Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
without the aid of better communication and collaboration.”
38
Triage
teaming provided a way to increase productivity while still recognizing
and exploiting the special skills of individuals.
In order to encourage commitment to the organization, the Broad
provides a career path in biology for individuals without PhDs. In par-
ticular, it fosters ways to move from the lab fl oor into supervisory, man-
agement, and planning positions. Several individuals that I interviewed
had progressed to their present roles in this way, starting out mixing
chemicals on the lab fl oor and eventually becoming responsible for
large teams and the planning of workfl ows and sequencing processes.
In 2008, Beth had worked at the Broad for seven years. After working
as a health inspector in a local town, Beth had worked for the Mas-
sachusetts State Laboratory while earning a master's degree in biology
from the Harvard Extension School. Her fi rst job at the Broad had been
“making reagents and solutions,” and at fi rst she had “no idea what
DNA sequencing was.” After several years, Beth worked her way up
into the technology development team. By the time I spoke with her in
early 2008, Beth had become a project manager in the quality assur-
ance team, in charge of logistics, supply chain, and quality control for
many of the materials coming into the lab. Likewise, Ben came to the
Broad with a BA in biology, beginning his career mixing solutions in the
materials lab. From there he moved to the “production fl oor” as part
of the MBPG, and fi nally to the technology development group. Ben's
role in that group was to scale up the processes for the new sequencing
machines from the bench to the mass-production scale.
These examples demonstrate how the Broad operates reward sys-
tems outside the traditional academic channels of publication and ten-
ure. Individuals who can work in teams, who exhibit aptitude for logical
thinking and planning, who can design processes that bring effi ciencies
to the data production process, are promoted. Biological knowledge—
especially of fundamental biological principles—is valuable, but it must
be combined with an understanding of how a particular production
process works and how it might be sped up by reorganizing materials
or people. The success of the Broad Sequencing Center depends on a
special kind of worker who is neither an automaton in the Fordist sense
nor a lab bench scientist in the mode of a Pasteur or a Sanger. Instead, he
or she (and both genders are well represented) is what might be called
a “lean biologist,” knowing only enough biology to perform the work
effi ciently. The lean biologist combines the individuality and creativity
of the scientist with the work ethic and team orientation of the produc-
tion line worker.
