YOU CAN’T RUN FROM CHANGE

Joan Barrett, Kneeland Board Member and Faculty, is President & General Manager at WCNC Charlotte. In this article, Joan encourages news executives to remember one of the most critical lessons Carole taught: there’s no time like the present to embrace change.

Change. There’s been plenty of that going around these days, and it’s no secret that our business is in the throes of change from top to bottom, inside and out. As leaders, we know that it’s not only part of our job to manage change, it’s also our job to actually initiate change. Of course, this doesn’t mean we look to make a change, just for the sake of it. Instead, it’s our responsibility to find ways to make changes that increase morale and generate more business.

We’ve all heard stories about companies that refused to change. At one time, the Swiss dominated the watch industry. As the story goes, when they were approached with the idea of utilizing new chip technology, they rejected it saying, “but that isn’t how a real watch is made!” We all know how that story ends: the Swiss lost share and the Japanese watch industry was born.

As news leaders, we have to be careful not to become Swiss watchmakers. It’s also important that we continue to challenge our employees to look for new ways to innovate. One of my favorite stories is about a group of researchers who put five monkeys in a habitat. There was a banana hanging at the top of a small staircase. Whenever the monkeys approached the banana, they were sprayed with cold water. It didn’t take long for the monkeys to stop trying for the banana. When a new monkey was placed in the habitat – and one of the original four removed – the new monkey would try for the yellow treat. The other monkeys would grab him, not letting him even try to reach the banana. The researchers substituted all the monkeys one-by-one, until all five of the original monkeys were gone. None of the new monkeys would try for the banana. They didn’t know why – they just knew, “that’s the way we do it around here – No one tries for the banana.”

Sometimes the best ideas are right in front of us. We have to be willing to try for them, and we have to encourage our employees to take the risk as well. I believe that journalism is still one of the most exciting industries in the world and we will figure out a way to come out of this stronger. We simply need to be willing to embrace change and, once in a while, take a few minutes to run up the stairs to grab a banana!