saying, then respond respectfully and helpfully after the speaker is finished.

While a lot of communication will happen in person, there are a million and one ways to communicate digitally, and each have their strengths and weaknesses. Below are a few rules/guidelines for how we communicate as a lab and which formats are used for which reasons.

Slack

We have a lab Slack workspace where most of our day-to-day communication takes place. Please ask your mentor to invite you to join this workspace and have this resource available for communication on your computer (and mobile or tablet, if you choose). We use Slack for most quick communication between lab members like:

  • “Does anyone know where to find extra slide boxes?”
  • “We’re running low on P1000 filter tips and need to order more”
  • “Look at how beautiful this embryo is!”
  • “We need more gloves, I added them to the order form to be triggered!”

Slack is great for direct messaging between two or more people, and we have several lab-wide channels covering general information, cool papers, lab events, etc. We will make channels as needed to facilitate communication between folks working on a common project. We should all be attentive to Slack messages throughout the workday and try to respond in a prompt manner. At the same time, we must respect one another’s desire to “turn off” at the end of the day and disable notifications or close Slack.

Emails

Emails are our main mode of digital communication with the greater community – the department, the institute, the world. We will use emails occasionally, most frequently when communicating with folks outside our Slack group.

Text messaging

Texts are a great and fast way to communicate, but they may not be so great for everyone. Some may like to keep texting for personal communications with friends and family, while others may like to use texting for everything. Before texting other lab members, ask them their preferences for text messaging and respect their requests. For example, Mike would prefer you to reach him by Slack (high priority) or email (low priority), and only text or call his cell phone for special cases or emergencies.

How to reach Mike

I get a lot of emails, and I’m sure you do too – I’ve turned off my email notifications for this reason. This means, if you email with an urgent request, I might not see it promptly. Instead, please send me a Slack message (either @Mike or DM) and I’ll respond more quickly. It is helpful for me to compartmentalize my “lab attention” in Slack, while my email inbox reflects more outward communications. I have my Slack notifications on my phone to automatically go silent at nights – this means I’ll get notifications for urgent requests during the day but might not see or respond to a late-night request until the next day.

You can expect me to respond to your Slack or email within one business day. If I need more time to reply in detail, I’ll respond to say that I got your message and will provide a timeline on when I’ll be able to respond more completely. I expect the same courtesy from you – please try to respond to Slack messages and emails within one business day as well, and if you need more time, acknowledge the request and give an estimated timeline. Please respect people’s desires to work on their own schedules – if someone messages after hours, feel free to leave it until your next business day unless you’re working toward a deadline.

If you have a true emergency, in-lab emergency contact information is posted throughout the lab – see the Biosafety chapter for what to do in a safety emergency.