The difference between painting and poetry
One in a series of articles I wrote for an internal Kimberly Clark newsletter on management and science
An anecdotal story regarding the famous painter, Pablo Picasso, and his attempt to branch out in his artistic expression neatly sets the stage for talking about scientists who are managers. Gertrude Stein had just finished reading Picasso’s latest forays into poetry. She leapt to her feet, ran to his bedroom, and seizing him good and hard by the shoulders, shouted at him, “Pablo, Pablo, wake up and paint!” The moral is, of course, that being good at one thing does not make you good at another thing, even if it is somewhat related.
An important distinction exists between scientific laboratories and traditional businesses. Management principles for traditional business suit organizations with repetitive tasks and mass production. Research and development in laboratories, however, focuses on innovation and novel techniques. Businesses may change by modifying a production line but scientific change consists of development of new discoveries or incorporation of novel technologies. Many science laboratories fall somewhere in between these easy categorizations: While scientific, they are very production oriented. A more important distinction between traditional business and scientific laboratories is how they both measure success. Whereas business productivity is traditionally measured by the creation of wealth, it is not possible to directly measure the success of an individual laboratory through profits. Excellent science may not be all that profitable. Scientific laboratories produce knowledge, not products.
The goals, processes, and outcomes of science laboratories are under increasing scrutiny and not just for their contribution to a company’s bottom line. Expectations of the benefits science can provide escalate as do fears and concerns about accuracy, privacy, and timeliness. Disruptive change in the external environment of science—privatization, information technologies, the emphasis on commercialization and intellectual property protection, and ever increasing workloads – is requiring managers of science to rethink or adapt their goals, strategies, organizational designs, partnerships, work processes, and technologies. Science supports the public good and is an essential national capability. At the same time, managers of science (and scientists) are expected to employ effective management practices so they can but the laboratories human and capital resources to best use. This is a significant challenge.
Most managers in science organizations were at one point scientists and therefore continue to see themselves as scientists first and managers second. Geles and co-authors noted that “scientists tend not to respect management as a scholarly field on a par with the hard sciences—or with sociology or economics for that matter.” The management of people is neither taught nor regularly addressed in the education of scientists. After a post-doc, most science-managers learn their management skills “on the fly” in a “sink or swim” environment. While they may be well-qualified in their specific scientific disciplines, scientists rarely are prepared to work in teams or to provide leadership. Scientists are narrowly educated professionals, spending years in specialist training and intense learning about a particular discipline. In graduate education, advancement and rewards are based on the individual student’s accomplishments. Their indoctrination into “laboratory culture” reinforces autonomy and individualism. Collaboration is not a typically part of either graduate science education or post-doctoral training.
Nevertheless, effective management of scientific laboratories depends as much on the leadership and management skills of responsible scientists as it does on the solution of scientific research problems. Scientists readily confess that they are not prepared for what they find to be the most difficult aspect of their new managerial duties: Leading a group of scientists. The same issues are raised in study after study:
Becoming a leader
Dealing with conflict
Motivating people
Communicating effectively, including feedback
Other difficulties involving the management of knowledge workers who were once peers
The management responsibilities can be overwhelming and can dilute any positive feelings derived from scientific work. Instead of their usual array of research activities, scientist-managers find themselves beset with conflicts over offices and lab space, difficult employees, procurement issues, parking spaces, and equipment inventories. Denial, avoidance, and a lack of delegation may spiral the laboratory into decline and chaos.
What to do? Many scientists thrust into management enroll in MBA programs with the hope that this will provide them with the skills they now need. Many MBA programs, however, do not focus on management and certain topics do not translate well from business to science (marketing comes to mind) or from science to business (rejecting the null hypothesis being significant, for example). Very few MBA programs cater to the culture or needs of scientists and newly anointed scientist-managers must translate for themselves. Given the increasing role science plays in public life—and therefore business life—it seems that business schools would do well to investigate this important niche of management education.
It is not entirely the fault of the business schools, however, that they have overlooked scientists-as-managers. Robin Williams once quipped, in an imitation of Truman Capote criticizing another writer’s work, “That’s not writing—that’s just typing.” Most people are never required to become writers but scientists who become managers need to acknowledge management as a significant and necessary set of skills. Otherwise, they may not know the difference between managing and mangling.
Bibliography
Gelès, C., Lindecker, G., Month, M. and Roche, C. (2000) Managing Science: Management for R&D Laboratories, Wiley, New York.
Kreeger, K.Y. (1997) Researchers setting up labs must learn skills on the fly. The Scientist, 11, 5, 14–15.
Mintzberg, H. (2005), Managers, Not MBAs, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco.