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day day, right, this isn't on. Probably not on yet. Hello. Good morning. Can everybody hear me? Hi everybody. Well as my eyes Hello. It's good to see everybody. I'm Trevor Noah Blackcomb, Chief Knowledge Officer with the online news Association. I will be with you as much as I can. today. We also are putting on a huge show. You might have noticed checking in and I'm really really, really excited about today. This is a new endeavor for us. We have a lot of experienced trainers. So you're in very good hands. But the way that we have approached today is very, very different than a lot of leadership trainings. We're trying to set out to do three things and it's a lot and we're going to move quick because it's going to be a busy day. The first thing is that we do want to cover the basics that leadership training session would have. Sometimes the first time managers training can go as long as a week. We obviously have a day. So we are going to hit a lot of highlights. We're going to do the Crash Course we want everyone to leave here feeling very confident and going back and being a first time manager. The second thing that we're doing is where things are going to start to get a little bit different. Because a lot of leadership skills that are needed in the workplace right now are shifting. They're evolving. A lot of new skills are getting layered on to everything that leaders have had to do in the past. I saw a presentation a couple years ago from a guy who's actually CEO of a microbrewery. But he was saying that, you know, in the 1990s, when he started, they just worried about the bottom line and what they call worker productivity, which basically meant, how much time could you squeeze out of everybody? And it's very different now. Right? And he said, you know, now we think about DDI. Now, we think about the environment in ways that we just haven't had to before. So all of this pieces start to get layered on. On top of all the leadership skills that everybody needs to have. That's where a lot of our focus is going to be today. Because we only have one day. And so we were talking with Martin with Evelyn at the Maynard Institute and saying if a lot of traditional leadership skills are have lots of material available online, there are lots of courses that teach kind of those basics. Where can we help everybody really level up in a one day span with some of the new skills that we know leaders are going to need over the next few years. And then the last piece that we're doing for the day is your best asset is going to be each other. When I have a problem I call other managers all the time to call them all the time. I called them to help plan the training for today, asking what they thought first time folks needed. So we're building a lot of conversation time and I know everybody's kind of new to you know, being in that first time manager role, but that's going to bring a lot of value in terms of connecting to other people in this room, connecting to other managers at the conference. So please like realize that like connections with your peers are as good as any training we can possibly give you. There was a time where we were kicking off a new leadership training program and I called Kim mui, who is on our board and is here with us in the back of the room and said I really need a lot of help and thinking through how we're planning this. And we just sat down together and talked it through so so that's what we're trying to do is get a basic set of skills, some of those kind of new leadership skills that people are thinking about. And also plenty of time to chat with one another. And we're going to try and do it all in a day. So energy will be Hi I'm sorry about the lighting in the room bringing that into a very weird place. They swear to me this is as bright as it gets. But I think we're gonna have a really good day. And I'm really excited about this. And we're gonna ask for feedback at the end of the day, because a lot of this really is going into some new territory. And so the more honest you are with us, the more we can kind of tailor these for future events, but everything we're doing today is custom and bespoke to all of you. Alright, so with that, I'm going to turn things over to Evelyn From The Maynard. We're gonna do that. We're just going to click Record.
Oh, okay. We'll wait till do you do your next record?
Okay, you want to do introductions after? Okay, Holly, are you ready for your talk? So this is Holly Schultz. She's our manager for awards and community resources. And she Oh, and she was very instrumental in planning today but I also wanted to give a shout out to someone who's not with us because she is next door. Who is MEGAN MURPHY. Megan is in charge of looking broadband across all of our leadership programs and thinking about how we might bring a lot of the elements that you're seeing today across all of our programs. And Megan's thinking, because she's leading a session with executives right now. And they're talking a lot about dei and inclusion and work culture, but her thinking is if we bring that in at a first time manager level, and everybody moves up through their career, we're carrying that with us so I just really wanted to give a shout out to like all of her work envision is playing a big part today. She's going to try to pop in a little bit later. But with that, I also wanted to introduce Holly Schultz.
Thanks, Trevor. Hi, everyone. So as Trevor said, we have an incredible program for you today a lot jam packed into one day so I just wanted to briefly kind of talk through what you can expect the day to feel like starting with this morning so we are going to first do a fun little icebreaker after all the intros and then we're going to spend the first part of the morning really focusing on you as a leader. How do you show up as a leader? What are your strengths? How do you work through your personal biases? How do you incorporate inclusivity into your management style? So that's all going to be covered in the first for the first part, first portion of the day, and then we're going to break for lunch. So in your folders, you'll see we have given you a $30 gift card to Reading Terminal Market. And we encourage you to go there early. It could get a little bananas. So we're going to break at 1130 and if you can head right over there, grab some lunch, you can maybe go with some new people you've met here. You can grab your lunch and come back but we are going to start again right at one o'clock to stay on schedule. So again, just encourage you to get to the market ASAP before it gets totally bananas over there. And then when we come back, we're gonna focus a little bit on culture. What does culture look like in your institution? How are you and your team responsible for shaping culture? And also how do you navigate managing up down and maybe across peers? Maybe you are now managing people that you were once formerly your peers. And so how do we navigate that? And then at the end of the day, we're going to finish with a overview on strategy for building your budget. So that is what our day is going to look like today. And we're really, again, just really thrilled to have you here. And I will that I missed anything, Trevor. Noah. Oh, one other thing. We didn't build in breaks to the schedule. But if you do need a bio break, you need to stretch your legs please feel free to go out and come back whenever you need. Okay.
Awesome. Thanks, Holly. Last thing that I will say is we have been in an interesting position to know in a this year we have 12 staff, four of those staff, four of them have been on parental leave in the first half of this year. And that includes me and Holly. So we have newborns at home. So we invited our colleagues at the Maynard Institute, who've done a lot of leadership training to come in and help and they frankly, taken on the lion's share of the work. So I really want to thank everyone Sue, and Mark Reynolds for all of their work. And you'll be hearing from them quite a bit today, helping us cover that really intense here that we've all had. Okay, so we're going to start with a quick icebreaker and I thought since we're going to be in this room as the day we start with the icebreaker out in the hallway. So if everyone's okay with it, we'll stand up. We'll go directly out here in the hallway and we'll do a very quick icebreaker to get the day started.
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All right I think we're back live. Thanks everyone for doing such a great icebreaker with with us. Hopefully, it's a little bit you know, it's mostly for fun but hopefully it's a little bit revealing that there are these kinds of tensions that we have all the time. Sometimes as a leader, I really do have to be like, here's the vision. We're working towards this vision. Other times, you know, take a back seat and lead the Team Drive. So I think like hopefully throughout that exercise, it kind of got us thinking in that mindset of like, okay, where are we looking? For balance, how we're trying to find ways to engage different types of people and put together a different type of team. So leaving the rest of the morning will be the Maynard Institute. So that's Evelyn and Martin, and so I'm going to turn things over now to
thank you Trevor, and thank you. Is this on. Good morning, everyone. It's great to see you and thank you for being here. I'm Evelyn Su. I'm the co executive director with Martin Reynolds of the Maynard Institute. I am responsible for operations and programming. So I oversee the majority of our training efforts and we have been training managers for decades at this at this point, it is a key, key skill and the other M That's not here is I am presuming that most of us in this room are middle managers. And that is the toughest spot to be in. You are getting directives from the top and you have a responsibility to your reports. And every day. It must feel as if you are getting squeezed more and more and it's even harder now. As Trevor mentioned, there are more layers to what is expected of you. Di and belonging which has been our North Star for decades was not a priority for many organizations. And rightfully it is now it's taking its rightful place, but there's also product responsibilities. Some of you are running startups within established news organizations. And all of these are defined skills. They are not the skills that got you to your job as a manager. So there is no there should be no self consciousness about saying I need to learn a whole different set of skills in order to execute on my new role. And we know that our our industry was never great about training. And so congratulations for taking the initiative. To to help your career without waiting. You have to wait forever for for help sometimes from your organization. You really have to be your own best advocate. And in our organizations we've seen the downsizing has also led to a loss of institutional knowledge. Like even if there wasn't formal training in the past, there might have been an editor over you who you could have gone to turn to for advice and a lot of that informal mentoring is is also gone. So it's a very scary and lonely roles and types. There are also just new new pressures and new organizational forms. Some of you manage virtually some of you manage hybrid teams. That's all just in past few years.
And some of you will be called upon to manage teams and projects without formal authority. Right, you're in charge but you you cannot fire the people. You you might not even be the one to write their evaluations. And so you're going to have to learn a whole different set of skills there. I was there was a range of experience in this room. There is a Mainer grad in this room. Erin is a graduate of our editing program and has been working on the desk for for many years, but is now a first time manager Eric who I spoke with at the start is kind of a ringer because he is a very experienced manager. So in a management role for the first time at your present employer, so we expect to we expect to learn from your battles, your battle scars and as Trevor said, you know we are packing a lot into one day we offer long form training. The postcard in your packet can direct you to information about maner 200, which has a cohort for frontline managers. Next year it will be in person to sessions for the same group in Fort Worth at Texas Christian University. We work very hard to keep our tuition free and our programs are open to all. So now for your very busy morning I would like to turn it over to my colleague Martin Reynolds who oversees fundraising and External Relations for the Institute and delivers a great deal of our training. Martin.
Thank you everyone. Good morning everyone. Very glad to be here. Let's get right to it. So today we're gonna a little bit of ground rules. I also want to get a sense of why you want to do this. A little bit of my own management journey. We'll talk a little bit about what management is the expectations a little bit of secrets to success, and but we're gonna keep moving. So Evelyn spoke a little bit about what the institute is, but I just want to say in terms of ground rules today. There's no bad questions. This is a space that I hope that you all can feel and be vulnerable. Please show up with an open mind as best you can. Feel free to interrupt me and anytime with a question and a hand raise. We're all managers here and so feel free like if we need to go off script we can. It's fine. And and there may be some things that are talked about particularly in the next section. That could be somewhat triggering for some. So I just want to call that out. And also speak to about this group of nine journalists who founded this institute. And they were newspaper journalists and some of the first Evers in their newsroom. And this institute was founded out of the tensions, particularly of the 1960s. In the Kerner report, which Evelyn says castigated the media for its inability to articulate the struggles of particularly black Americans at that time. And this group came together to form an institute that says, particularly because the excuse continued to be where we can't find anyone qualified. I see a lot of lovely qualified people here. And I won't get all into too much of the history. I like to tell a little bit of the stories but you have Bob Maynard in the front there, and then down below, and then Dorothy Gilliam, who was the first African American woman, a reporter at The Washington Post in 1963. And she's still on our board today, has a great memoir out called Trailblazer about her time covering Civil Rights Movement. I would really encourage you to read it. And then of course, the lawyer is at the top of really great circle tie went on to find the national lesbian gay journalism association. So they were some real pioneering folks. So now, I want to hear from you. Why do you want to be a match? Name I like to offer that what's the thinking? Yes, please say your name and where you're from. matters.
Sonya Cal matters, and I want to be a manager to be more than myself to have a bigger impact others
I teach so my name is Fernanda Santos. I'm in tradition, but I management to me was a logical evolution to my career. It became a decision point where do I keep doing what I'm doing? For myself? Or do I use everything that I've learned and then try to write some wrongs and and do things in ways that I thought they should have been done with me and others and apply the lessons I learned to create a more harmonious and collaborative workspace? Others Hi,
I'm Bruce with aol.com and Alabama. I probably like a lot of people I first became a manager because there was a job opening and I was the only person in the room willing to do it. But I stayed a manager into my next job, my current job, because I like you said I wanted to do things better than they have been done for me. And I always felt like I had a bigger picture vision, and I wanted the chance to actually put those things into action in my newsroom.
I can go I'm Laura. I'm not necessarily a manager. I am Executive Director for more than 10 years. I did wrong. And life Give me a new challenge. Now. I'm Jessica found a new organization and I want to do do it better. And when she presents I have people in my team but also have a board that I have to deal with. And I think I can do it better in both ways. That's why I'm here
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I'm back from St. Louis, St. Louis Post Dispatch. I wanted to be a manager because I was tired of having my voice
not be as loud as it could be if I was a manager and also to
help other people's voices be louder in my newsroom. Couple more.
Good morning, Barbara from the V tribe right. I always dreamed of having a mentor a leader who would understand my voice and you know, encourage harmonious teams and I never had that. And so you know I was I just wanted to show up in a space where I could be that person that I always the mentor they always wanted for myself. And as a person of color. You know, we always talk about like not having a seat at the table so when when the opportunity showed up that's why I was like you know, it's important for us to step up and occupy the space
went to the last one.
So I Oh, I'm sorry, is a dorm with retro report. I'm an engagement producer there. And I was a one woman band for a long time I was the first one to take an engagement and engagement role in my organization. So it soon became very difficult job to do by myself because it started to grow beyond my abilities and to have more people helped me that meant that I would have to become a manager. So I didn't choose it but there was no other way. And and I obviously just want to do a good job at it because the engagement department was born with me so I have to carry that legacy for the people that will come because it keeps on growing. And I just want to make sure that I make I do a good job for the institution and for the people who are joining.
Thank you. Thank you all for sharing. So a little bit about my own management journey. I think when you're trying to do some training is good to let people know who you are and how you got to where you eventually were I started in my publication as an intern, and I went from intern editor in chief in 13 years and it wasn't easy. There were a lot of challenges. When I started I got an opportunity with through the chips Quinn Scholars Program. And then not long after I was recruited by probably about three or four years in I got recruited to come into management assistant city editor, no training, they like well you can do it. And that was really challenging. So I went from the lowest on the totem pole to then appear as a reporter to then supervising folks who were many years my senior and they still looked at me as that that intern that came in on a diversity related program. Just a lovely mix. And the other challenges that I was facing in addition to sort of just matriculating through an organization and not coming in with position, were worrying about far too much what others thought not trusting the gut. Often being a little bit too accommodating. When do you put your foot down? When do you do that? And how distracted with too much going on. I felt like the role. There were a lot of opportunities to do different sorts of things. And so narrowing focus, trying to be in too many places. After being an assistant city editor and then becoming a managing editor. There were opportunities to go to conferences and speak and so on and so forth. And then how do you balance being out sort of in this industry and making connections and building rapport with others and then also being in your newsroom? What's the balance of that? Learning how to listen better other challenges are huge also. And some of you mentioned this in your in the survey, the difficult conversations, how do you have those and then of course, managing up to management, upper management and Kim. We'll talk about that later. And then there was another really big one for me and I don't know how you all are navigating this but it was being at odds with the organizational values of my company. At the time it was owned by Dean singleton who which is ironic because that digital first media used to be Media News Group was then purchased by an even worse owner. So we if we knew how good we had it with Dean, you know, he actually cared about newspapers. He actually liked them. He liked newspaper editors, and now it's helmed by a hedge fund. So these were a lot of the challenges that I was navigating. So and what I learned the first management training program actually went through was when I became managing editor at the tribune a couple of years in Evelyn was actually running that program at Northwestern. And one of the big lessons that was learned at that moment, which was this if you don't want to manage other folks, problems, don't become a manager. Now, I'm going to share this deck with you all so you don't necessarily have to take copious notes. But this was a huge lesson that was learned and it's a big challenge to navigate. There's a book that I would recommend all of you read. I'm not done reading it yet. I've begun but it's already fantastic. And talking about how the giving of the majority of you are managing small teams. You and your fellow managers play a huge role in setting the culture and the big point here that stands out to me so much is if people are leaving the place to look at where the the problem may be happening is with the managers. The other part that I think is really critical to think about here is that mid level management is the place where true transformation can happen, but where innovation inspiration can go to die. Right? And so in the survey someone talked about wanting to set a culture from the beginning. Another one talked about also wanting to be able to delegate without micromanaging another one of you said that talks about that and I can say that new managers will often tend to want to micromanage because you're new to the job. You're worried about getting some wrong, you're worried about missing something. And how do you manage that tension and I will say to you that it's actually it's difficult, it takes some time to settle in, to be able to release a little bit of what's happening and to trust your folks. But you can't micromanage I can think of one particular manager that we did some work with and he was promoted into this role. hadn't been a manager before. And steps in, was appear and then begins to micromanage the whole team, which was very experienced and accomplished and it really just did not go well. It really unraveled. So that's a real critical point of not micromanaging. And one way to ensure that you're not going to be what I call to buzzy around people, is by having these regular meetings with your direct reports and even having a conversation with them about what kind of check in rhythm should we have, like in many ways co creating the management relationship that you all are going to forge with this person? And I'll explain a little bit why that is further in the presentation about how the shift in working dynamics has happened particularly as a result of generational shifts. And it's pretty it's actually really exciting how this has happened, but it requires managers to be even more diplomatic. Not using the your positional authority, but using sort of the relationship that you build, to make this relationship work. And it can also be a great way for you to begin to build a framework for how feedback will happen, how much information you get. And as a result of that how you can sort of release folks a little bit more to do their job, build that trust, and it really matters to folks when their manager trust them. The other one that stands out really and I'm curious what you all think about this is not wasting the time to try and put stuff in that just didn't happen for folks like you can't account for why somebody is showing up the way they are. But can you draw out what exists and I'm curious about what you all think of that. About this notion of what's your sense of how best to achieve that. How would you draw out the best in someone Okay.
Thank you. This one. Eric Marsh, who the first thought that comes to mind is that I think instinctively a lot of people especially new managers try to do that they try to build in things and skills and roles into their direct reports. It's often hard to pull out from people what they already have, because we often don't either take the time or have the time to find out what's already in it. And so I would think the best way to do that is really to develop those one on one check ins fit spend time with your direct reports. Establish a low pressure environment where you can talk to them at some point in time to find out what's going on with you. What are you interested in? What are the things that make you you outside of the role and you'll often hear directly about the things that are inspired and why they show up and what makes them do what they do.
Thank you any other thoughts?
I think part of the at least what what I'm looking at the time is diversity, diversity and diversity in the team then you don't need necessarily to change people but to use the strengths of each of them.
Thank you I'm curious if you all think that you should manage people the same. Good. So do you think it makes sense to play potentially even favorites? Why? Who said yes. Okay. Why? I'm curious.
Because I think it's not true that you don't have that list of people that you think they are better than you do in South Texas and you don't want to lose them then it's not that you are going to treat anyone without respect is that that you need to take more care about some specific people or in some specific moments of their lives or I don't know. Yeah.
It's a mile away. I want to say something I thought I heard. Okay, talk to me about that Doc dummy.
Have you worked in newsrooms where clearly there were favorites. I find that for the person who's not the favorite. There is not an incentive to get better because you feel that no matter what you do, they're not looking at you anyway. So it creates resentment and often leads to people looking for a way out. So as a manager, what I try to think is, if someone may not you know, if someone let's say it's quote unquote, better than others, right, I just think that people are different. They have different skill sets. So but let's say there's someone whose style and whose productivity jives more with mine. I think one question I asked myself is, why is that like, you know, for me, because there may be a bias and I know we're going to talk about that later on, you know, and also how is it that I can what is it that I can learn and how is it that I can learn to work with this person who doesn't stand out to me as being sort of like the star of the team or the person that I want to go to all the time? What is it that I or the team could be missing out on by not, not bringing that person up with everybody else?
