The stories we tell and share as journalists create the worlds in which we live. Rather than overwhelm and dispirit us at home and work, these shared conversations and stories, with contributions from all, can open up possibilities, foster generative thinking and energize action.
How best to foster community well-being and change? News and information are essential but they, alone, don’t change behavior. What matters most is how people socially mediate the news to make sense of it all.
Successful journalism today requires us to learn and experiment so we can thrive in today’s information era punctuated by increased complexity, uncertainty and accelerating speed.
Plants do it. The birds and the bees do it. People do it. And so do all the institutions we humans have erected.
We adapt to our ever-changing environments by shedding assumptions, attitudes, and habits that no longer work. We evolve new ways of seeing, refresh our mental models and apply creative capabilities, either latent or newly born, to unforeseen challenges and opportunities as they emerge.
In other words, we learn.
Learning is essential for change. And the ability to learn and change distinguishes leaders and organizations that succeed from those which falter or fail.
Successful journalism today requires us to learn and experiment so we can thrive in today’s information era punctuated by increased complexity, uncertainty and accelerating speed.
This approach to organizational learning often is called praxis because it focuses on practice not theory. It favors experimentation in the face of uncertainty. Rather than rely on quickly obsoleted five- and 10-year strategic plans, it privileges emergence. An emergent strategy is flexible and employs the assets, talents and contributions of everyone in the organization. This strategic approach requires a culture that is the antithesis of bureaucratic or hierarchical and is, in many ways, more democratic. The winning culture is strong and agile because it is diverse, inclusive and mission-driven.
Communication between and among people is essential for learning. All plant and animal cells use a suite of organelles for information processing. When speaking to community groups, I often used that analogy to explain that news and information is the DNA of community learning. The newspaper provided a shared space for the exchange of information that is essential for the buying and selling of ideas and of goods and services.
Why then, if communication is essential to the development of all species, is it too often thought of in organizations as a staff function, relegated to a silo and not a determinate of success failure? And when a communication strategy is employed, why is it so often meant to manipulate and persuade, rather than foster learning? Today’s story wars—waged by many advocacy groups, some nonprofits, corporations, and politicians— are wearing. The result can breed rather than inhibit polarization, fatigue, apathy and, at worse, indifference.
Communication that fosters learning—inside and outside the organization—is an essential leadership skill. Conversation, dialog and the stories we tell create the world we live in. Rather than overwhelm and dispirit us at home and work, these shared conversations and stories, with contributions from all, can open up possibilities, foster generative thinking and energize action. Through them, we learn and change.