Recommended reading on project management / lab leadership?

[bcliff]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm interested if this group has any suggestions on readings (ideally non-specific to psychology) on project management and leadership within an academic / research setting? I'm building a lab and research program at an AMC / medical school and am looking for some tools to help avoid pitfalls made by prior PIs I've worked for... Those and other, more positive experiences in-and-of-themselves will be helpful, but I would appreciate any books (vetted by others here) on these or related topics. Thanks!

 

[Ollie123]

Not quite in line with your request, but I really liked Good to Great by Jim Collins and "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek.

Both are purely business-oriented. The former provides an outstanding framework (Hedgehog concept) with some important lessons for building an AMC lab. The latter is one of the best books about grant writing I've ever read that has literally nothing-at-all to do with grant writing.

I haven't found anything really useful along the lines of what you requested so will be curious to see other recommendations.

Happy to chat backchannel too about what I've learned to date.

 

[MCParent]

I got full PMP certification when I was still in academia, having realized I didn’t have formal training in project management. It was useful. Operationalized some ways of thinking that I’d not had laid out before. Some of it is not super applicable, being meant for big DevOps teams with much more turnover.

It was also helpful to me when I left academia, FWIW.

 

[iliketohelppeople]

Hmm. Maybe not project management per se, but I do like a lot of the ideas talked about in "A world without email" by Cal Newport. It is helpful in thinking through processes and systems that can be set up (often with more effort/engagement upfront) than just being busy and responding to emails/setting up meetings (as much as possible).

 

[tr]

https://www.hhmi.org/sites/default/files/Educational%20Materials/Lab%20Management/Making%20the%20Right%20Moves/moves2.pdf