Thank you
Madhu, and why why? I think about this one and the previous question I would like to marry them together as someone who comes from an artistic practice background I really believe in I don't think it's favourites. I think it's trends. One of the things to do is basically figure out like what the superpowers are in your team, right like so. Every person has a superpower and then assigning those, and playing to those superpowers. One of the first things that I did with my team was actually ask them to list their superpowers what they thought was their superpower. And then think about how do we play to those strengths. So it's not playing favorites as much but as you know, like, really like listening and and observing what the strengths are and then amplifying those because even as a parent, I feel we always focus if you focus on the weakness, you can only bring it up so much but if you focus on the strengths, then it always amplifies.
Thank you all. Evelyn. Do you want to speak to this?
Yes. Martin had referred you to the the Gallup book. This is also a product of Gallup. They are very rightly protective of their intellectual property. So if you go to Gallup and you just do Gallup and engagement questions, this will this will come up for you. This is a checklist to to think about, in the context of what your reports need. However, it's it's also useful for you to use it for yourself, like are you getting this within your organization? And if you're not, how do you think about how you advocate for yourself and also for your, for those who are reporting to you? It's it's just very instructive. I turned to it, you know, repeatedly and we offer it in. We suggest that all the managers in our trainings, use this checklist, and Martin is gonna send you the slides too.
So let's look a little bit specifically at what management is and for those of you who have been sort of doing it already, this may feel like well, of course this is but I think it's it's important to name specifically what some of the elements of good management are, what management as it as it as it is, and so often, as I mentioned, people who are in management positions are often selected because you were good at your particular job. Gallup talks about that only one and 10 people actually possess the talent to manage and that get this 86% of the time. The Wrong person is chosen for management positions. All right. I mean that we think about that. I have to think probably in journalism, it's like 96% of the time. Right? And right, because they play favorites. Perhaps, or it's just like somebody gets promoted to a place because they were so cantankerous. Let's just make him a manager overseeing people. Let's see how that works out. You want to go ahead
Jimmy,
you should be honest, got it. Okay,
okay. It's on Yeah. Jamila Bey, why why. Having, societally culturally gotten away from hierarchy. I wonder if you can speak to the fact that not being able, I feel and my experience has been that you can't say that one's doing it. Well be like that one. You know, giving like everybody everybody is expected that you know, oh, well, I'm here I should be getting the set like what I don't know what why is competition a bad thing? Why is having the Abby Lee Miller pyramid a bad thing? Especially when you want results out of people? Why be so milquetoast and you know, Pollyanna kindergarten about it? I'm just asking.
Can I come back to that a little bit later? I will. I think it's a great question. So what I want to point to here is that now being in this role, your success is really the success of others that you facilitate and for those of you who were elevated likely because potentially because you were good at your previous job, it could be a transition all of a sudden to go from if I do this great work individually, I'm successful, but now my goodness, I have to manage a team or a group of people or work across different teams that I don't oversee or people who I don't have authority on. And this notion of success, being through the success of others. And that's can be extremely challenging, but also incredibly fulfilling as well. If you look at it from that perspective, and just be real clear with that. The other thing is, is that this notion of talent, so I think that some people have the talent to be managers. Others won't necessarily have it but you can certainly grow the skills to be an effective manager. The issue might be that if you have the talent for being a manager, is not necessarily going to feel difficult. You're going to feel aligned, if you don't necessarily have the talent to innate because talent is innate, you don't gain more talent. And so if you're don't necessarily have the talent to be a manager, doesn't mean you can't do it. Well. But it may feel a lot more difficult to you. So just thinking about the difference in that because when something you have this talent for doesn't necessarily feel like work, but for someone else, it could feel incredibly draining. So thinking about that if you are managing Do I have the talent for this? Does it really align with me? Because that is going to have an impact on how you feel about the work how it affects you. I wish somebody would have told me that they did once I went through the magnet program
are also gaining the skills but not having the talent.
Can you briefly talk about
the other way around having the talent and and not the skills?
Saying it having the talent,
the talent but not the skills, you know, like having that predisposition to being a manager but not having the skills required?
Because I think I mean, I think a little bit about my own story of being a manager. I felt like innately. I had the talent to be a manager but I didn't know how to do it. And therefore I made a lot of mistakes. I approached it. I didn't I sort of went overly with the gut rather than thinking about the data. I approached. I didn't know that I needed to learn some very specific skills around structure. I wouldn't say that I'm a highly structured individual in my approach to things I'm sort of like let's just see how it flows together. I mean, I think I've changed over time through learning the skills. So I think it's it also I think if you have the talent for management, you might think that you can have an out you may over rely you may be over reliant on the talent and not build the skills, because the skills are very specific. There's some structure to it right, how you're going to approach the interaction, giving regular feedback. So there's sort of like this talent, but then there are these this this container that needs to be present so that you can give people what they need and also realizing, well, I need to really think about and check in with each individual about who they are how they need how they would be better served through this managerial relationship and it is a relationship. So I just think if you don't have the talent, you might actually think even more and be more assertive about getting the skills which may make you in some ways, more effective. So I think it's it's a mixture of I hope that answer yes.
I was just going to make a related comment that might be useful for people like not every manager is a good people leader. And not every leader is a good manager. And so I think it's important for newsrooms to make sure that their managers are getting the skills if they have talent, and vice versa, too. Sometimes you try managing people and it doesn't work out. You go back to being a reporter or whatever, and you can still be a voice and a leader in your newsroom. But if you're not willing to put in the work to be an effective manager, maybe shouldn't be a manager.
That's right. Very well said. I'm going to speed us along a little bit now just because in the interest of time so for you who are going to be managing peers, going from being one of the people to now being one of them. Also, they say your IQ drops 50 points when you go into management. That's the thing it happens as soon as you put that on it just drops one of the things is going to be is having the skills and the technical aptitude and the operational skills all are going to be necessary, but the stuff that's going to trip you up the most is the people stuff. Is just is it's the hardest. And so one of the things you need to do first and this is one of the things that I was not good at. My skin was not very thick. I kind of wanted to be liked. You know and I wanted to be connected to people I was it was uncomfortable for me in my career Early on in my career to make difficult decisions that were gonna piss people off. And if there's one thing that I would encourage you to do is start just getting that loofah out and start scrapping putting it on your skin and building up those calluses doesn't mean you need to be a jerk about it. But you need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable as a result of an important decision you had to make but also be transparent about it. This is what happened. I think this whole notion of well, this is my decision and this is how we're doing it. Now, I think explaining it to the right level. I mean not making excuses for it but articulating. This is why this is how we came to this decision and this is what we're going to do. And being okay with that. In many respects, Greg Moore was one of the great newspaper editors of our time from the Denver Post talked about I asked him what is the most important thing do you think I could do to be what as a good leader good at it or he's like be the position. And it seemed like a simple sentence be the position. What does that mean? But it is a profound sentence. Be all that it requires. Embrace it
all right, some of the expectations of management and I'm interested in this i i want to ask you all these some of these questions, but we're already 40 minutes past the hour. We got to do fault lines so much to do. But some of the things that you have to think about explicitly as a manager of what you are, who you're what your role is, you are an agent of the company. Now I know for certain generations that might not feel comfortable agent of the company or anything like that language, stewardship. I don't think that being an agent of the company, by the way has to be inherently adversarial necessarily, but as a as a manager you are in effect executing on the goals of the company. Being part of the solution, not part of the problem. Really, it'd be surprising how many folks in your roles don't think about this that they're actually a part of the problem. And then, of course, pushing forward during extremely adverse situations. Now let's dig into these a little bit more about the agent of the company. Now this might be difficult for some folks, and maybe it was just difficult for me when I thought about it. And how do you manage that and I'll give you a I'll tell you a quick story. When I was in management, my newsroom was going through the formation of a union. And the Vice President of news came to me and said and part of this he came to me in part because I actually had come through the ranks. I was part of the bargaining unit before and then I moved into management and what he said that he wanted me to do was talk to my newsroom about not voting for the Union.
This may think about getting in front of room of a bunch of journalists and encouraging them when you used to me in the bargaining unit that then got wiped away because there was a merger and so it was called accretion. Anyway, they had to recertify and he said, Martin, and this is a person who I have hitched that I'm part of his team, right you're He's the VP of news. He promoted me. What am I supposed to do? So in that moment, I thought about it a lot and it was really quite difficult to think about being this like this is like this is really being an agent of the company. In what I did was found a part of the argument that I would have mentioned, Were I not in that position, which was this is the first time the company is willing to give us anything if we vote to unionize. They're gonna give us nothing. Why don't we wait? Wait a while, see what they give us. And if they don't, we can unionize later. So I went to the newsroom, and I have this conversation with them. And it actually went a lot better than I thought. Because I found a place of integrity to where I could have this conversation, but it was difficult. They ultimately decided to vote and unionize. And you know what? Got nothing. In these negotiations. It was adversarial and terrible. So it was but it was incredibly challenging position to be in in that moment. But I think the the lesson that I learned was I had to find the place of integrity that I could have that conversation and still live with myself.
40% of you said that you work for nonprofit newsrooms and about an equal amount for profit. And there are others who work for support organizations, tech firms and the like and some nonprofit journalism support organizations. And it would seem that folks working in the nonprofit sector may have a leg up on how it would feel aligning as an agent of the company. But I don't know that that's always the case. I can think of some nonprofit newsrooms where there is a ton of turmoil happening now around dei issues around pay equity. So just because it's a nonprofit situation doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to feel comfortable being in that way. And Evelyn and I, for instance, when we talk about sort of the management's decisions and conflict and the like, is that we have an agreement where if we don't agree on something, we go to a board chair, and then the board chair makes a decision and then we agree on it. And so we're expected to then faithfully execute what those decisions are. So developing some sort of mechanism through which you are comfortable in this space. And I'm curious, does anyone have How does this feel about this notion of agent of the company to you? Yeah.
I don't have an answer. But I have a question like, how can you both do that and build an authentic relationship with people who report to you
would anyone like to speak to that?
But first, I would say, you know, one of the reasons why I wanted to be a manager at why wise because I believed in the organization and the mission of the organization. i It has a great reputation. Not only in Philadelphia but in the industry as a public media. And so being a manager and and being an agent of the I feel like we're in a matrix we took keep talking about it. But but but, you know, representing the organization really starts with the Why are you a manager and do you feel an affinity to the mission of the organization and similar to what Melvin said about the union piece, you find a piece about that mission, that that drives you or that inspires you? And then you kind of lean into that. In terms of the question. I like how you how you strike that balance. I think it is really about finding your direct reports, reasons why they there, because sometimes it's just not a good alignment, like you could just be in the wrong job, right? Or you could be working for an organization whose morals and mission doesn't align with their own right and you really just shouldn't be there. Because that's just going to make your job that much harder. So really is about identify like, what's your North Star? And does it align with with the company's north star and then the things that you disagree about? And this is the thing that I'm excited about being a manager, I kind of lean into maybe a little too much, is once you're a manager, you may then be able to influence company culture and policy around the things that you don't necessarily feel good about. But for me, it's a it is about that alignment.
Thank you for that. The other one is stewardship. So what I really recommend is getting interested in the organization's strategic plan if your company has one. What might budget projections look like? Request as much information about the goals of the company as possible and share it as appropriately with your team? I think that's a really powerful there's often this desire to be sort of, we demand transparency as journalistic institutions, but we don't want to provide transparency. But given that 2020, about 28% of you work for companies that have 15 employees or less, it would seem that there's potentially an opportunity to gain access to information that for some working for larger companies may not have access to but even for the about 18% of you who worked for outlets that are more than 250 Folks, seek to plug into what's happening across the enterprise. really make an effort. Are there events, resource groups that you can connect to attend those? Think of it as sort of that you're on this cruise ship, and you want to know all the activities that are going on, and how they can make this trip more rich and enjoyable. Think of it that way. Like you want to plug in to as much as you can in the organization and learn as much as you can build relationships with counterparts. Some of you, for instance, have managerial roles where you may not be supervising certain people, but there's a need to actually get things done. You need to have relationships with other folks so that you all can work together to do that. Volunteer for things seek opportunities, seek others opportunities for collaboration, and help others succeed. Help the other managers in your organization succeed in their work and they will do the same for you okay. Now some six secrets to success. Now, I think that all of these are good, and again, you'll have an opportunity to get this deck. And I don't always hammer home this notion of excellence and expectations. There's something about this whole excellence perfection culture that we navigate that is Trump does. There's something about this troublesome to me. And so too, even though I want to be excellent in what I do, I don't necessarily think of it in that way. And that's just me, but I endeavor to model behavior with my own work, and through that modeling. My hope is that excellence in a standard is inferred but I don't necessarily bring voice to it but we must be excellent. But that's just me and but my That being said, My some members of our team did our Gallup strengths and I would really encourage you, has anyone done the Gallup Strengths Assessment? Just a couple. Okay. Well, I would really encourage you if you go to the 12 questions that Evelyn referred to earlier and if you actually buy the book that was mentioned before, it will give you access to the gal and you can do your preliminary gallop strengths. It's also something we do for all maner fellows. And so some of my team members have done this. And as in I would encourage you if at all possible, it's not very expensive to see if you can get your direct reports to do their gallop strengths. So that we for instance, have a business case challenges going on right now with Maynard fellows, the executive track and the entrepreneurship track if I'm correct on that, and as we did this, they all did gallop strength and then we explicitly put teams together to build on strengths some people have are maximizers like I'm a Maximizer, meaning I like to add a little flavor to the top of things. Some people are more strategic. Other people's have are positive another one of my Gallup strength is positivity. Now positivity can be great, but if the sky is falling, and people are like full don't just say the sky is falling, it can be a problem. So you have to you have to understand what those are and then drop them down. But I would really encourage you all to do your gallop strengths. It will give you a sense of where your power is. where your strengths lie. And we'll innate and then if you can get your company to fork over a little bit of cash to do it for your folks. You'll just have a greater sense of what are the dynamics who who does what and how can I position them to be more successful. All right now this I think speaks a bit to what the question you were asking earlier. And I got some pop it up. So 20th century, the relationship to workforce dominated by often predominantly white male, by Boomers and Gen Xers and I don't think there's anything wrong with the workforce being dominated by Gen Xers, since we're clearly the best generation, which we'll talk about later. But traditionally top down a lot of hierarchy. Now, what we have seen more women earning college degrees than men. Millennials are likely the largest representation in the workforce than any other generation which is has a lot of positives to it and some challenges millennials and Gen Z collaborate desiring a sense of collaboration, transparency, and healthy work life balance. Which, you know, those of us who came up at a certain time where we the old adage was get here early, stay late. I was there I mean, my first internship was getting here early, stay late. That was the message. So and here's what has there's been this significant shift in what motivates folks. So in the past, the paycheck satisfaction and relationship of boss but now my paycheck now it's much more what is my purpose? Why am I here? Satisfaction. Folks want to be developed. The boss this evolution is significant evolution. Not the boss this notion, right that what I say goes into the coach, which is a different kind of relationship. The annual review the ongoing conversation and I'll give you an example in our organization we have two co directors of a program. I think one's Gen X ones millennial. I can say their names. And I often lament to Evelyn about Why does he always want to meet and have a conversation and talk through things and do all that. Like just he's smart you guys like getting his PhD and like Dude, you're you got this, go ahead, just do it. He's like, Well, I really want to talk through this and see if we can strategize and whiteboard and I'm just like, oh my god, do we have to have another meeting? But yes, he wants this interaction. This conversation. This relationship.
Yeah, right. Right, right. And it's like, and I'm just like, dude, just get it done. I've got other shit to do. Okay, so but this is I finally kind of, I'm getting to the place where I'm accepting this and this hanging because I have I am a millennial child and I have a Gen Z child. And Dad, can we just talk about it? I'm just like, your child, just get a job. Go to school. You know, it is a whole different situation. So and then the other one, my job versus my life, right the life My life is not my job. Right, my life in my job, it's a part of it. It intersects it. And I think a lot of this is not bad. I think a lot of this is good. And I think we've had the benefit. For instance, when all of this stuff hit the fan George Floyd calls to dismantle systemic racism and news and so it's over which we'll get to the next section. A lot of this was driven by millennials and Gen Z. And we talking using language that we were not using before, as it relates to dismantling systemic racism in the US and we have a lot to be thankful for, for that generation. That being said, there are folks who are working in organizations who are in leadership roles who are not having their authority respected. And that's also problematic. Okay. That is all for this section. Any thoughts or reflections about this? What you've heard as I pull up next? Yes, you may.
So I'm a millennial manager managing millennials and Gen Z men part of what's confusing to me which kind of gets your your size dress up and I think your question Jamila is they don't know what they want. And they don't know what their strengths are, or weaknesses are and they don't know what their purpose is. And so we have a lot of conversations, and I genuinely want to help them. And so sometimes, we have a conversation. They're like, I'm really struggling with this. And right after we get on the call, I kind of jump into action mode and I'm like, Okay, I'm going to set you up with this project. I'm going to connect you to this person and then they come back to me and they're like, Wait, I didn't want that. And I'm like, what? You told me you wanted that. I'm trying to help you. And now you're talking about how I'm not meeting your needs again. And so it's just very confusing. So I'm wondering if we can talk about like how to actually set boundaries and ground rules a little bit better at some point for those types of conversations.
It's really challenging. One second here, I'm just trying to call this up
can you give me a little more of an example about what has happened?
Um, yeah, I have. I have one reporter for example, who, everyone I work with this pretty early career, but I have one reporter who previously worked in like international human rights, and so she's super accomplished. Her specific skill, I would say is interviewing people. The problem is that she only wants to interview people, and she never wants to turn around stories. And she has a like a real problem. actually creating the product. And so we talked about that a lot. We work on that. And so one of my strategies for helping her do that was to set really strict deadlines. You have to turn in a draft by this date, we're going to publish on this day you have to do it. And then she just kind of falls apart and can't make it happen. So I'm not saying that like, you know, obviously we can't do everything we can always be people's therapist, but it's just hard for me to manage that. You say you want to work on this. I give you strategies to work on. And you told me it's not working. And so how do I do I just reframe or do I stay strict and be like okay, that's a day on your performance report. Next year.
I mean, I think after a few times of that, you have to be strict. There has to be structure, there has to be accountability. There just does. And I think there was this meme that talked about that millennials can throw a tear gas canister back at a cop they can dress somebody down for it being disrespectful around somebody's identity. They can have a vegan latte, but fall apart when they have to make a doctor's appointment. So but I think what has to happen is that there has to be structure. There has to be accountability. There has to be some patience. But I think really staying on folks like this is what's expected. This is what is needed. The problem that I'm what we're hearing from managers in newsrooms, is that then there's actually a feeling like oh, well, I'm being mistreated. This is something that we have not entirely figured out yet. I'm going to be honest with you. This is new and challenging. For a lot of managers, in a lot of the organizations that we are working with. But the things that we are, that we do know seem to work more effectively, is consistency, its structure, its expectations, and it's a plan. And it's also making sure that you also have a relationship with these folks as well, like I said, is the only time you're talking to them when you're trying to get the story that's problematic. So there has to be more of a relationship. You can't just be the boss. You have there has to be more there. So thinking about that, and then this comes into play with what so it's a perfect segue to what we're talking about faultlines. So I want to ask the question, because for some managers that's difficult to build that relationship. And why is that? So why does diversity matter? to you in this room? And I invite you to answer that question. And if it doesn't, I invite you to interrogate why. Yes,
diversity matters to me because I experience one set of skills and talents. And I think that that mix of ideas and experiences and even the conflict within that can make everything better.
