With increasing commoditisation and centralisation, maybe our microbiology laboratories are becoming more like factories…, but idea factories? Where does that concept come from? Maybe a more apt term for a microbiology lab would be an “idea incubator”.

Microbiology laboratories, and the staff that work in them should not just be processing and producing quality test results, they should always be thinking of and producing ideas as to how things could be done better.

I’ve come up with a few (thousand) ideas in my time. It is important to remember however that only a small proportion of initial ideas ever come to fruition, regardless of who comes up with them. Some get blown out of the water within seconds, and rightly so (That’s ok, there is no shame in that whatsoever). For others it takes a little while to realise that this particular idea just isn’t going to cut it. Other ideas that are subsequently worked on change out of all recognition from the original concept.

And finally a few ideas actually succeed, which makes it all worthwhile.

Microbiology laboratories should facilitate the production of ideas, using forums such as web pages, notebooks,  performance reviews or (brainstorming) meetings to allow staff to have their say. Often the best ideas come from the people who perform the tests as opposed to office based managers, so anything that encourages suggestions from the benches has to embraced…..

With the Kiestra TLA and all its resultant potential going live soon in the laboratory I work in, I hope the lab will become a real breeding ground of innovation.

There is no such thing as a bad idea, any idea is better than none at all.

Michael