Connecting people and ideas: making sense of a research lab through creating a shared frame

This paper looks at the culture of an academic research lab. Our aim is to internally reflect on how the connections between ideasand individuals can be noticed and labeled in order to create a shared cultural frame. We use a case-study approach with asensemaking lens using the Markus-Conner Culture Cycle as an underlying model. Following a sensemaking process, a series ofindividual and small team reflection exercises served as our data source. Graphical and narrative exercises illustrated several of theconnections within the Culture Cycle. Analysis of these exercises made visible the individual interests and values in research,articulated a shared institutional mission with parallel individual narratives, and connected key ideas that the lab brings together asa shared frame for a lab research agenda with collective elaboration. While the particulars of this case study are specific toStanford University’s Designing Education Lab, we invite and challenge any academic lab to increase the transparency of theirculture and leverage the interconnections among individuals, interactions, institutions, and ideas in order to inform and educatefuture researchers and expand knowledge.