Others. Can I encourage everyone to feel free to speak up on it
was lanfranc from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and diversity matters to me because it's everything. If you're telling stories, you can't tell a story. From one perspective, there are many stories that need to be told with the background of where this person is from their cultural experience. And a lot of newsrooms get it wrong when they when they don't consider that. I hope more of them are diversifying and adding that to their newsrooms, more of a to
do maybe one more here and then over there
Yeah, I think we work in within a system that has put a singular lens internally and externally on everything. And it requires active fighting against the system that was built to do this thing. And it behooves all of us internally and our whole audience to to make diversity that priority.
So one of the things we talk a lot about, the reason I asked that question is because so often when we come in and are asked to do these trainings on fault lines and bias, the first thing folks want to talk about is sort of like the organization or the coverage and sort of the output and what is so often not discuss, particularly in organizations that might be legacy institutions, or that are those organizations that aren't very diverse, or that are rather homogenous. Is or that aligned with this sort of old notion of objectivity, which we can talk about, but there isn't this understanding that this journey we are all on to connect to why this matters, because if you look at how long it has taken, right, we've solved the diversity issue in journalism, not at all. And if folks don't have a reason for why it matters to them, particularly people who are in positions of power. How is it ever going to happen? There are those who are bipoc folks or folks who have diverse backgrounds who live this every day. They can explain why it matters, but we're not the only ones in the room so often. And so how often have you gone to a diversity panel, and there's only the converted there. And so when I talk to executives, particularly those that are older white male I asked them this question, why does this matter to you? Because if we're not talking about who we are as people, and how we got here, how we showed up how these social conditionings have affected us all then we're not really being real with trying to address the issue. So this is also about your own self reflection. And thinking about that will also offer a tool, this framework that I'm talking about the fault lines, that can be a mechanism so that even if you are a person of color, diverse background, this is still applicable to you. We're not only talking about racial diversity. And then I just want to articulate that we all have our work to do. We're all on this journey. So for instance, I'm a person of color I'll tell you a little bit more about my background, here. So and faultline shapes our perceptions, which we'll talk about so my communications person has made this I'm still trying to figure it out. So I think she's amazing. I love her. I think this is because I work at Manor. This is a compass direction time I'm not sure I had I had reptiles at home. I like boxing and shoes, football, fine dining cocktails, and I'm also a lyricist. And so the point I want to make here is that if you saw me in any one of these individual circumstances based on how you align across social fault lines, you would have very different perception about who I am. Right so this is me today. But on Sunday, I will wear this is a real helmet. I will wear it during football games and it'll be a beard sticking out the side of this. Complete meathead. mode. But then you also might see me with my bandmates at Yoshis nightclub in Oakland performing. The reality is I'm all of these people, but how we align across our fault lines. When we show up we often come and connect to people in their most vulnerable and difficult spots. We're moving fast haste can cause harm, and how if we're not aware of our biases, and how we align across social fault lines, we can replicate harm. And so because what you're looking at you don't really know. So basically I was translationally adopted by a white family. Then I found my birth family. So here's my son. Here's my mom who's actually a Norwegian national. Here's my dad and sister is my ex her mom was lesbian her. This is a sister, a former sister in law daughter. Then I found that southern side of my family here's my grandmother I was running her mouth she since passed. And then this is my son back in the day during his Michael Jackson phase, which we don't even let them do anymore. And then I don't even know who he is. But the point I want to make is, is that what and then when I found my mother's side of the family, she's Ashkenazi Jew so I'm a Hebrew who would have known. So the point is, you don't know what you're looking at. You might just look at me and said, Oh, he's the brother, which I am. But there's more. So the history of fault lines. This is a freeway in Oakland that was built during the era of urban renewal and West often that crumbled because it was not reinforced. In the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. We have many people here who were born after 1989 Okay, just wanted to know that's my generational fault line by us coming into play is getting. And so this the point that Bob Maynard made when he came up with this framework, Fault Lines when you own the news, when you own the tribune at that time, was this notion that how we align across these social fault lines, impacts how we see the world and the great journalism, when it accounts for these fault lines can be a reinforcer, because it has it reflects us. This incidentally, piece of freeway was built as I mentioned during the era of urban renewal tour through West Oakland. divided the community and it had no on ramps and off ramps. Great journalism, that accounts for all of us is an on ramp and off ramp to perspectives to lives that are not our own. The other thing that's important about this is that fault lines as they are natural, hopefully can take a little bit of steam out of the room when we're navigating these dynamics and giving a little grace, which is another thing that some of our younger colleagues have a little bit more trouble affording those of us who are a little bit more senior. So what makes a fault line? They can be legislated and they can be reinforced through traditions and through historical events. Okay, and, but this is something that's powerful about them. It's a framework that can help explain why two people can look at the same issue and come away with very different perceptions about what is happening think about our body politic. Right now. faultlines is a great explainer for why people are seeing things as they are. Now I can't explain the people who are talking about well two plus two no longer equals four never has an there's an alternate number that comes down. I don't know how to explain it, but that can still be defined by fault lines and here are the fault lines. The major fault lines in our society, race ethnicity, tribes, sexual orientation, class, gender, geography generation, but there are also others that are adjacent, such as religion, ability, and then other self categorizations. Now if we had a little more time, our time because I want to make sure you get out of here on time for lunch, no like to deprive people of their food. But could somebody say you got about 15 minutes? Maybe we'll go five minutes over because Trevor took my time with my little with that little exercise. If someone made an assumption about you, based on how they perceived you align across one of these fault lines. Could somebody share?
Hi, Eric, right, New York Times, so I'm Gen X and the problems with that. There were with when the situation happened recently in Union Square with the influencer case or not. There were many people, some of them younger than me, who didn't know who he was and assumed I wouldn't either even though I've been a gamer since probably before. You know, they were born certainly before he was so they were shocked when I was able to tell who he was and to not put the influencer because he is a streamer and he does a lot of other things. So, you know, they just assumed a are older. So you obviously do not know who this 21 year old man is. And that was after he
made an assumption but based on your generation, okay, what maybe one other
so I'm, I'm from Brazil, and you know, my name is Fernando Santos. Most people, even Latinos primarily assume that number one I speak Spanish I do speak Spanish but it's not my native language. And I also find that among ourselves, there is this prevailing narrative of what it means to be an immigrant from Latin America, like how you got here, what you left behind the struggle, and I think that you know, I don't fit in to that narrative. And that's also very limiting of the experience in general of immigrants because many don't come here, you know, escaping poverty, persecution, and you know, so yeah,
thank you. So the other thank you for both of you for sharing. So faultlines shaped perception, and then helped to inform bias. And I'll go a little bit quickly through these but just so that you get a sense of a little more deeper look at what the fault lines are, I think about when I think about journalism in class, I think there's a big class issue in our profession, particularly as it relates to who we serve. When I when I got back into journalism, it was a blue collar career that you could go to community college to get it and now it feels like you almost have to have a level of privilege to go into journalism. And so what does that mean? In terms of class dynamics? It also shakes out as to hiring and retention as well. Gender. I think there's a powerful quote by Alec rate men and talking about learn that the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist it is the eye and one of the things we talk a lot about in news organizations is making sure for folks particularly in leadership, to be thinking beyond cisgendered norms in terms of coverage, and in terms of working relationships, organizational culture in the black race obviously significant change happening, the demographic demographic shifts we're seeing in our country, make dei an essential strategic pillar for our business and for our collective understanding to how we are going to move. These demographic shifts are even happening even quicker. There was a 2020 Washington Post story that talked about the massive undercounting particularly of Hispanic folks that happened in that census and likely that the demographic shifts are even further along than the census would indicate. Sexual orientation the one that stands out to me which is powerful and intersects with generation is how looking at how the difference in generations of folks only being attracted to the opposite sex and how that has changed over the generations and I would imagine gender generation alpha, that will shift even more staff could very well be it'd be an interesting to look at that right is it is the 84% Just because you couldn't say it? Yes. Although I mean, they're asking people now. So yeah, yeah. But interesting. Generation my favorite fault line says we talked about them clear Gen Z. I mean, the Gen X best generation. I'm kidding. But what is powerful here? Are there historical events of your formidable life that shaped your perception of the world? Not now. But when you really came into consciousness, and could you shout them out? What those might be. What else? Challenger Michael Jackson's death. Go ahead, Trump. Barbed wire on the border. Others
OJ verdict others.
What's powerful, interesting here is that when we often will do this training and have a little more time. And there'll be this mixture of Vietnam War, JFK assassination and Martin Luther King folk, and there'll be these mix of generations in the room that speaks to the generational dynamics that exist within the organization and that we're all here together. At the same time. But there are very different things that happened along the way to shape our perceptions of the world and how does that come into play when we are talking and working together? And of course, geography where you live, shaping shapes, perceptions significantly. This can also be obviously internationally in the light and then the other self categorizations that are incredibly important to people, your political affiliation, college, religious groups, civic groups, status, whatever it might be, as well and also ability, whether physical, cognitive, and the like. And so how all of these come together. And an example of how these don't exist in a vacuum when you're thinking about navigating this perhaps from a coverage perspective, or even in working relationships, but how might the issue of race and generation intersect or class or generation geography or sexual orientation? What have you? This is just an example of how you can use the framework to connect these components and not every fault line is always at every play. And not every self categorization is always connected, but it can give you a framework and through when you do this. If you ask yourself this question, how does this story look like across these fault lines? Or how does this community engagement strategy or how does this hiring and retention strategy look like across fault lines and thinking about these intersecting components? You're going to seek data you otherwise wouldn't seek? You're going to ask questions you otherwise wouldn't ask. You're going to involve people that you otherwise wouldn't and you know what, most importantly, it helps to do it's a protection against your own bias.
Now quick, bias primer. And I understand that there are some folks who have more understanding of these concepts than others, but just want to share them. This notion of implicit or explicit by implicit bias, having explicit impact is incredibly powerful. And when we talk about when we do these sessions is that intention does not absolve one of impact, right, so that you may not intend to do this and also when we talk about microaggressions, which we're not going to get into today, but people will often say well, I didn't intend to do this. But the reality is, is that social conditioning that has shaped perception and therefore biases, these things happen without folks thinking, in the impacts are significant. So now let's do a very quick exercise. I want each of you can grab something to write and in a and you can put just flip over what's in your material. I want you to write the initials of six people that you trust in a line straight up and down. And they can't be your family. They cannot be related to you family does not count. Now I know we're in a room with journalists. And there's the old saying if your mother says she loves you check it out. And what I want you to do so here's what it can look like the people you trust up and down here. And then what I'd like for you to do so while I wait a few moments while you get your six people and then give me thumbs up
okay, well they can be. They don't have to be people that you trust with your life. These can be these can be six people whose people who you can you could share a sensitive word with who you could be willing to have come to your place to maybe feet you know what are the plants so it doesn't have to be trust of like, but trust who's The very place many journalists not all but where many journalists work or the very place where unconscious bias is most likely to emerge. So we have to be aware of it. There's also blind spot bias, which is in journalists, we are really good at this that we can hold other folks to account without holding ourselves to account within these organizations is one of the big frustrating things about our profession and that we're constantly pushing on to get folks to be mindful of it. The other one is performance bias. Now, this is connected to affinity bias, because if someone is connected to your affinity group, or part of a dominant group, if there are deficiencies and this is for you, managers, which is all of you, if there are deficiencies for instance in a resume and they're part of your affinity group, chances are you're going to see those deficiencies as potential whereas if they are not connected to your affinity group, you're going to see them as deficiencies and judge them based on their proven accomplishments, particularly as it relates to folks of color. So performance bias is something to be very mindful of, and to be thinking about.
The other one, and this is a tip, as you are all often working for nonprofit organizations that aren't large and have room for elevation in the way that some larger traditional news organizations did is this notion of lateral moves. And lateral moves are moves within an organization that can provide an opportunity for someone to take on a project fulfill some sort of initiative without a formal promotion. And it's something that can help develop foster morale, build confidence and set people up, according to Korn. Ferry, which is a firm talks about that lateral moves are the precursors for promotions and raises and who are least likely to be tapped for lateral moves in organizations. Well, folks of color and women of color and explicitly black one. So, if you want to think about how to engage, provide an opportunity for direct report, and you can't necessarily promote them, a lateral move is a powerful way to fulfill to build their skills, invest in them and set them up to be seen across the enterprise as a real asset. I'm going to kick through these just because I want to be respectful of time. I like to end on time. That's how we do it in the Maynard Institute. This quote, no good being observing if your own cultural conditioning causes you to misinterpret what you're seeing. Now usually when we do fault lines, it's over multiple sessions. There'll be homework and assignments. So this was a bit of a rush job. But I think I'll send you as I mentioned these, this deck, so you have this and can reference it and happy to answer any questions. The one thing I do want to call out as they were people often say, Well, where's dei happening? Well, and I want to call out our colleague Ashley Alvarado with Southern California Public Radio, which is driven this really impressive Taskforce, I recommend if you haven't read up on this effort that has been underway, because it talks about the breadth of investment that must be taken to make to center diversity, equity inclusion in the enterprise. And so if you're and I want to arm you with information so that when you go back to your organization, if you run into any of these challenges, you can point to some places where stuff is happening, and they are really transparent about the amount of investment that has taken in that Ashley has had to undertake and they talk specifically about people working in working groups and freeing them up to have time providing additional compensation. So there's a lot of really good information here. And I guess, we can take three minutes here. I'm gonna get you out of here at 1135 so that you have lunch, but I just wanted to take a few minutes just to ask now that you've been introduced to this framework, in some forms of bias. Did you learn anything about yourself? What might you do differently as a manager, and what might you need to be mindful? And maybe just a couple of thoughts and then we'll get you out of here to get some food. And if you want to sit with it, and we can come back after lunch, and you can I can ask what you do the belonging piece, we could also do that. Why don't we do that? It's been a long morning. So think about this a little bit over lunch. And then when we come back and we'll do the belonging section, which will be much more of a conversation. I'll have a few slides but from that at that point, we'll be doing a lot more chatting. With one more time. So thank you very much.
Thank you so much for Thanks, everybody. Just as a quick housekeeping reminder, if you're going to the market using your car today. You probably want to go there on the earlier sides. Make sure that we will do a hard startup life otherwise great.
Thank you was about to show. Oh, it's Irving Washington. The former president of Boeing. He his last year was last year so I'm just channeling him since he can't remember it's very okay. Recognize the face. So he's with us. Thank you for your comments. Really was what needed to be heard, and to hear from me I couldn't imagine it. Well, thank you. Yeah, thank you for the Seattle thank you for mentioning your perspective. Really?
Yeah. Because I'm I live in Argentina. And I work in the US with Latino communities that are rich. This is my rating in obviously with that perspective. That is more inclusive.
That's interesting. So this
rate, really grass Yeah.
I had problems
A little later on Right
oh no, I got to grips with that strategy you got it slides. Yeah I think.
order to save
our stairs with a long range here.
It was a hyperbola I want to offer I mean I live here.
I'm getting ready trouble
48
Yeah, because
I was going back and she's like
newsletters on the internet
I got my
404 Yeah I was here Yeah, that's great. Thank you but you know I think it probably took me less
than a year here than it did on a resume straight oh yeah to carry
on you pass through Canvas and then I want to do this a lot. I've been so sorry you're so so
nice about helping happens with jersey. Outside is like
really interesting apartments
a lot of fun but
yeah, so the second flat rate
it's like four, everybody.
As well
like it wasn't like a lizard
people say like Yes. Like
every every time it's important
your first job
at Walmart or now
work for like worked on was
like a source.
going to want to hear and listen to a story reported about like your life support right again, I'm assuming because right yeah, it's really hard.
It's nice to close.
A panel on Friday guys.
You want to go
talk to the camera? What's
up like
to but I think they haven't
even sort of actually understood that like, like it is.
So you just say what
are you all
about you ever been reasonable? She says
to me when you like so I wasn't lonely
you not heard Senator Fischer. What are you doing? Jamie food's gone
you seen Jesus the best
like she? Yes. She and I worked for like several years
together
in Wilmington, Delaware. And uh, you know, she wants to the future to cancer started
but she's like, she makes
you better not I just got going for grace. She was an economy reporting firm. So she's gonna work for you I think we got for
ya
like to wear
shoes a lot because I'm like very people pleasing. And so I like going outside almost every store right
Good evening, everyone back together. It is going to be a
skill. It's a skill that
I should have liked. And I will talk for our side of it really scared and that's when families
how to wash off yours and I did well, last week
or whatever. But it was just,
I just can't help myself. And I feel like there's only so many skills you can learn
but I also didn't want
to I do this I was looking for
like the super
dancers out there.
I've seen I know.
Like if this
is a vaccine because rice yeah like that's what I think. Right. And so, yeah, I was wondering, too, like the digital stuff. Is working product Johnson.
Wing seven was digital editor.
And I hope you like your content story.
Just say Oh
yeah. Yeah
you yards or so. So yeah, just keep your wits about that.
Oh so
convenient. Now
y'all are
in like cards with
all of the like, there's different teachers, but like a central house burned out. Our agenda is special.
Powers, but
that's what we do. That's how we can help us and we're also depressed
in this mission is to serve
you you're here. And you have a
source that
you want to help out with. Like journalists have always protected. Press Freedom.
We found what was called the mini for Freedom Report. It's mostly the best that it has support orders.
IRB dot center
resource orders will be sued or your sources aren't nearly as
much useless matter
what sources
we never we tell them what to expect. We tell them like ethiopiaid Like if you have an NDA, there's a wasp
return to it. So like, we don't encourage people to think that they want to do it. Yeah. Right. And that's because they
jabra.com Sadly one is more about raising awareness. That means it's right.
Behind me, I think losing
money it's up for sale. I'm very
good. At the secondary research conference for me.
So like, for like a few would be a source. Plenty to be able to have but there's a large username that we can use.
It can come
in handy to have
so like guidance for that source. Within official Justice
Department. I think everybody does
at least always investigates
the language straight up just asking.
So I see like,
all you're gonna have to do is share your experience,
but they can't support spiritually mentally
and emotionally like to strive for time.
So rightly so. I
mean, I'm not saying let's get the are like
the federal law this is how this works. Nobody has done what whistleblower
is a we did
we can help progress. Let's
do it. So we transition to the next also to experience working journalists.
We don't want you to know I was I
wasn't so far back because I parked my car from
time to time just keep going right but then of course that will be a source source. But we know we know how to fix it so like added cool. So like anyway, stuff like that because my experience was understanding how easy it is to after source control standards we would have just with our with our attorney last week. Yeah, I think most people that are good stuff. I'm happy to send it to her.
She was like last week and she's like
she was good. Gradually. Referrals are so we've already started to kind of organize the training so it's not like you always do
you're not talking about which
actually goes against your it goes against what you're doing. Yeah, so no, I'm sure that's hard to recognize. We had a newsletter. Oh, that's great.
