Navigating the Decision Making Matrix of Science

Published November 18 in labdesignnews.com.

In this month’s column for Lab Design News, we explored how decision-making impacts programming, planning and the design process.

The relationship between various departments results in a diverse set of design parameters across many programmatic elements in a scientific research building.

Providing design services to a diverse set of scientific clients comes with specific challenges. Not only are their scientific needs unique, so are their organizational styles. Engaging a client in the design process requires sensitivity to how the client communicates, manages information and makes decisions. Understanding the nature of a client’s management style is a valuable when trying to efficiently and creatively design for the research needs.

The research sciences can generally divided into corporate and academic client types. Each has a distinct way of dealing with information, though they often have commonalities in matrixed decision making styles.