My student editor-in-chief is on a summer study abroad trip in London. I forwarded her an email with questions from the copy editor about when to return for the semester and plans for the newspaper’s orientation edition. She admitted she hadn’t thought about it much… perhaps after her trip the next day to Paris.
It’s the time when reality sets in for student editors. Summer break and all of its fabulousness is ending.
It’s a bummer (Do people still say that?), but it’s also ripe with possibility.
While you’re planning your back to school editions and determining how to fit several months worth of updates into your first already packed editions, I encourage you also to consider the type of newsroom you want to run. More importantly, as an editor, what type of work environment do you want to create?
I was thinking about this while listening to Brene Brown’s book, Daring Greatly. Brown was speaking about organizational culture or work behaviors and the meaning people attach to them.
Brown informed readers of 10 questions they can ask to learn about an organization’s culture.
1. What behaviors are rewarded or punished?
2. Where and how are people spending their resources like time, money and attention?
3. What rules and expectations are followed, enforced and ignored?
4. Do people feel safe and supported talking about how they feel and asking for what they need?
5. What are the sacred cows? Who is most likely to tip them? Who stands them back up?
6. What stories are legend and what values do they convey?
7. What happens when someone fails, disappoints or makes a mistake?
8. How is vulnerability, risk and emotional exposure perceived?
9. How prevalent are shame and blame and how are they showing up?
10. What’s the collective tolerance for discomfort?
Answering these 10 questions will provide valuable insight into how your organization operates and how you would like it to function. Considering them in relation to the newsroom will help student editors recognize what type of organizational culture exists and begin to think strategically about the opportunities the new academic year brings to reinforce or alter that culture.
Ensuring how you say you function aligns with the culture in which the work gets performed will help you create a more rewarding and strategically functioning work environment.
