Managing Change in Lab Operations

ImageAuthor: Joe Liscouski

Date: September 2022

During the first week of August 2022, the Houston Astros played the Red Sox in Fenway Park (the Sox’s home field). Christian Vazquez had been a catcher playing on that field since 2014. On August 1, he found himself playing on the same field but in a different uniform, that of the Astros. He had been traded just as the series was going to start; this change elicited a reaction of “baseball is a business”.

Change is one of those things we all have to deal with, and a good approach to it requires constant preparation. Most discussions of change management stress leadership styles and personnel management concerns such as communicating effectively, managing change processes, determining methods of implementation and creating a culture of change. These reasons, and others discussed in Lab Manager 1 2 3, are important, but we’re going to come at the subject from a different direction: the necessary preparations for successfully managing and implementing change.