But now we have operations and so she would also be interested to learn more.
Really just, yeah. It's like and then number two, it was super
super nice. Number 208.
I was like your reaction things aren't a thing. No
like he's a very
Yeah, like you
how do you find the whistleblowers all the time and have these conversations with like how they're trending
on Twitter, the last greenhouse
usually what I think
sorry for as long
as we have I think around one
what is your
right
so where is happening?
So the question
was literally
notice, like sources
you had she's really smart. And
was helping me I actually going we are. We are actually working on one of them.
Forever for you.
Oh, yes.
Yeah, yes. Yeah. So
and she was saying that
one of the things could have been training in other people.
Which is why I like
pretty much a story about that
why would somebody need Wi Fi there was no PCT. Yes.
And it's not your next.
Record. I'd love to do it. I love it a lot. Stay in front of you, John as we get out, yeah. So his best friend you have is like a sort of any blame game and it's only because you don't want to take it either. He was like, I'm like I have to shower like I was like, Don't worry.
No time no often
Yeah. At least to me, white to red as
you can see today do you have a sci fi adapter?
Okay. This is a brand new laptop so like I
said, Yeah, I can show you show you. Of course. Yeah. So
what's the one very reference to references right those are all the teachings which is perfect. General. It's such operation. There is no way
though like, I mean, this is me. versus me and me. Yes.
Two more because
that sounds amazing. Everyone
thanks for joining
us for our like as far as how nutritious
she got.
Most
of us do there's one or two.
Even here at this conference, I love getting to know like ever. Like I do whatever works for you. Right? Yeah, no, no. Right or left behind. So he was probably in your own hair.
dryer is six
years just
yesterday. This is really
awesome.
Watching the.
American public
What's up right so it's like
saying that there's there's
around. Yeah, just therapy
around.
Yeah
we recording
Yes. Reading
the only way to go from here is now the Speaker
Oh, no, no, no.
Yeah.
But right now it's waterfall
but because of that
right. This is the app for Yeah.
Yeah, for sure. For sure. Right now
we're just a little bit graduates,
can you help us nothing is gonna seem like that
sky
so yeah. So basically scraping scraping scraping out a society
like this is just like
me
very close to me. Which is also
the issue of
she had same time. Like I said, this is what actually is this family system
like it would be nice
sorry, I know what I'm doing I swear to you
Thank you. I always forget that and there's like the pictures in the show. Join.
I know. Yeah, I know. I was like, Oh man, I like it looks so good. No, it's my time is
almost over. So we
just slept for six months
or six months that makes more sense.
To you
doesn't mean anything which
is the same thing and then?
Yeah. I was like doing up to 30 trillion sorry. Did you whenever you're ready
What's up years ago Senator
voted most recently right before the speaker comes to have your document but it's weird
because like some of the parts I remembered that I mentioned are fundamentally public services. Yeah. Goes to its root system. Did you work
for us for people today. Wait, why is it such a good news happens to the business review which has many aspects to it. That's the messaging part.
Yeah. Oh
yeah. Yeah, it was six or seven years
old school formula with five people. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, right. All right. Thank you so much, everybody for being prompt. I hope everyone got a chance to eat. A couple of questions that have come up. The gift card is a gift regular gift cards. It's good for whenever so if you didn't get a chance to use it today, that's fine. It should be good the rest of the week. The other thing is a hot off the presses. I had asked that every presenter share a personal tip something that everyone could take with them. And that just got distributed. to you because we didn't have it from the printer this morning. So everyone should have a copy of that now. And our next presenter who's an overachiever and always sent to tips. So I think that's as good an introduction of any for Kimberly. So Kim was at Arizona Republic. She was just accepted to a JFK Stanford Fellowship, which she's going to begin shortly after this conference is a former OMA board member and has done the type of training we're doing today. Again, a lot of it's like customized for you but has done the sort of training with our women's leadership accelerator and some other leadership programs. So you're in very good hands and with that, I'll turn things over to Kim.
Okay, I'm gonna do this because I wander and I'm gonna guys, this is very confusing. Yes, no, there we go. Okay. Hi, I'm Kim. Very short things. I am an incoming DSK fellow. I was at the Arizona Republic and a very long made up title that involved like innovation audience and I don't know we just kept tacking words on to it. So I can get paid more. And I have written like, a bunch of leadership things. I co hosts sincerely leaders of color with my friend Emma crew grow VM. I have a newsletter that I send out like maybe twice a year. Called the middles about middle management and bunches of other things. I used to just say I was at Kimberly on Twitter, or to x or x or whatever it's called. So whatever platform it is, I'm most likely at Kimberly, whatever it is, but I'll give you guys my email at the end and I will send these out because there's lots of links in this cool, um, so I Oh, divvied this into four sections and everybody should have like some form of sticky notes in front of them. You're going to need those. So a pen and sticky notes cuz I'm trying to make this like interactive. And you're gonna have to forgive me. This is a version of something I normally do like an hour and a half in two hours. So we're trying to like crunch things in but I split it up based off of all the survey responses, you'll have a little bit about you, just you and leadership in general, a little bit about your team, whoever, whomever works for you a little bit about managing up and your boss because that would seem to be a big question. And a little bit about your peers, either new or former or all of the above. Okay, so I wanted to start first with a few things that are like I will consider like my theories on leadership in journalism, and I think they apply kind of everything. Some of these are repeats of what Martin told you this morning, but probably phrased slightly differently, but just to re emphasize things. So, okay. I have this theory that I call bowling balls and pebbles. So when we're talking about power, which is not a word that we used to, we used in journalism, when I was starting in leadership, but power and influence. So when you are a individual contributor, whatever level whatever kind of individual contributor you are, just imagine you have a bucket of pebbles, those pebbles are your, your social capital is like the fancy word to use it for, but like, what I say is like the fits that you can throw, the number of things that you can be mad about or yell or scream about and say like this is not right. You have a bucket full of pebbles. It's a giant bucket. You have lots of pebbles, the impact of those pebbles is pretty small, because you're an individual contributor. Right? So you can throw 50 pebbles at the man capital T capital M, and it might not topple anything, but if 50 of you throw 50 pebbles, that there might something might happen. But as you grow in influence and power and leadership, you start to switch those pebbles for boulders and bowling balls. So everything that you do has more weight. But you don't get as many you're not going to get 50 pebbles, you can't throw 50 Fitzy or you can throw 10 Five, whatever whatever it is, it depends on your newsroom, and depends on your level. But everything you do has more impact so you can topple things, but you have to make choices about how that works. And that's sort of I've had long talks with other friends who have made it to leadership and journalism and talk about how your social you think that when you get to leadership that all of a sudden you're going to be able to run ship the way you wanted to. You can be do whatever you want because like, you know, like that's what the dude did. But that is not necessarily you're always beholden to someone or something. Especially the way most leaders and especially most leaders in this room probably show up where we're not authoritative. We're not. We're not dictators. We are servant leaders. We're collaborative leaders are a bunch of different phrases for it. But that means that you have to you have to conserve your volleyballs and so a lot of what I'm going to talk to you about today is planning for when to throw your ball bowling balls. And when to when to topple things.
Okay, so that's number one. And I'll refer back to that in a little bit. The second is culture of feedback, which a few people said in the survey, they wanted to talk about how to create that. I could give a whole thing we could talk for hours about creating a culture of feedback, but the number one thing I will tell you about creating a culture of feedback, creating a culture of collaboration is if you can't take it, you can't give it if you're not asking your team for feedback. And if you're not accepting it and changing yourself, then there's no reason for them to accept your feedback because that you are the model and I'll come back to that you are the model for how everybody is going to behave who works with and under and around you. So you should be asking for feedback and it's very uncomfortable. Especially from people who work for you. But it is really it's good for you keeps you humble. It keeps you constantly growing. So crave feedback, ask for it all the time. Ask your boss for it. Ask your colleagues for it. One of the best things that I ever had was when I did the pointer Diversity Leadership Program, they did had all of us do 360s So you had a your boss to colleagues and someone who worked for you, give you like 100% very honest feedback. And the things that I was told in this piece of five pieces of paper where things that truly completely changed how I I interact and one of them was like Ken needs to suffer fewer fools. And I thought I was being I wanted to be nice because I didn't want to be a mean boss because I had losses, but apparently I was being too much too nice. And people were seeing that others were taking advantage of me. And if I had not gotten that feedback, I would not be the person I am today. Not the leader I am today so ask ask for it as often as you can another thing is transparency matters. So transparency means a lot of things. And when you gain and power, you will know a lot more. You're going to know the ins and outs you're going to know more back with why decisions were made. And transparency is something that these are choices that you're going to make about what to tell your team what not to tell your team what you can what you cannot. Some of these sources are going to be made for you. Like HR things you can't you can't say why Bobby is out for two weeks. But it's because his wife has cancer. But you but you have to you have to be transparent enough to tell your team what is happening without betraying confidence. So this it's a it's a tricky balance. But you have to be transparent see transparent because transparency matters in trust. Okay, there's, there's some books you can read about this, but they're like their five forms of power. I only list four here because I don't like the fifth. And I'll tell you why in a second. So the first is like career rewards. This is like the legitimate powers the technical phrase for this. So it is like actually hiring firing promotions like that sort of like what you know the the management part of being a boss. knowledge and expertise is you know, your subject matter expert in when I put knowledge on there because it's also like knowledge about how things are happening and why things are happening. And then charisma which is also called Referent Power, which the bottom two are ones that I try to employ the most and you don't have to do all of these things. You just have to find your perfect mix. So charisma is like being an inspiration. Being a model for people and being someone people want to work for and work with. And then the last is a connection and relationship with being the person who knows everybody being a good networker being the person who says like, Oh, you have a problem with this, you should talk to so and so they can help you fix that. I can't actually do anything but this team can. The fifth one is called coercive power. And it is like authoritative dictator. And as it's probably clear, I don't think that that is a model that is popular in journalism leadership right now. I you know, when Martin was talking about like millennials and Gen z's, like that style of leadership is not necessarily super in, in use and or accepted by those generations. So I don't talk about it a lot. There are times where you have to use it. But most people that I have coached or worked with, it's like the least on their list and the one they like, you know, employee when only when they have to. Okay, um, there's one more after this. You will constantly be perceived and judged, and sometimes unfairly. So the deal you get when you get social capital, is that more people are going to look at you. I'm gonna give you like to like one like very one, two concrete examples. One is, at some point, when I started on when I was an associate editor, I didn't actually have anybody under me, but I ran projects at the time at a public radio station. I was constantly being confused for being 23 and just out of school and I had senior editors who I worked with for years, like thinking that I was like, basically an intern. And and I hate that I had to do this but I did I started having to buy clothes at Banana Republic, or nicer clothes. I had to put makeup on I really hated to do this, but in that newsroom in order to get any sort of to be perceived as a leader. You had to be old. And so I had to make myself look older, which really sucked and I I regret I hated doing that to this day and I wish I did not have to do that. And that's like a culture that I try not to create now that I'm in a higher leadership position where I can create culture, but at that time, that's something that I had to do because otherwise I was not going to be perceived as an authority on anything, because they would confuse me with the Enter. And this is like a pretty constant problem, especially with like women of color, who often don't look quote unquote, look their age, and then you'll also be judged. The second example I give you is I worked at a place that was a startup and sure my NDA is out on this I wouldn't notice and I was really mad about a decision that they had made regarding a not great person I worked with and and they had some claims against them. And I did not like the way that they handle that. And I found out about it in like a not great way either. And so the where I worked with there are two big connected rooms, one where all the producers worked at one where all the management was. So there's a hallway connecting them. And when I found out about this, I literally stopped and I didn't notice I was doing this clouds pit straight like I literally stopped from one room to the other. And I got reprimanded so hard from that they're like you cannot you are part of management. And you people look up to you. So the way you react, you're giving them permission to react the same way. And when Martin was talking about being an agent of the company, there are choices that you have to make about when you stop was kind of like the reference I make to myself yet. There are choices you have to make about when because if you do that, everyone will see it and it will be viewed as a big deal. If you if the editor in chief slams the door. It is a bigger deal than if a entry level reporter signs the door because that means Oh no. What if they're going to fire everybody? What if something has something must have happened? Like it's a big deal. So there's perceptions because of lack of knowledge, when you're talking about hierarchies, because theoretically, the person at the top has the most knowledge about everything people at the bottom had the least amount of knowledge. So at that, at that time, the newsroom did not know why I was stopping from one thing to another. They just knew something was real bad. And I kind of I didn't realize that I was changing the tone of the conversation that was about to happen. Neither of those things are fair. Those suck that it's the worst the worst part of leadership to me that like I have to constantly be better or be like not be able to always be true to myself, but I try to find ways to be authentic to myself, that are not places where I'll be perceived. Yes, of course. Maybe it's
a longer conversation but I am always looking for tips or suggestions on how to remember that anger expressed outwardly i Yeah, you know make all the facial expressions that you don't see anything but everybody can read it on your radar.
Um, I have a terrible poker face. No, I have a terrible poker face. People know when I'm pissed. But I try to not be not draw attention to when I'm mad. So if I'm in a room if I'm in all staff and something someone says something where I am like what the what I like try really hard not to I just sit there quietly, and I'll just like stare down on my phone and like pretend to be doing something else. I try to like save that for later. This is not necessarily the most healthy mental health thing for me, but I try it but I've tried to make sure that I'm like I'm really pissed off about this. I'm going to save processing it for later when I'm not in front of the whole newsroom. For for me, that means learning not to like tempering my facial expressions because that's the thing that's most obvious or like my body language, or the things that give me away the most. Or sometimes I will just flat if I'm mad I will just flat out in someone said something and you know what? I have thoughts about that, but I would like to think about them before we discuss this further. Can we come back to this? I mean, once I started crying in a room because I was so upset about something and I was just like, I gotta go and I left and came back. And that is like that was a bowling ball I did not intend to use but I used it so it's sort of like fine and it is really important on the other side of that, too. have places where you can alleviate that internal tension. So get a therapist have a friend, vent to your spouse or partner or whatever it is you gotta find place you can't keep it inside. You gotta you gotta like express it somehow. You just got to be careful where you're expressing. There's a lot more than we can talk about but in time. Give it grace to get grace. The other rule I have is like everybody fucks up. You're gonna fuck up your team's gonna fuck up. There's just no way sorry. I should have mentioned I curse a lot. There is no way to do this job. And by this job, I mean journalism that's constantly changing in a realm that's constantly changing in a world that is changing faster than we're able to without screwing up at some point. You can hold yourself to a higher standard, that's fine. You should you should do that. But you also need to know that if you want to be able to allow be able to be allowed to screw up, which you should because you're going to you have to allow the team to screw up. So if somebody is bad, right? You were asking about like managing people and they're not moving at the pace. My internal thought about that was like, you can't push people to move faster than they're going to move. Some people grow very slowly and it's really annoying, I think a lot faster than the average bear. So I have had to like learn that I cannot make people think faster. It's gonna frustrate them more to expect them to be anything like me, or do what I think they need to fail to learn. And a lot a lot of people in this industry need to fail to learn and that the worst part of that is that you get to watch them fail, and then you have to walk them through that. But that is why I think of leadership management. More as coaching then as like direct management because you have to coach them through that a coach in sports, like knows that not everybody is going to make the slam dunk or make the basket but they have to coach them through. You're gonna mess up but as long as you know, on a like overall stats wise, you're doing well, then that's what that's what matters. And people grow at the age they at the space they grow it. So if you want to get gross you have to give it Yeah.
I'm just curious, how
are those failures? How do you celebrate those and build that culture of celebrating failure without being greedy
or uncomfortable?
I don't talk about them as failures. I talk about them as lessons. So like one of my many random theories about management is like you always have to learn forward and then instead of saying fail forward, I say learn for so if as a team, we've decided our end goal is to increase pageviews by 100%. And then we're going to try 15 different ways. And 10 of those are going to fail actually probably like 2012 of them are going to fail. But we're going to learn something from each. And one of the things we don't do very well in journalism is read retrospectives for post mortems and actually look at those not as like, you know, so and so was mean this didn't work out. We should never do this over again. But like, what can we not do next time and what can we try again? In a different way. There's only so many ways to tell a story, for example. So like you have to be able to like, adjust and then think of it as fine fine tuning. So when someone fails at something or like they mess up a story, what you're going to write 10 million more stories in your career. So now you know that you have to make sure that you call the press person at 3pm not 5pm and we're just going to make sure that they do that next time and that you're that accountability right there of you need to know remember to this next time that's your job to make sure that that person stays accountable for it. And to remind them of that. Okay, you right, you made it. Right. You're not done. It's not the top there. I mean I was basically a managing editor of my last role. And I thought this is as high as I ever thought I wanted to go as a managing editor never wanted to be an editor in chief. But like there the my role may have stayed the same or title may have stayed the same but I had to grow a lot. There's always something to learn something to grow. If you don't, if you're not constantly growing, constantly learning, then you're probably a bad boss. Because you need to you need to adapt to your team, to the industry to all the other forces around because there's no perfect formula to do this. And you could you could perfect it for one team. But then if you do really well, they're gonna give you another team. And then you got to perfect it for the other team and you can't apply the same formula to the other team because it's a different group of people. It's they have different jobs, everything's different. So no that like internalize that like this. There's never a point where I'm done. I know that there's it's going to be hard. It's not an easy job to be a leader. It's incredibly lonely. You don't have very many friends. People hate you for weird reasons. But like there are the hard moments should be equal by the rewarding moments either like you've grown, if you've learned figured out how to do something or you watch other people learn. You watch them fail and fail and fail and then when the one time they figure it out you buy them a cake, which is what I do. But like watching, that is the best part. I was I was really depressed when I left reporting because I loved reporting. But the best part for me being a boss is like seeing people have that aha moment. That is just like I don't know, I think it's personally incredibly, incredibly beautiful. Okay
all right. Um so finding your influence. So we talked about kinds of power. And as even if you manage one person or technically if you manage zero people, you you're in this room because you have some form of influence. You're viewed as some kind of manager or leader. And what we're gonna do over the next bit is to find that and hone in on it and actually be able to like mold it to what you what you need. So a few things you have to be like I'm I developed this because I'm a visual thinker. I like drawing things out. I'm a teacher. I'm actually terrible artists, but I like drawing things out because I've seen connections. It helps me helps me out a lot. And we're doing this on sticky notes. Because the again, as things change, things are going to change, you're going to need to move things around. So whenever I do this for myself, I move them on sticky notes or I do it on like a mirror board. digital whiteboard. Yes.
The first part of the mapping. Do you are you talking about the people who were leaders people used to supervise lead like Or is everybody draw connections like
this person is frozen?
Yeah, yeah, that's what we're gonna do. It's been incredibly helpful for me. I've been doing this for about four years and it's it's really made a difference for me. So first little thing. You have a pad of sticky notes in front of you. One sticky note per person in your round. You can make it as big or as little as you want. You can do the whole journalism world. You can do just your newsroom. You can do just your team, whatever it is. And just put one name or group so it can be like it or the investigations team, or it can be the name of a person per sticky. Put that put it at the top leave room for notes below.
