We are supposed to give a demo to a major funder in less than two weeks. So at our weekly lab meeting today, rather than talk about all the cool and crazy projects we might work on, I set the agenda to putting on the best demo we can for this near-term deadline.
It was interesting to see how that changed the dynamics of the meeting. All the things you want in a meeting — people keeping their comments short, staying on message, listening carefully to each other — were amplified. There was no “meeting bloat”.
Of course we can’t spend all of our time in this sort of production mode. If we did, it wouldn’t be a research lab. But I think that sometimes having this sort of “forcing function” is good for us. It gives us concrete goals, a clear context for working shoulder to shoulder, and a sense of satisfaction when it’s done.
And of course it also means that in less than two weeks from now, all of our research hardware and software will be up and running, ready to be used for the rest of the semester. Which may be even more important than the demo. 🙂