At the time, he was a deputy associate lab director at Argonne. Mark Peters was a member of that first cohort. “There was a great intellectual curiosity, and everyone realized that we must continue to do this, given the challenges that labs face.”
“We wanted to expose senior scientists and support staff to relevant concepts in leadership and strategy, but also provide an opportunity to apply these in a cross-functional team with members from both labs,” Davis said. Davis and others at the labs and Booth developed a curriculum to not only teach leadership skills but also to give Argonne and Fermilab lab members a chance to work together on a real assignment given by a senior leader involving a strategic challenge, then present their findings to UChicago and lab leadership. When he spoke with staff at Argonne, he found that up-and-coming leaders wanted more training in cross-disciplinary collaboration and innovative and strategic thinking. At the time, he was participating in a committee at Argonne tasked with investigating some of the cultural issues that were impacting safety. That work led to a proposal for a leadership program involving both Argonne and Fermilab. Goetz Distinguished Service Professor of Creative Management at Booth, who helped develop the program back in 2006. Key to the program’s success is Harry Davis, the Roger L. We have continually worked to ensure that these sessions help develop leaders who will take our national labs into the future, and labs across the country are beginning to notice just how successful this program has been.” Harnessing a great intellectual curiosity
“As part of the University of Chicago’s Joint Task Force Initiative, it has been key to supporting success at Argonne and Fermilab. “The Strategic Laboratory Leadership Program has become the gold standard for lab leadership development programs,” said Juan de Pablo, vice president for national laboratories, science strategy, innovation and global initiatives at UChicago. Many past participants of the program have been promoted within their labs or have gone onto senior roles at other labs. Since its inception, the program has trained more than 300 national lab professionals in the areas of strategy, change management, and innovation. Over the years, the program has been so successful that it has expanded in size, offering two sessions to cohorts from six additional national laboratories. The program returned in September with a new hybrid format: 12 virtual sessions taught by University of Chicago Booth School of Business professors and a two-day, in-person capstone program. The Strategic Laboratory Leadership Program is a non-degree Chicago Booth Executive Education program for high-potential lab scientists and staff to learn leadership skills from world-class professors, network with their peers, and prepare for more senior leadership roles. Department of Energy laboratories across the country. This fall, the training initiative kicked off its latest cohort as a highly sought-after program that includes participants from U.S. In 2007, a new leadership training initiative for scientists at Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory launched as a small pilot project.