Team handbook workshops

Team handbooks, sometimes called lab handbooks or team manuals, are written
documents that set out how a research group works. They usually include
information about roles, everyday working practices, available resources and support
for researchers at different career stages.
 

A handbook can give new team members a clear starting point, help existing
members discuss how they work together and provide a shared reference point for
responsibilities, feedback, support and development (Tendler et al., 2023; WIN, n.d.).
Although there is still limited evidence on the longer-term effects of handbooks on
research teams, recent work suggests that researchers value written clarity around
team policies, feedback routes and career development (Donà et al., 2025).
 

Until October 2026, we are offering research groups the opportunity to attend a free,
full-day team handbook workshop. During the workshop, we use creative non-fiction
pieces developed from our research on expectations to prompt group discussions
about how the team currently works, what different members need from one another
and what expectations should be made explicit. We then support the group to begin
drafting a team handbook, using the WIN Lab Handbook template as a starting point.
This template follows the life course of a research role within a given group. It asks
groups to consider what researchers need to know in their first days and weeks, what
is expected in everyday work, how members of the team will work with one another
and what commitments the group and groups leads makes to support researchers’
development.
 

Coffee, refreshments and lunch are included.

These workshops form part of our action research approach and we ask attendees to
complete short pre- and post-workshop surveys so that we can evaluate the
workshops and understand what participants find useful.

We are currently developing wider team handbook workshop toolkits, that will
allow PIs and researcher developers to deliver the workshops for their own groups or
researchers. In the meantime, please get in touch if you would like us to run a
workshop with your research group!