Your work.
Yeah, it's up to you the first time I did this, I got way too philosophical and I like literally like started with the Illuminati. I would suggest starting with like your team and like people who directly work
once you have this all mapped out
so people won't be like walk in your office. Oh, oh,
I see this little bit later. I do not show this to people. Dear God do not show this to people
the President also I don't want people
to see I usually like when I do this for I do this for beat reporters on their beats and I do on like one of these and then I roll it up and like have them put it wherever they need to put it I bought like a mural or any of those whiteboard things also help because it's digital. But like at home, I usually have one. That's yeah. So leave room for notes. We'll be adding to those notes as as we go along. And this is where I'm trying to like speed up this very long process. So as I talk you're welcome to like scribble things down. And I wanted you to have this sticky notes so that you can take this with you and you can keep building it as as you go. In an ideal world, I would be playing you Elizabeth song and I will give you three minutes to do this. But Trevor has been on a schedule. Okay, so your your team, which is probably the people you started out with. So, you might hopefully by the end of this we'll be able to see like what your influence is what you can control and the question is like, how do you use this for good for the folks that work for you? And a few a few notes on that. Know what you can change and what you can't and not don't just know it, but share that. One of the biggest frustrations I see in newsrooms or that I've heard about in newsrooms is I don't know why we shifted from subscriptions to pageviews. This is bullshit. Like, where did this come from? And, you know, an entry level recorded be like, I don't understand what happened. And it's because that's what and you can't do any. Maybe you don't agree with that. Maybe you're like, I mean, I'm not a pageview person. So like we did gonna do the switch and I was like me don't like it. But I was like, I can't say I don't like it because that has to be done because that is like now what we are judged by. So I mean, I just phrased it to my team as like, this is the strategy. We got to make it work for us. We got to make it so everybody on this team is happy, but also achieved this achieve this goal. We cannot change the goal. There are times where you can change the goal. There are times where you can change the thing, but I find it's built a lot of trust with somebody who like I can't change this. I can't do anything about that. I can't fire that guy that you think is a jerk. I can't he doesn't work for me. I can I can barely even like it. I can talk to his boss but I can't do much about it. And just being that that transparent that honest about what you cannot change or what you cannot influence matters a lot to folks, especially when they have like there's not enough information. When you're thinking about your team, to think about who to invest in, in look at their growth. I see people for their potential. And I hire I don't hire people to fill in like bullet points on a job. I hired them for who I think they can be with with coaching, knowing that it's going to be a pain in the ass for me to coach them probably. And that's a lot of work. But in order to know how somebody, if somebody can grow, how they're going to go what it takes for them to grow, you got to get to know them. Like and not just like you know what stories are you working on this week, but you have to like get to know them. I have I once had someone who worked for me who was like not doing super well. And like no one could figure it out got moved around from team to team. And I figured out because you know I talked to them that their mother had been diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and they were helping out a family so they could not contribute as much as they used to. They didn't have the mental capacity. And that but that was not something they willingly shared. So it's like a very personal thing. But I was able to work around that be like okay, I get it you need this time. How can I get this XYZ that is necessary? I needed to write two stories a day. How can we get that out of you without overwhelming you for the rest of your life? And because I want you to grow you want this job? So what what this is what I need for you to get the promotion or the raise or whatever it is you need. And the last thing is like things viewing things as issues or opportunities. We are unpaid therapists as leaders and a lot of times people will come to you with some form of complaint. And um, there's a couple of questions I usually ask one, are you venting? Or do you actually want a solution? Because sometimes people just need to vent. We're just fine. You get like five minutes with me to vent and then I'm like, Okay, now you gotta go talk to somebody else about this. But if they want a solution, I'm like, do you want me to give you a solution or do you want me to help you work through solution? Like is this an opportunity for you to figure out how to do whatever project management or how to do data, it's really frustrating to you this seems not work but maybe it's an opportunity. So like, kind of try to identify whether something is an actual issue like something that something has to change, or it's an opportunity where somebody can grow or something can change. That's my optimism speaking but it does normally work out. Okay, and that sort of comes to this is a quote from one of the books I recommend, which is the hard thing about hard things, which is from Ben Horowitz who is a startup guy, and it is a very like startup, kind of like management book, but he talks about things like firing your friends. laying off people that you've just hired like off the global legit like very hard things about being a manager. And this is sort of like my call to action that I gathered from the book which is like a good chunk of your job is to see things to have a very specific you are put into leadership because you have a very specific viewpoint, not just your skills, you're probably very skilled, but you have a viewpoint you see things that other people might not, you might have some form of power that you might not have thought you have, but and you can also get things done. So with your knowledge you can search for a solution you're looking for, for answers. It's a really good short book by the way, not not super, not super long. The like looking for answers thing is like when I think leadership leadership is a journey of journeys. There's a bunch of journeys that you're gonna do. Um, you're always going to be looking for an answer who controls this or what can we change about this or how do we get this project done? And you will always need answers you will not always get them but you're always be looking for them.
So that that is like understanding the landscape. So that's the point of the map. The point of the map is to understand at a very high level the landscape in the world that you're you're working in in order to like actually utilize your power in a very like practical manner. one on ones are the best way to get landscape ideas. You one big thing about one on ones. They are not for what story are you working on this week? Do not waste your one on one on that. That is like you should be talking about that regular team meetings. What are your one on one minutes for? How are you? What you know, like how can I help you? Where do you want to be in yours? Oh, at the Republic we had a bunch of people leave and um they did an exit survey. And the number one thing was that people said that their bosses did not know anything about their career. their career aspirations isn't easy talking face. Hello. What do you want to do in five years? Oh, let me help you get there. It's not it's not a hard question. You just have to listen, you have to ask. And that is what the one on one is for. You're not going to have time to do that otherwise if you say I'll go yeah, I'll ask him about that later at the review. No, you won't. Or it'll be too late. Yes, sir.
I think you know, when we ask those when, when I personally asked talk to those managers, I was like why aren't you talking to your people about like, what they want to do? They're like No, we aren't I'm like Are you like so and so what do you know what they want to do in five years, right? They want to be a whatever and then we go to so and so. Oh, no, I wanted to do why would I wanted to do one politics story. I learned I hated it. So I actually want to be a features writer that you didn't ask. You're making assumptions without like, gathering all the knowledge and one on ones or that information gathering. And sometimes it's not even just about what some people will be like, I don't really need to change my job right now. I love my job, but I need more time. So I can hang out with my kid. That's my career aspiration for the next five years. Okay, how do we do that? Yes. Do
you wear the one on
ones do you
schedule that
checked with you? Is there an ideal? I mean, it's certainly a difficult question because it depends on the size of things, but is it once a month too high or too low or anything like that? Yeah. Something I've struggled with because I've had
to check into the people were checking this like,
there's not much to talk about. Yeah, how
was your weekend? What's going on? Although
I do think that there's added to that, yeah.
But I set a cadence whatever the person wants to set which is usually bi weekly. Or weekly. I tend not to do monthly unless it's like a skip level. But because anything past bi weekly like too many things happen. And but I will never cancel. The other person can cancel. I can say like, Hey, do you have anything until I actually don't? If you have nothing other brings me like I have nothing to talk about today. Okay, see you or like let's just go get a cup of coffee and go get a coffee and just chit chat and come back and that's it. That's that's fine. But you have to let them set the agenda. A very small plug. Eric Qurban and I are doing a session tomorrow on building team culture that talks about one on ones at 1111 30. And we're like we'll do like a there's some depth on that because Eric has thoughts
freespace chat or you have your people sent in
attendance. It depends on the person. I have people who are great at bringing me an agenda. So that's fantastic. I have people who will just sit there and stare at me for an hour and I have to break I have to like ask them questions. It's sort of like these. These four questions are the first one on one that I ever have with the person and they're for very specific reasons. Like I asked how do you like to receive praise? Because I want to know how to reward them in a way that actually is motivating to them because I want to know what motivates the person. I asked how do I know you're mad so I can tell when they're mad, and I can help mitigate that. I always ask what's blocking you and I the first time I talked about this like in general, like in general like what what is your major frustration? What's getting in the way of you doing your job? And then what is your favorite baked good? And I asked that because with all these questions, I responded with how, what my thing is because part of this is so if I'm transparent with them about how I look when I'm mad then then they will feel comfortable telling me when how they are when they're mad. So then we'll know more about each other inherently. So like I'll be like, how do I know when you're mad? By the way for me? If you see me chained smoking outside don't talk to me. I'm too mad to speak. But if you see me get real quiet. I'm kind of pissed. And so I usually will ask for time. And so then they know how to interact with you a little bit more. They're like, oh shit, Kim smoking. Let's change smoke outside. I probably should not ask her about the due date on that story. This is not a good time and you learn a little bit about about that person. So you have to share in one on ones as in for like these kind of basic things as much as as much as they do.
Okay, so for your team under like you're in your sticky note for each person. What do you know about what they want? And I say that it's a very broad question because it's both supposed to be broad. What do they do they want a promotion. There's some people want promotion there's some people want raise there's some people who want to leave whatever it is like what do you know about what they want and what they control? And remember that control is not necessarily work related. There are always individual contributors in the room who have more sway with other people think like union shop leaders is a very good example. That's not usually someone in management that is usually someone who's an individual contributor level. But man do they have sway above with other people, they have some version of control and power over other people. Or like maybe somebody is the only person who can do Ruby in your newsroom like, you know, whatever it is like, note that below that and where you can try to like draw like arrows of influence between people. So like, this person, Frank and John do not like each other so you can draw like an arrow and be like a cross. Or you can be like, oh, like Susie and Hannah are BFFs so if I if I if I was mad at me, the others gonna be mad at me. So you have to you have to be sort of aware of who goes to drink with each other is usually kind of a good way to look at it. Who goes to drink with each other who hangs out with each other? Who doesn't do that when
your entire team like the entire company is mostly.
You can usually so remote is hard. But if you have enough open channels like open newsroom channels in your newsroom is a chatty, like Slack newsroom. My last newsroom was not a Slack it was I could not figure out who liked to until I've actually like physically like took myself to the bar where they all hung out to figure it out. But if you have an open Slack channel, you can probably figure it out by who's replying to who who's emoji replying to who? And then you can just like just ask you like, Hey, did you see that? So once I was working on this thing that you're also kind of working on like, oh, yeah, we talked about that the other day. If you get to know folks, they'll be more willing to share that you're not ever going to know about everything. Like they're going to be people who are dating who you're like home but that's fine that's fine it's just like I do I partially do this because I'm also very forgetful person so I like literally like write it down so we don't forget that like, Oh, I saw on Instagram that so and so and so and so went to dinner together so I guess their friends I didn't know that they never talked in the newsroom so that I can remember that for next time and use it as knowledge
Okay, your boss. In many ways people do like their bosses a top like CEO is at the top of this map. The map is not a hierarchy. The map is a literal like map, and technically you are the center of it. So your boss is not the top. I know that seems weird. But I have known CEOs and executive directors who are influenced by the board that they have to report to the stockholders that they are responsible the investors that they have to talk to the Knight Foundation, the Gates Foundation that they have to write stupid reports for like there's always some and if all else fails the public who we all work for technically, they need to like your boss is influenced by them. If one person if the mayor calls Matt about a story that has influence does that so your boss is technically no one is a tough there's it's not like remember, this is not a hierarchy type thing. This is so you can understand the spheres of influence.
shortcuts on managing communication matters when you're managing out. I just talked to a friend on the phone about like somebody who was complaining about something and they were like, I didn't know that this was an issue and they said they reported it to HR. I didn't know I didn't know this was an issue and I was like, did you ask when they told you that like I thought they were just like looping? Yeah, and I'm like, You should probably like if you're like communication styles are like you notice that there's like some sort of like missing link there. Like maybe you need to be more blunt with each other. And like because one time I was I had somebody who was like I'm venting and I stopped them and I was like, Hey, you're venting about this person. This man is white man and you're a younger woman of color. If you feel uncomfortable, I have to tell you right now that I have to report that to HR. So just know that the know that you're sitting you're going to set something and process of process of if you keep talking to me about this, and they actually were like, that's fine. I trust I trust that you will do the right thing like this. So be super clear with your boss about about things. Be like hey, this is a potential problem. I'm just looping you and that's exactly how I communicate with my boss. Hey, this is a potential problem. I'm gonna loop you in on don't You don't need to do anything. I just need you to know that it might come up later. Because he doesn't like being surprised. Or are just like, hey, I'm having a really shitty week. Be because it's my late husband's birthday. And so I'm gonna be less on teams. Okay. Like whatever it is like being more the more communication the better because things fall out of my head. And I have a lot to hold any he has a lot more holes than me. So things are definitely going to fall out with Oh, out of his head. So I try to like over communicate. I'd rather over communicate and under communicate and get in a situation. Back on the boulders. Push your boss with thought. When I disagree with my boss, I I take it very seriously. It's a very serious thing when I'm like I disagree with you. I'm not sure we should do this. Because that's a big that's a big deal. Because our relationship as a guy built I had built it all over like favors, like I'm here to help you do your job better as my team is here to help me do my job better. So when I disagree that's like a big deal. And I try not to disagree too often. And only when it matters to either me morally or my team as a whole. And then, think about that. When you're thinking about your bosses at the top of the map. Think about the bias there. Your boss might dislike a reporter for some god forsaken reason I'm not sure. You know, like they might have seen them like they that person goes to coffee too much. I don't like them. There's bias. Everybody has their own bias. And some people it's hard not to play some version of favorites because of just we're human and we like people who don't like people. And so that factors into stuff. So like if I'm telling my boss about somebody that is having a problem and I know that it's somebody that he doesn't like, I'm really cautious about that because I'm just giving him more ammunition to not like that person. Because I'm just gonna make that like little little arrow even thicker. So I'm very cautious about about doing that. And with what information I give out. It was a little bit of wisdom from my friends about scoring up and about managing up. You will probably part of managing up is like being able to mitigate disasters or mitigate chaos. And if you're going to do that you have to you have to be able to explain yourself and usually people are able to explain yourself and they know what's happening in you communicate, then it's a little bit better. Okay, so about your boss, expand your map. Who is your boss influenced by? It could be like they're like BFFs with one person on the board. Whatever it is. Money is a very thick arrow. Sorry to say it's a world of capitalism, man. Money is a very thicket who allocates the money like they might not like you know, who whoever the funders are. Whomever the revenue drivers are like that is a big influence on the head of the company who writes the budget. In some places the executive editor or whomever is at the top might not actually have control over the actual budget and might be a CFO or something like that. And it makes sure that the community has to be somewhere they cannot they can't not be on the map. Not in the field that we work in. They got to be there somewhere. And, and there there are going to be people who are better at interfacing with the community than others. It might be like the opinions editor because they're out talking to people and they're holding events. I might be the events person that might be the marketing person. I always make really good friends with a marketing person because they talk to the most amount of people in the community.
And so I can like get things they also have more money than I do. And so I try to I try to beg borrow steal further budget
um, and then I made that joke about the Illuminati but like there really are large forces at play you know, I worked for Gwinnett so like getting asked Mom and Dad as they're referred to her not just my boss mama gonna have was like the ultimate but she had a lot of control but even she had influences, but she needed to go on the map. It is a it is a place to place your peers. There are some questions about if you are elevated above former peers the quickest way I can answer this in the time we have left is a try to hit reset with that relationship in whatever way possible. If you can, it's ideal if you can find some sort of project where you are now the lead or the leader or the main person project manager on that project, and so that you get to set the literal agenda and the meeting agenda and everything. Then they can sort of like see where your influences. If you can't, then you have to have a real awkward meeting. It's gonna be awkward, but you should you need to have a meeting about like, Hey, I know we used to work together. I want to make sure that our relationship like continues to be good. I really liked working with you. And now that I'm a little bit above you, I just want to make sure that we're on the same page. I've had, I've had those I really hate doing them. They're really really, really awkward. But you kind of have to do them in some way.
It's okay. How do you do them in a way that still makes them feel empowered.
I usually frame it it's not like I'm your boss now but like, I want to I want to build this continue building this relationship. I'm very careful with my words, about about power above others, especially if it's like someone that's older than me or more experienced than me or you know, whatever it is. I've been in the newsroom. 15 years and I'm like there for a year. I usually I'm just like, I see I value blah blah blah, whatever you give. Like I had a dress somebody who was much older than me down a while ago I was like I value or experience I think you're really great at your job. You bring a perspective and an expertise that I do not have because I haven't been doing this for decades. However, you can't talk to me that way in meetings. Because it to me indicates that you don't respect my experience. And I'm in this role for a reason. And that helps. It's not a knock. Don't give a compliment sandwich but like I'm most I'm just acknowledging, acknowledging what is there what is good. That is there before I give the hard part. You had a question.
I'm wondering about the opposite of fear has
no elevated above you if it's temporary, or you have feedback.
You want something to remember they're not doing or if they could do it a different way. Yeah, that would be better.
Leverage leverage the former peer relationships. Because like, you know, if someone were promoted above me, I would be like, Hey, let's go to coffee to or like drinks to celebrate your, your promotion and be like you know what you should do? Because we bitched about this the other week, you should do x y, z and because the prior person couldn't like leverage, leverage the relationships you have that's like part of the part of the map is like you should understand your relationships to people so when they move around, you can also move around Okay, quick one. This is hard for me to like say much more about the only person who can give you authority, but true authority like own the room is you. No one's going to hand you can you can get the title of leader of the free world and it doesn't mean that people are going to listen to you if you don't show up. And not just show up, but like show up. I have seen a lot of like earlier managers where they get promoted and they won't sit literally at the table. At the editorial meeting. You guys sit at the table. I don't care if you're 10 years younger than everybody else, you have to sit at the table otherwise, they're not going to view you as a peer. You have to show up with authority. And sometimes that's going to require faking it for like a hot minute. But you should hopefully also know that you got the job for a reason. And be extra prepared. Because you're new to management. You have to be more prepared than everybody. There was a I freelanced at marketplace though Public Radio TV, public radio business show for a while and it was terrifying everybody was like much older than me. And very, very good. Literally the smartest people I've ever worked with. And I got up at like five in the morning to read the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and The Washington Post to know everything about business so that I could show up the meeting and not get yelled at by cameras don't called an idiot. I had to do it. There's no way I was the youngest person in the room. I was one of the only people of color I if I didn't show up. If I showed up and I looked like an idiot then they would maybe not think that people do that are younger can be as smart as they are. Okay, so for your peers map the same kind of like who doesn't like each other who does like each other? Because that matters. Because all of this is a way of playing politics. So Okay. One, when you get done with this like when you go home and like one of the things that if you have more time to do is to actually like start drawing circles around people groups of people, then they might not be on the same literal team. This is an IBM example. But they might not be on the literal team but you can be like this is the group that works on state politics. This is the group that has been working on that AI project. And so you know who what spheres are and then you can also be like, this is the union. This this is like that we're clique upper managers that seem to have come up with each other, whatever it is, and then you start drawing arrows because it's going to look gross. It's going to look messy and that is the point. Because power is not clear cut. Power is messy. Leadership is messy. You can't be a perfectionist and it's survival in this job because you can't do production
work how do you apply that?
