Last Updated: May 26, 1999
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Ways to encourage breakthrough thinking
Institutional innovation key to staying current
Speakers from various fields agree that making innovation
part of the culture — getting away from ‘that’s the way we’ve always done
things’ makes change faster and better
By Jim Foudy
Thinking about how we think, and finding ways to encourage innovation
in our newsrooms and our industry were the topics that opened the Wednesday
morning session. The speakers, an architect, a vice president for 3M, and
a leading authority on creative thinking, told editors:
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Quality thinking is vital to the future of our industry.
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Creative problem solving is less a matter of genetics and more a product
of learned techniques that can bring out fresh ideas and thoughtful analysis.
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Our workplaces need to be redesigned to encourage creativity, reduce stress,
and break down barriers between the newsroom and readers, as well as others
parts of the news organization.
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Creating an organizational culture that supports and encourages innovation
will pay big dividends in the long run.
In other words, it was not a session on how to get more productivity with
less staff. And while it left a few heads shaking, the panelists offered
a fresh and challenging perspective on the mental processes we use every
day but never talk about.
Saf Fahim, an architect who studies newsrooms and their impact on people
and product, opened with a critical assessment of our homes away from home.
In his travels around the country, Fahim says he’s found that journalists
"are nice people who do not work in nice places." Fahim says our newsrooms
resemble assembly lines, which stifle creative juices. He finds newspapers
looking too much alike and journalists talking more with other journalists
than with readers.
His proposal is to radically rebuild the organization to foster dialog
and mutual understanding among departments, and between the organization
and its readers.
Fahim’s dream newsroom would have an amphitheater-type structure in
the middle for news meetings that anyone in the organization could listen
in on. Readers would be invited into the amphitheater to talk with reporters
and editors about the issues of the day. Off to the side would be studios
for teams to work on projects; and the cafeteria would be replaced by coffee
bars and other "gathering spaces."
While most of us will never see a newsroom with the airiness and atmosphere
sketched by Fahim, there was no disputing the core of his message: A changing
newspaper industry needs to tear down departmental barriers, talk more
with readers, and break out of potential-limiting boxes.
Researcher and author Edward de Bono offered a lively overview of how
our brains work and why we should learn to think constructively.
DeBono argues that our thinking software comes from Socrates, Plato
and Aristotle. He describes it as critical thinking, in which we analyze
a problem, judge it, recognize standard solutions and apply standard remedies.
That is totally inadequate, he says, for a changing world that demands
more constructive and creative thinking.
De Bono stresses that good thinking is a skill that can be developed,
and he discussed briefly a few techniques for approaching problem-solving
differently.
Carrying forward the idea of thinking differently, William E. Coyne,
vice-president of research and development for 3M Corp., talked about how
the manufacturer has made innovation a natural force in the company.
Innovation — taking a creative idea and making something useful — is
as necessary for newspapers to survive as it is for 3M, says Coyne, who
defined for editors the six characteristics an organization needs to encourage
and support innovation:
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Have a company vision.
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Understand the trends in the industry.
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Create "stretch goals" that challenge employees.
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Empower employees to meet those goals.
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Communicate, communicate, communicate to make sure everyone understands
the goals.
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Reward employees who are innovative.
He admits it is easier to tell people what to do, but benefits for the
company and employees are greater when a culture of innovation is developed.
Foudy is editor of the Daily Hamp-shire Gazette, Northampton, Mass.
