Lona Small LabOPEX

Being a Jamaican by birth, my perfect day would involve lazing on the beach in between or after work! I enjoy hanging out with family and reading books on leadership, process improvement, personal development and personal growth.  If you came to my house, you would find me in my bed with my laptop, after I cook enough meals to last a few days!

As a young Clinical Lab Scientist, a family member who is a doctor excluded me from a conversation about a patient with lupus and turned to my friend who is a nurse and said, “You would know what I’m talking about!”  She also joked that I should not be late for work, as I needed to go take care of the Bunsen burner!   “How comes other members of the health care team do not know what laboratorians do?” I  thought.

I then set out to demonstrate the significance of laboratorians as an important part of the healthcare team. I was promoted early in my career to lab supervisor, and once I went to my manager for guidance with a problem and she told me, “Figure it out as I had to learn it by the seat of my pants!”  I found out that  she just didn't know how to help. I  later came to  realize that we as lab leaders were being promoted based on our technical expertise and not our leadership skills.

As a result, I spent the last decade studying leadership, team dynamics, staff engagements, lean processes, and demonstrating return on investments on projects.  The more I learn and apply these concepts, the more I realize the importance of a holistic, interdependent and systems approach, as the effective solution to our lab current challenges. I utilize a holistic approach in the collaborative projects that I lead in my organization, resulting in system and hospital- wide  changes, which visibly highlight the lab as an "important part of the whole".

I enjoy teaching and mentoring lab leaders to shine and demonstrate impact with their teams, peers and organization, and leading their labs from good to operational excellence!