Sure. Mom again, it's real big. And so at one point, I was like looking for an answer of like, Can I get some audience data that isn't from what parsley? Do we actually do like literal audience out there. It's a big company, there must be somebody who does some form of research. I found a whole department that no one even knew existed, called the audience research department and these poor poor souls put out like all of these lovely things and no one ever no one knew no one knew. And I like made friends with one of them. And I was like, oh my god, this is so useful. And I wrote down their name. Because I was in one meeting with them some random meeting my boss invited me to as I wrote down this guy's name as an audience. Analytics Research Department, and I saved it. Six months later, I was working on a project on bilingual communication or bilingual, our bilingual publication like reinvigorating all of us, and I needed audience research so I could do some demographic targeting, and no one was going to give this to me because we like everyone's like, we don't have that. I was like, No, we have that. And I called up this guy was like, hello, Brad. I can't remember saying I was like, Well, Brad, remember me? We were in that meeting a while ago. I was wondering if we have any demographic information for our readership. He's like, Oh, yeah, here's like, this giant data set that cost like, I didn't want to know how much this cost. It was like more better than comScore. And then I overlaid that with like, census data and comScore and got a really good demographic set. So that's sort of like how I use it. I use it to be like, This is how I can get things I need done or helped with my my plans for the newsroom. And the strategy and the personalities that I want I'm just wondering, yeah, thank you as far as you know,
how they're always these alliances, right?
Especially if it's locations.
Yeah, the one person jobs. Yeah. So I can see the lack of connections. Is there a way? Yeah. So there's, there's a, there's a thing this is partially based off of what community organizations do. There's another thing that's in like more design and tech, leadership, innovation management, that's called stakeholder mapping, and it's stakeholder mapping. So it's usually a little quad of like, invested interested, like this, like this matters to their job literally, and they are actually personally interested in this. Again, the sticky notes so you can like just move them on to the stakeholder map and then you'll know hey, if I get Fernanda on board, then the whole of this you know, this group is also going to be on board because she is a condenser. She is the leader of that small little faction that is not a formal group. So it helps you gain stakeholders for for projects.
Like the messiness
arguments Yeah.
That's exactly
right. I'm actually not going to talk about that so. Um, yes and no. Like, I think ignorance is bliss in a way, but, um,
one one thing is that like every project for me, every project has a different power map. Every idea has a different power map. Every team has a different power map, it's all gonna look different because all the things that are influencing people are going to look different so I'm constantly starting over and again, that's like the reason I put it on sticky notes is not because I love design thinking which I do, but because it literally has to be movable, because things will happen like people will get in fights and then all of a sudden two people who are like BFFs will no longer like each other and then then you will know why like, this project fell apart because the two people had a fight about you.
Yeah,
it shouldn't, but it does. Because I hate playing office politics, but the realization I had was office politics are required. You can't be in leadership and not play office politics and politics is the map is a map of politics.
You are the person that you have
I went to
Europe How much do you
keep to yourself and thinking about like, this is
I'm just going to use this template are my options, person different working with your team
or your team?
But someone else thinks you should try to explain these relationships
to them as you let them figure out what's for you and yeah, helping expand
the map itself is for me, because it is a very, to me, it's been a very powerful thing. Like so powerful that I'm a little worried about people utilizing it for for evil. So the map is for me, the knowledge that the map gives me is what I share with my team. I will be like, hey, you know why that didn't happen because this person and this person hate each other because this person this, this project that happened six months ago, fell apart because they screwed up and so now they won't work together. And so that's why that project didn't happen because one person just shut the other person out. And they'll be Oh, I thought it was just a conspiracy. I'm like, yeah, it's never conspiracy.
Yeah. What do you feel like you draw a line between sharing knowledge with your team versus
feeling like it can be used to make our work better? Or to do a better job, then it's not gossip. Like, you know, who's dating who is normally gossip until those two people who are exes are working on a project and then it's not gossip anymore? That's like useful knowledge.
Okay, um, you can find me on the internet or I'm around like all weekend
Thanks, Ken. That was amazing. Most of us are gonna be available if people have questions after this. You know, if it's within reason, we tried to make ourselves available to you as well. So, so thanks, Kim. And then just reminder, we have a break after the next session, but if you do need to take a quick break and you just excuse yourself, but otherwise, I think we're gonna jump right into it. So we have Martin Reynolds, and we have from the 19 Errin Haines joining us for the next session. Cheers
got a letter a hot seat
Do you Do you want air to wait till you're done with your Uh
huh. No, she can she can be right where she is. We're, we're keeping this rails loose.
Yeah.
Can we just go okay.
Okay, folks, I'm just gonna show a couple. Offer a few little slides just for some perspective on this notion of belonging. And then Aaron and I are just going to be in conversation. And then hopefully all of you will feel free to chime in ask questions and even feel free to ask them questions about anything that happened in the morning. Also, I want to note for point of clarification on the transparency tip, two things emerged following the morning session one. One of our colleagues pointed out within the class slide and faultlines as it related to didn't show enough class disparity. There was some feedback on that in terms of housing. So I wanted to name that and speak to that. We'll look at that slide. And the other was pointing out that the story that we showed about the headline of the Hurricane Irene actually originally was a Forbes story that was pulled into Yahoo. So it wasn't Yahoo. It was a form story. So correction, just want to make those public. Very important. Okay. Now, this notion of belonging is something that I would like to point out to all of you because for us at the Institute, and work around DDI is often centered around this notion of diversity, equity inclusion, of course, I always felt that inclusion was like the C plus. Right you might include your in laws and the holidays. Didn't really mean you want them. You could include somebody in the project, but do they feel like they belong? And so in 2020, when all the calls for dismantling systemic racism and news and decentering white supremacy, culture, and the like, were beginning to happen in the words were being used in a way that hadn't been used before. In a generation. It's at least in mainstream news organizations. With the institute were wondering, well, what are the aspiration be? And I don't want to imply that belonging has not been a conversation and other sectors around diversity work, but it hadn't been something that we had seen in journalism. Have you noticed over the last three years that it has begun to emerge? Because when you belong, you can feel it in your bones. You can feel it in the equitable pay and receive you can feel it in not being the only one. You can feel it in the language you can use to tell the story. You can feel it and how you get to show up in a place and in a space that you don't have to justify. And in a skillet in a time when there are people who don't have a certain kind of relationship in the same way to say dei as others do. I think it's an also a way in which to bring folks in who otherwise may turn away because belonging is for all of us, or at least it ought to be. Now, let's see here. This is from the belonging and othering Institute at the University of California Berkeley. I thought this is a really powerful quote, talking about how the belonging, understanding how structures and systems work across these domains to produce exclusion, or the inverse. And you'll get these slides so but I see somebody will take the picture. So thinking of it in this way. The other is, as you're thinking about your own atmosphere, and I'm gonna ask Erin about her experience in the cultivation of the culture of the 19th but belonging can look like this in that there's an atmosphere where folks feel that they can come to work where they can be themselves and be seen do their best work, to feel included, to feel respected and to feel like this is a place where I get to grow. And I can think of many places colleagues or managers where we've been told how folks are thinking about leaving this profession, because that opportunity doesn't exist. And you as managers, even in these organizations, you get a chance to create that culture through how you manage your people.
Some of these are some examples of what elements of belonging might look like. Certainly conversations are key I think Kim's point I'm I love that data so much. I learned I learned so much from you again. But just this notion of knowing your people and having them in the in the Gallup book, they talk about that a lot as well. This notion of looking beyond just the job to the humanity and I know that Aaron is gonna speak to that as well. Sourcing and then his whole issue around equitable pay is a big one. We did a session last year talking about sort of the challenges around equitable pay and the impact of that, particularly in many mainstream news organizations. Now you won't necessarily be able to solve this problem in the roles that you're in. But being mindful of it, and advocating in service of your people to make the case for them and assessing how, where are people being paid and do inequities and disparities exist? And how you can address those will be a really important part of your role, particularly when you're doing performance reviews, and making the case for your folks. That's a big one. And then, often when we do this work, we look at sort of the what are the internal factors for creating belonging, and what also are the external factors necessary to create belonging? And so here are some examples that are some of the internal elements that are needed. And I won't belabor these too much, but this psychological safety piece is the big one and Ally ship. So having Do you have some power that you're not aware of that could be utilized to help create a deeper sense of belonging within your organization and what might be that? Can you be an ally? In a way that perhaps you don't anticipate? And what's your privilege? Where does it exist? Being mindful of that, and utilizing that in service of your team, and service of your organization, and particularly in service of folks who may not feel as though they belong is a powerful mechanism to achieve belonging and I think the other and here's a question, and we can also talk about this as we get into this conversation, getting you to think about what are the internal factors in your organization that might stymie the creation of a culture of belonging? And then, of course, thinking about whatever constituency you serve, whether it's journalistic academic support organization, what might be the factors that are needed to create belonging for those who you seek to serve
as a manager what we can do to ensure psychological safety?
Oh, yeah, we're gonna get to that. So with that, and I think this will come through this conversation. I want to be in conversation with Aaron. And let's just get right to it. We'll go back to that. All right. All right.
Saw me like screenshotting I'm like I need to do this. To be, are not mutually exclusive from excellence in journalism. That was really kind of a core value of ours. And that felt very different from the culture that I had had been in in previous newsrooms not that maybe people didn't believe that but they really intentional about implemented back even before we started and as with so many of the other reasons that we decided to start the night team, creating the culture that frankly a lot of us wish that we had had earlier in our careers was really important in the culture that that folks were looking for who are who are coming into this industry now and frankly, expect coming into this industry now, was was very important. And so we knew, you know, even from the five of us who started the nineteen's to the now almost 60 of us that are at the night teams like that we were going that was work that we were going to be doing together. And that that was it. It was important that we be on this journey together. And so I think, what I what just continues to be affirmed for me as somebody who covered race for 20 years as somebody who's been kind of an advocate for diversity in media is that this stuff doesn't happen organically. If you are not intentional about it, you will not have a culture of belonging no matter how much you may want that to happen or how much you may believe that that's the thing that should happen. If you are not actively working to bring that about it's not gonna happen.
What that culture of belonging or creating that culture of belonging might look like.
Yeah, I mean,
and how these young managers may be able to employ some of that even in the perhaps in the limited capacity they may have, depending on their positions and their jobs.
Yeah, I mean, so you talked about people bringing their lived experience to work, right. So much of part of that is the recognition that everybody has a voice and that everybody's voice and experience has value to our organization. A lot of times no matter where somebody works in the 19th their perspective, their voice may lend itself to journalism, you know, just based on where they live, what they know what they're seeing what they're living, you know, that may inform the work that we do and just because they're not, you know, a reporter or somebody that's working in editorial, that doesn't mean that they can also raise their hand and say, Hey, this is what I'm seeing on the ground where I live, maybe this is something you guys could use, and knowing that that is welcomed and appreciated, is huge. You know, but it's also, you know, everybody from our CEO to our most junior reporter, fanning out about the Taylor Swift or Beyonce concert that they're going to in our Slack channel and that being totally okay. You know, even alongside the journalism that we are discussing, right, that is, you know, we don't forget to have fun at the 19th we don't forget that, you know, we're actually working with human beings and, you know, journalists who are you know, these folks that have no feelings, emotions, lives, you know, etc. So we have so many Slack channels, so many Slack channels, from skincare to, you know, reality TV to whatever. But that also, you know, again, I think our newsroom was virtual even before the pandemic happened. And so like we had to be really intentional about creating kind of that water cooler. You know, newsroom I get to go over to your desk and just talk about anything kind of culture that we kind of lose in not having that. Our retreats, we've now gotten to have a couple of them in person, have been deeply, deeply meaningful to that work gathering and really gathering not just for the purposes of discussing the work. One of the most fun things that we do at our retreat is that everybody gets up and they do a brief presentation on something that gives us some insight into who they are as a person and the things that you learn about your colleagues that can then first of all, human as that person to you. Second of all, maybe give you a connection with that person that you didn't otherwise have. And then weirdly can help you relate to that person. professionally in a way that you maybe didn't expect. That has been really gratifying. There are people that I've worked with for years and other places that I don't you know, that I, you know, that I didn't get to know things about to the extent that I get to know the people that I have worked with for only three years or less. You know what I mean? It seems
that part of the way that people are able to feel comfortable and feel safe is through this sort of channel of openness and humanity that has been woven through the organization and how it communicates with would you say that?
I would say that I think it also helps that you know, again, we don't we don't just tell people to bring their lived experience to work. We also say respect people, even if they don't share your lived experience, empathize with people who don't necessarily share your lived experience. There are things that are happening in the news that our people in our organization are literally living through every single day. And so to check in with those folks to ask them, you know, how are you doing when you see a story about you know, Asian hate and Asian hate crime or, you know, the latest anti LGBTQ Law that passed in some state or you know what's going on with, you know, erasing black history like, these are things you can say something about that even if it is not affecting you because of what your identity is. You can still say, Hey, I noticed this I give a damn like, I live in this country too. And I'm seeing this and you are my colleague, but you're also somebody that I care about. Right? I think that that that happens a lot at the 19th. And I think that it means a lot for people to know that there are that they have colleagues who even if they don't share their lived experience, that doesn't mean that they don't care about their lived experience.
Do you think this that wouldn't be possible that sort of established that kind of psychological safety or connectivity, if you didn't have the leaders that you have?
No, because I do think that it does start at the like people at the top saying that this is okay. does give a permission structure for everybody to understand. This is who we are and this is what we are doing here. This is this is what we do here. This is the culture that we want to encourage here. That empowers somebody who you know, is a, you know, a very somebody who may not even be a manager or somebody who's a first time manager to say, okay, I can I can do this because, you know, this is something that our CEOs that are a publisher that are you know, people ops team is encouraging me to do.
So for managers, such as these who work in a particular department or aren't necessarily how might they employ sort of a strategy of belonging within the sort of sphere where they are?
Yeah, well, I mean, I think what's great about I mean, we have certainly grown exponentially in three years, but we are still pretty small, I mean less than 100 employees. And so a lot of times I think especially if somebody is even a department of one they can feel very lonely. I'm sure some of you may feel very lonely if you are the only one, you know, doing what it is that you do or or, you know you are managing and you just kind of feel like you're on an island. And, you know, and possibly be helpful and supportive of each other, you know, during that conversation. And I think that that has also been something that people find really helpful.
Guidelines and structures. There's,
there's a prompt, but we're free to ignore it and just talk about whatever we want. You know, I mean, like, you know, just in case people kind of come in there and they're like, I don't know what, you know, what should we talk about, or I don't know where I don't necessarily have an agenda to talk about here. I'm just showing up. And so if you want to go off of the prompt that has been given to you, you certainly can but if there's something on your mind or if you are curious about that person, you know, the your buddy's job or you know, any story that they were anything, you know, you can ask whatever you want, or you can just you know, follow whatever the theme is for that particular pairing
along those relationships. For is it just that one meeting?
Yeah, I mean, it's the start of the app. Well, I shouldn't even say the start of the relationship because I mean, when we onboard, like everybody meets everybody, you will onboard with every single person that works in your organization. And the hope is, that's not the first and last time that you've talked to that person or interact with that person. So it's all meant to not be the last time that you interact with that person. It should be part of an on going relationship, but it is kind of a way to be more intentional about trying to create relationships between people who don't get to see each other on a daily basis.
You mentioned that technically, you're not a manager, but, but But you were a you said a sentient being. Leader. So I'm curious if you can share a little bit about what you think about as being good leadership. Yeah.
And yes, I do want to be clear about that, like editor at large means that I am, you know, just kind of up here and I don't manage anyone. I can't tell anybody what to do. I can't make anybody do anything at the 19th but at the same time as a founding Mother of the 19th, like I do have I recognize my privilege in the organization and somebody that does have a lot of influence and somebody who, you know, people hope can you know, be an advocate or an ally for them. In the organization, somebody who can help to shape the culture, and that's certainly part of the reason that I wear that hat that I wear. And so you know, for me leadership is about you know, showing up for my colleagues and again, it's at large, like however, they are needing me to show up in that moment, right. You need a one on one to talk to me because you are frustrated about a story or you need a one on one with me because you're trying to figure out how to navigate a difficult conversation with a colleague or you something maybe didn't feel good, you know, from a belonging perspective, about some interaction that maybe happened in the organization. What do I do about that? Am I imagining that what do I you know, how do I how should I proceed? You know, from this, so, um, yeah, really just, um, and also like checking on people, like I said, when I can see that the work is is particularly hard. Or when somebody's done a big project and knowing just kind of how much work probably went into that. I mean, I don't necessarily do what that person does, but like, hey, like this was a big deal, but you just pull this off and like record, making sure that people feel seen and that their work is seen and valued also feels important. From from a morale perspective, reminding people that what we do, and what they're doing is very important, especially in this moment when our profession is under attack when there are you know, I just broke before I came in here I saw the Texas Tribune just had layoffs. It's like ah, like, not, you know, every every week it feels like it's somewhere else. And so just Yeah. What, again, like it my leadership, I feel like is it the at large part kind of extends to that and it varies literally on a daily basis. I feel like in terms of what is needed and what is required, and I just am still figuring that out, like all the time
experience, and then I want to open this up for questions and dialogue. Working at the other places where you worked at the post or at AP, where were their management styles. How do they differ? And at the 90 and how and what do you think the impact of that is on folks in those places where you were versus where you are now?
I think at the places that our work before when I got to those places, it was like okay, I have to find my tribe, like what is that is that the black people that work here is that the young people that work here is that other women who work here, like Like where do I fit in here, right? At the 19 Like, it's, we're all the tribe, and that that really is great. That feels really good. I don't I don't I and I'm speaking for myself, I mean, I would hope that most of us, if not all of us, feel similarly or at least that we are trying to create that kind of culture. You know, I think probably I mean, there are definitely times where I'm just like, okay, there are people here that were born after I go to high school and they're talking about something that I have no idea what's going on here. So maybe I'm not belonging right now. But let me just Google it and then maybe I can chime in. But like, they're not making me feel badly about that. Right. Or, you know, if I'm bringing up if I'm making some reference to something that is going over their head because, you know, because of their identity, like it's all fine. But yes, I feel like I'm the 19th is one big tribe as opposed to you know, kind of the tribes that I kind of had to align myself with Lena. Oh, I'm on the politics team. So like, you know, me and the political journalists are like that. That's the team that I'm or the race team. Like, that's the team that I'm on. I don't really I don't really feel like that at them any team.
Questions, reflections?
Everyone,
it's okay to go ahead and then
throw a question but like, What if everyone is on board like separated the top is like nothing can you talk about that?
Everybody, yes.
So, um, I get I get and I get I do, it's not a throwaway question because I get it. We're covering democracy, but newsrooms are not often a democracy right. But that does not mean that the rest of you do not have power, collective power again, strength in numbers. You are modeling the behavior, the culture that you want. But also, I would say to the extent that you are the All of you are able to point out and this is why it's a good thing that we are doing this and this is the benefit to this organization, that we are doing this together. And you and it would be really great if you could get on board with this. You should want to be a part of this. We are doing something together that is going to make this organization stronger. That is going to make our journalism better. Right. I think there's a case to be made for that. Yeah, they should. They should want to be part of that because that that is that is it. It should be it should be seen as a measure of success, that that is a culture that is being fostered. And framing it that way. Maybe.
