Strategies for Continuous Learning in Your Digital Lab

The digitalization of labs marks a significant leap forward in pursuing scientific innovation and efficiency. However, the full benefits of this transition can only be realized through a commitment to continuous learning and development.

Here are essential tips and strategies to foster an environment of ongoing education and support within your digital lab.

Embrace a Culture of Curiosity

Fostering a culture of curiosity and openness to learning is foundational to the success of any digital lab. Encourage your team to ask questions, explore new features of your digital lab platform, and stay informed about the latest digital tools and technologies. This can be achieved through regular team meetings, where members can share discoveries and discuss how to integrate new knowledge into their workflows. Leverage the support and training resources offered by your digital lab platform vendor, who should be happy to keep you abreast of new and updated features. Follow the vendor on social media for a constant trickle of new information and helpful tips and tricks.

Leverage Available Training Resources

Most digital lab platforms offer a wealth of training materials, from tutorials and webinars to user manuals and FAQs. Make the most of these resources by incorporating them into your onboarding process and encouraging regular review sessions for existing team members. This ensures that everyone, regardless of their experience level, can improve their proficiency and efficiency.

Schedule Regular Training Sessions

Organizing regular training sessions can help keep your team up-to-date with the latest features and best practices. These sessions can be led by more experienced team members, external experts, or even through virtual training provided by the software vendors. By making training a regular part of your lab's schedule, you ensure continuous skill development and adaptation to new technologies.

At eLabNext, many customers benefit from a bimonthly or monthly training session on sample management, inventory, or protocol management best practices. Training can be as informal as posted “Office Hours” when the vendor is available for users to drop by and ask questions ad hoc. Or training can take on a more formal structure, with a pre-set agenda and invitee list for each session, arranged in collaboration between the vendor and your organization. Remain flexible based on your current needs, and understand that those needs will change over time.

Create a Knowledge Sharing Platform

A knowledge-sharing platform, such as an internal Wiki or forum, can be an invaluable resource for your digital lab. It allows team members to document and share solutions to common problems, tips for using the lab management software, and other helpful information. This not only helps solve immediate issues but also builds a comprehensive knowledge base that benefits the entire team.

Many of our customers use a Slack channel to share lab-wide tips and tricks or Monday to keep track of digital tasks that need to be completed. These solutions offer numerous benefits. Discussion is easily visible and searchable. Knowledge is instantly disseminated. Management can quickly spot areas of concern and address those topics on the fly. Management can also guide these discussions to keep digital lab platform use within the guidelines of established data management strategies.

Encourage Feedback and Suggestions

Continuous learning is a two-way street. Encouraging feedback and suggestions from your team can provide insights into areas where additional training or support might be needed. It also helps identify gaps in your current workflows or software capabilities, allowing for more targeted improvements.

Sustainable digitalization involves more than rolling out a new software platform and training employees on its features. There needs to be a behavior shift and an evolution in lab workflows to fully realize the new systems' potential and enact lasting change. Many of these adjustments will be driven top-down. However, encouraging bottom-up suggestions engenders buy-in from the team, closes the feedback loop to ensure planned improvements are actualized, and offers the chance to create a habit of continual, incremental improvements over the long term.

Continuous Evaluation and Adaptation

Finally, continuous learning means continuously evaluating your processes and tools. Regularly assess the effectiveness of your training programs and your team's proficiency in using the digital lab platform. Set and track digital lab proficiency metrics for new hires at the one-week, one-month, and three-month marks. 

Be open to adapting your strategies based on feedback, new software developments, or changes in your lab's research focus. It can be helpful to think of lab digitalization as an ongoing effort rather than a discrete, short-term project. Explore additional software features over time or experiment with expanding the scope of digitalization to cover additional workflows and processes.

Conclusion

Adopting a digital lab platform is just the beginning. The true potential of digital transformation in the lab lies in the commitment to continuous learning and improvement. By fostering a culture of curiosity, leveraging training resources, and encouraging knowledge sharing, your lab can stay at the cutting edge of research and innovation. Let's embrace the journey of continuous learning together, shaping the future of scientific discovery.

To see how we embrace and facilitate continuous learning through our eLabNext platform, contact us for a free demo.