The situation:

Different groups of employees work together in the laboratory: postdoctoral researchers, doctoral candidates, and technicians, as well as master and undergraduate students. While the technicians handle long-term routine tasks, the other employees mainly pursue their own research projects. The workload of routine tasks is high, and communication between the different groups can be challenging. By restructuring the areas of responsibility and engaging in resource-oriented and solution-oriented team development, we aim to find a way to reduce pressure and to achieve even more appreciative and effective collaboration.

My contribution:

I designed and facilitated a small process consisting of:

• interviews with the team members.
• a bilingual solution-orientated team workshop that allowed the team to exchange their different perspectives on how the individuals and the team is doing, and identifying and negotiating next steps.
• a follow-up workshop after a couple of months to evaluate the observed changes and enhance the chances of long-term impact.