My question actually relates a little bit to that and that is, can you share with us a little bit about what it means and what it is like in terms of the emotional labor and psychological labor of life? Being a black woman and carrying this information and oftentimes organizations that want to do belonging and inclusion work, put that labor on or expect people of color to carry that work? And so again, back to the importance of why everyone needs to be part of this. Tell us a little bit about what it is like to carry that as a burden, and why others need to
look yeah, yeah. And I will I will just say again, I definitely prefer building culture to try to fix it. But that does not mean that it is not still hard. Even before the reckoning, like I said, equity and empathy, were kind of at the center of what we were doing. And I definitely would not have left my previous dream job as a race reporter for the AP like that was the thing I'd wanted to do since I was an intern. I would not have left that and I say this publicly so they know. I'm not surprised about it be able to, you know, put it on X right now, they would not be surprised to see this. I wouldn't have left my job to work for any to why when I that would not have happened. I felt like they were committed even if we didn't know how we were gonna get there. They were committed not just to the work but to do in their own work around this not me teaching them or you know, hand holding them through that process. And so fast forward to May 22
think what I would also say, you know, for me recognizing that you know, coming into this role is is very different than kind of where I was before. This is the first time I've not been a reporter anywhere that I've ever worked, right. And, I mean, as a founder, but also just somebody who has a, I mean, admittedly like pretty large footprint in the organization like whatever like, I'm on TV for whatever that's worth, but like I am not your regular black woman in a newspaper. And I'm like, very clear about that. And, but like that was an adjustment for me like like, it took some time for me to realize oh, wait, like these like these people see me as the man like how when did that happen? Like what is what is that about? Right but but so being being in a position to be a be a black woman who actually has power in journalism. That feels like a tremendous responsibility and opportunity. It feels mostly like that. It does not feel for me, like, like I am not feeling mostly frustrated any more or mostly like I'm fighting to do the work or create the culture that I feel like should exist. But I also recognize that that is not necessarily the case of every black employee that works at the 19th or every person who may have some marginalized identity that works within it. Right? And so I want to help them to also feel more of that way.
Yeah, don't have time for one more question. We want to give you a break good.
I work for I work for a small nonprofit and I'm wondering if you can talk more about a newer virtual before virtual school too. And wondering if you can talk more about managing through a virtual experience, especially in a nonprofit that's constantly in a state of flux. And or struggling with resources, or lack
changed the mission to say we're focusing on politics and gender and culture. And we say we are not both sides and people's humanity. That is that is an ethos of our journalism here. So whoever is not okay with that, maybe it's a it's a place for you. Maybe it's not the place for you to work. And maybe it's not the place for you to come for journalism. If that's not okay with you, right, and we believe that as an organization so, that is a journey that I am really proud to be a part of. That I hope has contributed to our culture of belonging because it is important. It is important for us in this society and certainly in this profession to show up for each other. So, yeah.
Hi, thanks for this. I'm interested it you said that the night team has seen like exponential growth over the last three years. How have you what challenges have you faced in terms of fostering that culture of belonging amongst that growth? You know, like I, I work for a startup and we're very small team. And I think as we get bigger, we start to face similar challenges I saw in you know, more well established larger publications. And so I'm curious like how you continue to foster that culture as you add exponential team members.
Yeah. Well, I think for one, like I said, like as we continue to grow just continuing to reiterate that every person that we are adding has something to add to who we are as an organization culturally, to add to who we are as an organization and how we get to that culture of belonging. So yes, we have such a range of ideas, identities and experiences that are all contributing to how we think about that. And also, like I said, really, really remembering that all of those perspectives matter but also that is going to take all of us in that everybody is welcome as part of that process. I think a lot of times when we are talking about the work, you can have some white folks who are like well, I don't see how I fit into this conversation or this feels like this is excluding me. And it's like, no, get over yourself. Number one, number two, like I get it like I even you know, whatever, if I wasn't a race reporter I know as a black person as a black woman in America, I think about my race and gender from the time I get up to the time I go to bed every single day. Like that's just what it is. I understood when I came to the 19 that I thought a lot more about my race and I did about my gender Before doing this work. it's like Oh, well, that's why why women like feminism is the purview of why women because they don't have to think about their race. they're focused on the gender part of it. Got it. Okay, so, like, people. People need to feel welcome to people also need to feel like people, people need to be okay with jumping into this work, even if it's hard, even if they're going to say the wrong thing.
everything Oh my god. Somebody's doing that go
Wow. What's your what's your recovery situation?
Education Yeah.
At 50 GT is are
there it's really hard. Sorry to hear about that, you know,
don't fall down.
It's not it's not at our age, right. You know, I had a guy my husband, you know he he's my husband's here and so then he's gonna have to have at some point when Martin did that knee replacement surgery he has just been putting it off. But his doctor has been helping him put it off to his doctors like you know, do this for students for status first. So he hasn't had to have it yet but He's almost there
Well, yeah, now because he had to go back because he came back too soon. Yeah, and I know, I know. He and I talked about that and so then you know, you don't want to come back too soon. Yeah, it is what it is you gotta shut down. Are we are we are Yeah.
I talked to Susan already. She's gonna do a quick two minute on like, what's happening in the upper stratosphere, your organization.
presentation and bringing back into some q&a for about 20 minutes you will be inspired by 2030 questions. Still. Anything else?
Maybe I should get my backpack and we
can do questions about it likely to have the same use
case. So you know, maybe somebody finally noticed or helped out or, you know,
this free thing
yeah, my husband's here. I'm going to under subpoena for this. I do or die
this
goes one minute but you're right now
you too on Well, yeah. Get back on. Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be Yeah. I know you told me I remember you had the song so we like Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's
say something wild Yeah.
Right. So we need to just okay.
All right. Thanks, everyone. I've just been thrilled with everyone keeping up to time today. Don't worry about the extra 10 minutes. We're just gonna take it out close to him. So we're not going to keep you here any longer because it's been a long day. And I also, just since I probably Now apologize about the Wi Fi. We did, obviously have many meetings with the IT team here they are on it. My understanding is that there's some issue with internet coming in through the port to the hotel. So it's not something that's like, we didn't have enough bandwidth for it or something or they're having more tech. Oh, wow. Okay. So, anyway, so they're doing the best they can. It's been a little bit spotty. We'll get it back up as quickly as we can. Okay, so, Holly and I were planning today. We thought, Okay, we're gonna have a lot of conversation about culture. We're gonna have a lot of conversation about influence, where the rubber hits the road swing budgeting. In the survey that went out to everybody, about 45% of folks that they have no input to budget whatsoever. And about 55% said to have some input and knowing so they have like total control over their budget. So we have tailored this with that in mind. But I'm going to ask you things from folks in there. One is I said to Holly, if we started budgeting conversation at 3pm on a 14 inch screen, it's gonna stay with me. So I tried to keep it a little bit like that no way is meant to you know, everything's really tough right now. We know that and a lot of news stream resources are tight. So I don't want to come off like, you know, we don't understand or, you know, know that m&a is tied to the industry. Things are tough for us and tight for us right now, too. So that's fully acknowledged. We're going to talk about the ideal just so you kind of know sort of what the sort of top line like a perfect world kind of scenario looks like. But I'm gonna ask two things to do. One is to think in your context, like when does it make sense? What can I adapt to where I'm sitting? The other is you hopefully have a long career ahead of you and you might be in organizations that do have different resources at a different point. I've been in m&a for 10 years, and we've gone through expansions and contractions in that time. So even if you say the organization might have more flush years, 14 years, it's just part of their career. So we're gonna approach this like we're talking about the ideal scenario, but then we're gonna have plenty of time talking to our panelists, and we're gonna have plenty of time digging into q&a, and I tried to work in a lot of real talk, so you know, we're just gonna try to hit it off. With that, I'm going to ask Susan leave, who runs a consulting firm, she does a lot of work with senior leaders, setting strategy, setting priorities, and setting those top line budget markers to match those things to do just a two minute overview of like how that sort of comes to be. And the idea is, if you kind of know, we're all that's happening in the upper edge time, you're better equipped to kind of advocate for what you need, when you need to have this conversation with your manager. So she's gonna start there, and then we're gonna get into kind of first time manager budgeting
system. Thank you so much. Can you guys hear me Yeah, well, welcome, welcome. Listen, I call this session for me because I typically do a day long session on budgeting, financial planning, and I you know, and I try to make it a lot of fun and I have like little vegetables and things like that because this is really the vegetables in terms of the budgeting process. I want to just to make sure I share that with you. Before I go into kind of the Ark of the business. I just wanted to say that how many of you are familiar with strategic planning? Okay, so strategic planning, have you been a part of strategic planning for your organization? Okay, somewhat. All right. All right. So, one of the things I want to just share is that, you know, I was talking to an executive last year, this time, and she was sharing with me, she said, Susan, you know, I have been in the business for some 20 something years. I, I come from the journalism background, but I don't understand the arc of business. I don't know how to do a budget. And so she felt like because of the fact that she didn't understand the chops of how to do a budget, that it was really going to challenge her, you know, throughout her career. Because if you want to become an entrepreneur, you want to take you know your journalism background and go and be a business for yourself. You really have to understand the art of running a business right. The art of a budget, the artists Dziedzic planning, I'm doing it right now for my kiddos I have one is a lawyer one works in financial plan and one works. One's a lawyer, one works in big tech, and one of my kiddos is a financial investor. And so talking about just kind of what that looks like. So, one of the things I want to say is if your or your who, who is like afraid of the budgeting process, who, who's uncomfortable with it, raise your hand. All right. So one of the things that I would say, and I have a philosophy built around this, and for this conversation here, I'm going to say embrace your fears. And so if your fears are, you don't understand the budget process. What I'm saying is sit down, have a chat, meet with your CFO, meet with your controller, meet with your financial analysts, whoever it is in your business that is running the business, meet with them. Have some time to understand so you can understand the architect business. It starts first and should be which your strategic plan your strategic direction. I call them directions now because plans we all know are constantly changing. So it's really more the direction we all dealt with COVID that changed a lot of strategic plans. And so I call a strategic direction. And so what should happen in the strategic direction should be a bottom up right. So it should be all so for example, the way I do it, is that I have I do a couple of different things, one of which is that we validate our mission and vision. So we as an organization, we make sure that we're clear about our mission and vision. And what's interesting is sometimes folks are not clear about their mission and vision. I mean, I've said and had conversations and different people had different understanding of the mission and vision, even though it's published on the website. And so making sure that everybody is clear. About your mission and vision, you have to have core values, what are your core values that you have to have clear about your mission and vision? I also take the organization through what I call a SWOT analysis. Have anybody done a SWOT analysis? All right, that's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat and each department would go through a SWOT analysis. So that's one thing that we do. And then the next thing is a PEST analysis. Have you heard of pest? PEST analysis is when you look at the political, economic, social and technical, technological factors impacting your business, and it's interesting, because when you look at that, you may see that there is something on the horizon that you need to be focusing in on as your strategic direction. So I just want to make sure you're looking at all of those. Then we come up with our strategic objectives, three or four different objectives. These are big themes for the organization. I want to build our programs because a dot dot dot right, and then you come to your strategic priorities and this is where the budgeting process happens. So you have your strategic priorities from your objectives, then you have your priorities. That is I want to grow my programs. In order for me to grow my programs. I have XYZ different objectives in order for me to grow my programs, right? So it could be give me give me an example of something who has a poo overseas, a program here. Give me something that you'd want to do in terms with your program if you want to grow it. Specifically in your program, what of your program would you want to grow? More scholarships? So if you want to grow your program, you want to have XYZ crop scholarships. One of your objectives would be grow by scholarships by XYZ percentage, right? And then once you come up with those objectives, right, then you have key performance indicators. So people know what key performance indicators are. And then the next here's the real hard work. What do you think the hard work is after you come up with your KPIs? Meeting them, what's another one? The tactics, what's another one? Execute execution. So and then inspect what you expect, right? Is the inspection process in terms of making sure you stay on track with that? So anyways, I just want to just kind of frame that in terms of big picture how the strategic process should work. Okay. Thanks. Sorry,
you just walk past what is that?
What do you think of? closure?
Yes, all right. I was really glad to hear not too many of you are afraid of budgeting because that is the norm. I feel like so I'm glad like I do, say the unnamed communities or like the changemakers or people kind of lean into some challenges. But I do think most people approach budgeting with a lot of fear as Susan said that they're looking at a spreadsheet like I have to input numbers. I don't know what the formula is, what if I make a mistake? Maybe they're a little queasy about it, because numbers make people really uncomfortable. There's a lot of anxiety around budgeting that you're going to get into a fight with your manager or that you're going to disappoint your staff. So what my hope is today is that we're going to talk through like how to think about this in terms of like coming out with confidence, knowing that this is the place where a lot of what we talked about all day really gets codified in the organization. There's a very old joke in the DIY community. That is like show me your budget, I will show your priorities. So even if you don't have full control, you can always always advocate so how I think of budgeting is a lot more like storytelling. It's right there in the title. It is how you're telling the story to your manager. It is how you're telling the story to your team. at the executive level is how I'm talking to our board of directors or funders or the q&a community. It's what are our hopes and dreams that we're hoping to achieve. Another way I look at it is a lot like the Princess Bride. Because I talked to my team and we actually make them go through budgeting exercise with me every single year and they're always like is this a kissing book? And I'm like, No, it is fencing. It is fighting. It is torture. It is revenge. We have the opportunity to talk about where we want the story to take us what the ideal outcome is for our year. So it is talking about what you want to see happen over the course of the year. So it's critically critically important to engage with the process, however and whenever and as often as you can. It is also a map of how you plan to get there. So tying a lot to what Susan said. So getting into the kind of real talk of it. I cannot emphasize enough that a budget is just a plan. I like the roadmap analogy because you are going to hit traffic, you're going to hit closures, you're going to get a flat tire. You're really trying to think about like where you want to end up at the end of the year. So it is a strategy setting exercise. It is about that project that we want to get done. That team building work that we want to do that conference we want to send everybody to it's really trying to make sure that we're thinking long term about where we want to be. It's not going to be straight line and that's okay. I think too many people get very sweaty and hung up on the accountability piece. They worry I'm gonna make a mistake or I'm gonna overspend and then someone's gonna be mad. The higher you get the it is true that the higher the accountability stakes get. But here typically, and it's going to be different in different contexts. We have a lot of people in different newsrooms, but typically, at a first time manager level, you have a little bit of leeway. And again, if I have someone who is in the ballpark of what we talked about and budget by the end of the year I'm very happy as a senior manager. So I would try to say not try not to sweat that too much. I can't tell you how many people come to me and they're like, oh my gosh, I had $10 budgeted for pencils, and I $10 budgeted for posted with pencils cost $12 So wait for the posted to be on sale. It's like you get this or $8 Like it's only spent $20 I don't care. I do not care. minor deviations. With the exception of grant reporting, which can be a whole extra thing really are not that big of a deal. And I think people get too hung up on that at least sight of the like, this is our home. This is where like what we want to achieve. This is where we want to go. So I'm gonna let Holly Schultz Come on. We realized in talking today, we should have disclosed earlier that Holly reports to me. And we did this intentionally. I approached Holly about doing this presentation. So we'd have that dynamic in the room of someone who's the manager, as someone who's reporting to them, so that she could kind of share her perspective a little bit as well. So
Throw them throughout the year. Don't let the budgeting process be the only time you speak to the person in finance or the only time that you speak to the sponsorships person, create that relationship, get that buy in, they're going to be a lot more likely to support you and to give you the information you need and on time. The second one is to be clear on your vision and your goals. And this is again, just laying out what it is on that roadmap. Where are you trying to go? How are you going to get there? It's really going to help folks in your organization buy into this third set early deadlines for others. Who are involved. So we're all very, very busy people. And we all have deadlines to meet. And so setting earlier deadlines for people to give you the information you need is going to be a lifesaver trust me. And then finally, ask a ton of questions you know sometimes I think being in a management role. You might be afraid to ask questions because it might come off as some kind of weakness or like I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe I shouldn't be in this role, but it is okay and encouraged to ask questions. I think it shows you are invested and it's going to open up a lot of a lot of conversation with people it's gonna foster or strengthen those relationships and bring out some information that you're going to need to continue the budgeting process. So with that, I will turn things back over to Trevor.
Thanks, Holly. Great job. Okay, so we flew through a lot of stuff we flew through the sort of how a budget comes together. We flew through sort of the kind of strategy that a budget feeds into the reason we went blazing through those things. And I also put a budget terminology sheet in your folders too. Honestly, I forget budget terms all the time. So either Google them or I ask our FNA person to help out. And she knows that I know them. And you know, as Holly said, sometimes you just forget or you just need to ask. So the reason that we did that is I want to talk more about the strategy. So the rest of this session and as we start to engage our panelists, it's going to be focused a lot more on like, the strategy of how you're talking to folks about money in the organization. And I wanted to share a quick anecdote. As I was putting together my portion of this presentation, my wife was like, why would you practice that with me? Because she's a senior director at organization and is also never had for formal budget training. So I was like, I don't know if I want to subject you to that. But if you really want me to, I'd be happy to kind of run through this. So I just think it speaks to like across fields like this is just something that a lot of people are getting or thinking about, and kind of emphasizes the importance. So this is a former executive director of in Washington, we mentioned him earlier. And he said, one way to think about telling the story of your budget, is to think about where are you placing your bets. Where are you placing like your big risks that hopefully are also worse for your organization. We present the budget to the Board of Directors every year. There are things in our budget that are static, every year. We do certain meals for the conference. We do supplies for the conference, we do webinar trainings, if we're keeping on staff, that's a you know, I mean, we do small raises, but it's a static number more or less, right so we're not going to go line by line by line by line by line through the budget with the Board of Directors, but they have a fiduciary responsibility. They need to know like where are we spending money and what kinds of risks is the organization face. So Irving would pick out two or three, maybe four things in a good year and present this to the board when we presented the budget right. So like most of the stuff in our budget is carried over from last year. Here's the new initiatives that we want to take on. Here are the new people that we want to think about. If I can pick on Holly for an example, we had a consultant that ran the awards program for a very long time and she was very good at what she did. But Irving said I think the awards program has room for growth. And in order to do that we're gonna need a full time staff person to run that. And we went to the board of directors and said, We want to make this a full time position. And that was when we started this search and we brought in Holly and so she understood that that target was in place and has grown the awards program. So it was a risk that we took on and it paid off for the organization. So that's kind of how he thinks about that framing. And that's something that we're going to talk to Angelina into Susan about momentarily about how they think about that as well. But if you're trying to talk to your manager about something that might be one way to kind of think about it is where are we you know really going to go out this year and that's the conversation you want to have. It kind of distills that down. Here are four things nobody's ever going to tell you about a budget. How do you figure all of these things out on myself? What is that staff time is almost never allocated? Well, you saw Holly's example of a budget there was a line for the money and a line for the money and the line for the money and a line for the money and the life of the money. There isn't a line for how your tap staff spends your time and it is really easy to micromanage that. It is really easy to be like one of my bosses who if I if I was working remote and got it to the bathroom, I come back to message it said where are you? So when you're thinking about staff time, I have opened conversations with my staff at the beginning of each year about proportionality. Where do you want to spend most of your time Holly is the director of awards and community resources right. So she's thinking about the awards program, and she's also thinking about things like how do you all get the folders that are on your table or things that show up on that website after an event like this? Just spends a lot of time thinking that we're building that out this is a new part of our relationship. So, so we talked about that how much of your time is spent on awards, how much of your time is spent on the other elements of what you do without? And we think about that in loose terms of percentages. And I'm not monitoring that down to like, you said it was gonna be 4555 but I think it's 5545, right? We're talking big numbers like 80% of my time is spent on this and about 20 on this and that helps everyone understand priorities in a really open way. And then you check in with people quarterly and we just asked about that balance of time. Second, sometimes their secret money. I'm not saying that the organization is like hiding money from you. But do not be afraid to ask because what happens about halfway through your fiscal years people start to realize oh, that thing I was going to spend money on I ended up not getting it, you know, we were going to hire someone we ended up not hiring them, or we were going to try this initiative, but it didn't really work out or we thought we were gonna win the Super Bowl and we put aside money for that project. And we don't you know, and then our team, you know, didn't even make the playoffs. So now maybe there's money for special project. So sometimes you can just talk with your manager and say, Hey, I have this really good idea and I know it's midway through the year. And if they're good and they're working with you, they might be able to go to someone else in the organization and say like, Hey, I think I remember you saying that, you know you set aside some money for this project doesn't seem like it's happening. What do you think about us investing in this idea? And I think a lot of people again, get so kind of stuck on the budget and accountability that they don't even think to ask, you might get told no, but we're all used to that as changemakers. I talked about this already as senior managers. We're not usually looking at line items. Again, we're kind of thinking about where those big expenditures are. So if you have a really big expensive part of your budget, Someone's probably paying attention to that and all the little stuff. We're just really not sweating. And finally, as a manager, a little transparency goes a very long way. I'm pretty transparent with my team about the budget. We as an organization are the most transparent with the budget I have ever seen an organization be our board doesn't just get our top line budget, they actually get a project by project budget. I think that's too much personally but not my decision. But that means most of the staff see all that as well. Right? They're seeing kind of like broad strokes like project by project budget. So everybody knows
what Holly's words budget is, for instance. In times where we're having questions about the budget, I kind of handle it two ways. If it's an open question, and we can have input when we do it's team meeting. I'm just saying like, Hey, we're kind of struggling with this. What's your input? What do you think about that, and pressing on people to weigh in, particularly the directors, so folks at Holly's level? Sometimes if it's more a discrete thing that needs to be shared? I actually try to share it with everybody, but I usually wait and do it during our one on ones. And those are once a week or once every two weeks, just depending on the staff person in their experience. It makes me a little nervous because sometimes there's a gap right like so if I'm meeting with Holly tomorrow and then someone else next week. I'm a little anxious about the fact that she has information and they don't until that cycle picks up. But I just talked to them about that and just say like, Hey, I need a chance to tell everybody that we're making this cut or you know, this thing has happened. Let me talk through everybody and then you know, maybe we'll talk about it as a team or maybe it's just an FYI, that kind of gets told one on one but at least people have the chance to ask questions without maybe being in a group setting where that might be more nerve wracking. be in the meeting. To be able to make a decision. So again, looking at it through that particular way in terms of making sure are you using your time effectively and is aligning with the goals of the organization or priorities organs if they're not, it's a nice to have but not a must have for the organization and not a must have for you and your time and it's okay for you to even talk with even if like one of your supervisors is having a shift where you manage those expectations to right manager. we're just going to open it up to the room for conversation, and that include me and Holly as well. So we're here for any of your needs and Martin and everyone here to so everybody can jump in. So with that, I'm gonna come over here and start some questions. Okay, so just a couple of quick questions for you. too, in a way but you got to understand what the directions of the organization is.
I really love our organization because we do this for each other. It isn't like, you know, his budget is where am I putting my bets like, where am I taking some big risks this year? When you're talking to your staff or to your board, how are you thinking about that framing in terms of like lifting up like what is the priority? What I need you to pay attention to? Your budget is your lever of power. right. She reminds me that and I remind her, you know when she when when she's like, Oh, we could do this. Yeah, we could do a lot of things right. they've espoused or said they have budget is power. That's where you live. That's where you leverage power. So for me, when I talk about the narratives of our budgets, it is about are we meeting our Are we are we expressing our values, and are we investing in the thing that we say is our mission right? So a classic example I think probably many of you are managing a news vertical or department or maybe a project. So classic example here is like if you if your project's mission is to involve more diverse community in your reporting process. How much of your budget is actually allocated to thank you, I appreciate I agree. It is like how much of your budget is actually allocated to diverse communities? Right, so for me, it's that narrative is the budget should express your values. The budget should be aligned with what your mission is, and that and that's how I try to approach it. Both with our internal stakeholders and our external stakeholders or funders in our community that actually pays for our work. my own system, but Yeah, I agree. Again, I as I shared that event on and it's not part of what people see as the sort of daily production of the team or the weekly or production whatever your schedule is. So really making sure every piece of labor is visible is a really great way to one recognize how much work people do to leave people alone when you know they have a lot on their plate and and to also just bring equity into the into the fold even deeper because we know that you know a lot of people who are marginalized in our newsrooms, or have been historically marginalized take on a lot of work. They take on a lot to help improve the product.
She made me think about one thing too, I also for like work life balance in terms I've incorporated for organizations, no meetings on Fridays to Wednesday, no meetings on Fridays. No meetings on Fridays and in you should keep everybody honest to it. So if someone tries to put a meeting on your calendar on Friday budem off No, no meetings on Friday. So keep people honest on that too. So I just thought about that when we're talking but great, perfect time to get into the q&a. Just run the mic to you. On how do you guys keep people accountable? We had that. do is that I will have those budget templates we just talked about. Each department head will have their budget template template, depending upon our financial
situation. I may not do roll over
15 minutes. And then after two minutes 4520
Yeah, but I think it has, I literally have had to talk to the senior level the CEO, the senior level executives of the organization to make sure that that person is being you know, responsive to no meetings on Friday. Because what I'm saying to you is Dave, I've had that happen before and so what happened was the CEOs a person that was having people having meetings on Fridays and everything like that this happened and so I folks were sent me a note about it. I've sent a little note to the HR person and say, hey, send out a public reminder about it. And then I'd go talk to the CEO, I would go talk to the CEO and say, hey, no meetings on Friday. You know, because I'm getting some folks are chatting with me about it. And we want to make sure that we honor our aligns with our core values, right. This is our values that we have for the organization that we've established, right.
That's those ad hoc sort of meetings. They're killer. They're killer. They can really kill, kill things. That's it. You know, we work in the news industry, things happen. And the no meeting we have no meeting Wednesday, sometimes we violate that there's a county supervisor meeting that blows up or we have an election coming up or whatever, right, like things happen. But I think the really important thing is intentionality. So there's like a lot of little things that happen and I have one on ones with our staff pretty regularly and usually when someone like people approached me with small questions and like, hey, put that on our list for a one on one. Right things like that. You can if you have that time set aside already where people can drop it and I will tell you, this is a ridiculous silly hack that maybe is not as exciting to you as it is to me. But if you guys how many of you use Google workspace, I think there's a feature like this in Excel two. There's a little box that you can check to allow other people to modify the meeting. So if you have one on ones with folks, once a week or every other week, you can ask them to add their agenda items in the description of the meeting. So that going in the meet like they have a you know, when something's in your brain, you're like, oh, I want to know now, right? Instead of sending the Slack message instead of writing the email, say, add it to our calendar entry. So we have a list of what we're going to go through during that time that we've set aside.
Okay, so for clarification purposes, I'm referring specifically specifically to internal meetings. There may be an external meeting that you may have to take but internal meetings, we can control that. And the other thing that I would suggest is box your calendar out. I would put your calendar, no meeting on Friday and you don't have it, it's boxed out. And it's your day to do your deep work because you've saved that day to start working on projects and kind of that deep work stuff because you've been kind of boxed in on these different things all day. I'm now getting ready to do the work. I'm doing it on this day here. Whatever that day is when Wednesday third, whatever it is, but box your whole calendar day out and that's when you have the time to do the deep work.
I was curious to hear a little bit more about that
daily docket idea. How does that work? How is it sort of created and how do you all use it? I assume mainly at the beginning of the day but also throughout the day.
Is it like some organizations call it a rundown? It's, you know, it's Gosh, I'm so proud of our docket actually. It's a spreadsheet that everybody uses. It's amazing. They fought me on in the beginning. But uh yeah, so it lays out exactly what is publishing each day. And then there all the assigned stories are in the docket as well. I mean, some people use Trello Some people use project management system. We wanted to do something very specific to our organization and none of the prepackaged things seemed to work very well for us, but it has colors. When things are published turned green, you put the Lincoln and but yeah, there's like columns for the different stages of the production. Who's the reporter who's the development editor? Is there a second editor? One day we will have a second editors on every story? Not there yet for a sizable organization. who's handling the art who's it assigned to? One day we will have photographer on staff that will happen. Visual Editor probably so we can bring in community photographers, but that's another story. And then when is it meant to publish and and I think the hard thing for people to get over the hump with the docket for a digital organization. I was in radio for a while and the rundown is king. You can't mess around with that. Right? But in a digital organization, people have to get really used to the idea of this is a living document. Deadlines change, your plans change and you just have to change the docket so that everybody can see the change. And people really uncomfortable with that because I put something down in a spreadsheet. And this is similar with budgets, I think, and they it's like, Oh, I gotta do that thing that's in the cell because it's in a cell and no, actually these are living documents that you can you can shift and that's a that's a culture shift for organizations to let people see your mess a little bit. Yeah
I was just gonna say the one thing if you don't want if you don't have an HR person or you're uncomfortable with a person having to take that load of saying no meetings, style bots, or like bots in Slack are really nice to set up because you can just have it run every Friday or something. So it's just a blanket reminder for everybody. I was going to ask about setting salaries for new positions, or for rehiring for position and if you're having concerns that it doesn't fit with the market, or other factors for someone in middle management
I would all salaries, I do like a salary audit on all the different salaries, you know, so I'll look and see in terms of like, depending upon whatever the level is from x perspective, while you know GuideStar could be one you can have an organization that will do like an equity study for you to give you a sense in terms of what the salary ranges are but I would work with our HR person, and I would make sure that I'm doing a salary audit to make sure that it's equitable and fair in terms of what that I'll look internally in terms of, you know, what, how does the salary of a life position compare, you know, any organization I'll look externally to see what the market values are for this particular position. And now I'll look in terms of what our budget level is as well in terms of what the position is, and I'll try to align the budget in terms of salary where it's equitable, and I have a good justification for it for that salary, but I'm doing a I'm doing a full throttle in terms of making sure I have a really solid justification for what that salary is.
Yeah, and again, right, there's some broken record, this is an expression of your values. Right. So in some HR people will call them comps, you know, like the housing industry comps. But in our market where I'm in a small market, pretty depressed news market in a lot of ways. I sure as hell don't want crops compared to other news organizations in our area because we will not be paying a living wage. So for us, we started doing comps with the places that journalists often end up because the wages are so low. So UVA comms swallows up 85% of journalists in central Virginia University comms department. We can't match their salaries but we can at least understand them. Other nonprofits in town we do comms with that. And we do comps with other media organizations to say but mostly to say this is what we don't want to do because we are lacking equity in representation. And it is because these media organizations are only paying enough so that people who don't need money can work. There.
Does your organization do a comp analysis? Yeah, yeah. So since it because that's another thing in terms of a strategic core, I mean, as far as your budget is concerned, you know, what you invest in is what your priorities are. So you should have at least a portion of your budget to make sure that you're doing a comp analysis every year for the organization as to make sure and then you'll know you can look at the national average, you can look in terms of what the market again, I've worked with organizations had people that was a global organization, and you had people working in multiple different areas. It could be people working in Nigeria people working in Texas from that perspective, and there's different, you know, compensations based on kind of market dynamics from that perspective. But there's also you can look at the national average too, as well. So I'm looking holistically through it all. And then from there, I'm making a decision with our HR person in terms of making sure that we're being fair and equitable. So this particular salary, and if it's a salary where we're not competitive, you might tear it up. So you may bring that person in and then tear them in and say, hey, I can bring you into XYZ now, and to you and XYZ and XYZ based on your performance. And so that's an opportunity for you to get in talent, and you can kind of scale up in terms of what their compensation is so that you can be competitive.
I think also, if you're in the middle and you're advocating for a staff that is fairly compensated for work, it's also about how you frame the job. So I think I think our industry has moved beyond some of the things that I experienced when I was sort of in the middle, which is like things like we want a new product for Spanish language speakers. So let's hire an intern. You know, that's the that's the budget line. And really, you're at you're like asking somebody to build a new product for a community that doesn't know you or trust you from scratch. Right? So is that salary or the type of position that you're creating commensurate with what you're asking? So how you frame that position is really really important. Is it actually a higher level position than the salary that's being offered?
Not to belabor the daily docket, but it really it really spoke to me when you said not letting labor be invisible. And I think
I am so glad you guys are excited about the die.
I feel like I think what I really struggle with is I'm a bridge role. So I see what goes on on the editorial side, but I'm firmly on the business side and I see their structure of, you know, adopted type framework, is there Dumi suggestions of how to approach that on a business team where resources are limited, we're kind of working in silos a bit more, but it's still really hard to like be able to articulate or put structure around making sure that everything we do day to day is
well understood. Yeah. So we're, like I said, we're small, right? So we have one docket. So if there is like a development email going out that our development directors written, it is on the docket, which actually I want the staff to see that because this is all the ways we're communicating with our community. And I want people to know there is an email going out to three fourths of our mailing list today because we're asking for money or we're asking people you know, to vote for or to know that we have a new board member or whatever, right? I want the staff to know that so they're like, Okay, let's send the email about contributing to our voter guide. Let's send it tomorrow, right like or, or let's let's schedule that way. So but as your organization gets bigger, of course, the complexity of that grows so too.
Yeah, business activities.
Tomorrow, yeah, but I mean, there's the independence factor, but also on the business side. Let's say you have sponsorships right. And we know that every newsletter in the month of September is going to have a sponsorship we had a we had an underwriter was the TSA was the underwriter for us last month, which was really cool because we don't actually get those kind of underwriters very often. So I'm hoping government money starts flowing. But, you know, like, if the TSA has an underwriter, it's not that it should change editorial decisions. But I do want our Managing Editor to know because what if that month there is an issue at the airport, and she's running a story right and then then we might take extra care to explain the our sponsorship program and how they are disconnected from editorial decision making. So yeah, she needs to know that that's the underwriter that week for our product. Yeah, so like that kind of division is a we I think as we grow, we'll add complexity by adding views. Right, not separating the system completely, but adding different views so you can say okay, I only want to see our email newsletter product and what's on the docket for that or I only want to see our business or audience engagement work and what's on the docket for that. But like for me, I want to see it all in one big go. What is happening on Monday.
I think kind of big picture when you talk about the budget process. If you will. I've worked with organizations in terms of where we understood what the strategic objectives for the organization was. Everybody in the organization understood it right. We would meet weekly we would have our weekly all staff meeting or whatever. Well, I guess we would have like our we would meet every two weeks in terms of the senior leadership team they would see in terms of what the priorities were, and people will go around and talk about how we're pacing towards those priorities. Right. Priorities had cost associated with it. So priorities were regrowing our programs. Were monitoring and track and see how we're doing and all of this is in a key performance indicator, right? You're again inspect what you expect. You know, so you should be looking to see how we're pacing towards this. If one of the priorities were we want to deliver software as a solution. And so we want to integrate some new software. How are we pacing towards getting that new software? Okay, now we got the software now we need to go train people to be the user truck software. Okay. Do we have the funding to be able to do that? How are we pasting towards that? So again, when you're top of the budgeting process, you should have those priorities in a form and adopt that you're looking at, if you will, and you're seeing how you're pacing towards that you may determine as you're pacing as you're seeing what you're teaching priorities are whatever it may be, we need to hire a full time FTE to do FY Z right? But you may see that your funding you don't have the funding now to be able to do that. Now you have to pivot and you may now see I still need that resource. But I need to now bring in a consultant and I can I can flux I can kind of parachute in and parachute out. I can pulsate that expense, not hire full time FTE with salary and healthcare and everything like that. Now I can be able to bring in a consultant Really, that's where you have a really great working relationship to with your immediate direct report and making sure that as you're building out, you know what the budget goals are, that you have an understanding about what the goals are at what you you guys are in alignment, because what you don't want to be doing is, you know, off having the budget here, and the budget isn't aligning with where you're the vision of your immediate direct report in terms of where they were from that perspective. So there should be still some should be communication back and forth. When you're having a one on one or you're chatting you're you're working through the budgeting process. And then you're you're kind of building it based on that. But you may have a situation where as you're kind of working the plan, you may have a strategic idea that you might want to vet with them as well as you're having that conversation to see if this makes sense that is still aligned with our mission and vision of the organization. But this may be something that may be a big bet that we want to we want to tap into. Right? But you should be having a conversation with your museum record. I think that's a good healthy, you know, working relationship where there should be transparency you should have an open forum where you can be able to come in and have this conversation. If not, then that's another that's a problem. You shouldn't be able to have that open conversation
is it's not ideal, but it also could be an opportunity to assert the goals that you think should be in place. And then the other thing to say about that is if the goal is sort of the goalposts change in the middle again, you have to sort of assert and and claim your agency running a program or being responsible for those deliverables to say okay, we need to adjust the budget them I need a different maybe you need more money for what they're asking you to do. Maybe you need to reallocate it so that all of these sort of difficulties and it's never clean. And there's a lot I can see there's a lot of reasons why you would need a budget before you have sort of you know, like that, especially if you have a board. But yeah, like you have to assert yourself with the budget.
Yeah. You guys should be aligned. I mean, again, there shouldn't be goalposts with your budget that's changing and shifting and you don't have a clear awareness of it. So you should be you know, having agency and having conversations along the way so that, you know, that's just an order for you to help the organization. Or organization achieve their goals. You shouldn't have
to question the docket though, because I'm so excited about this. I will say it is related to the budget. One of the really powerful things about having that kind of record is one you can do and it's not necessarily super like to the penny accurate, but you can do a rough analysis of how much each story actually costs you which is always shocking to me that newsletter because organizations don't really understand that because they don't know how many hands touched it. They don't know how long it's been on the docket for and how long people have been working on it. And if you keep those kinds of records, you can actually like I think those who are our docket today and say how many stories have we already done about the election coming up in November? What is our budget expenditure? Let's do a little rough count of actually how much we're spending on the voter guide so far. I can do that. I
can see there's a budget deliverable to me that I can you know, in terms of if you're monitoring and tracking it and see in terms of like usage or cost analysis on it. I can see in terms of you can say Well, it seems like we have X amount of time we may need to increase an FTE we may we decrease an FTE we may need to bring somebody in part to it to help you understand in terms of you know, the time you're spending your time allocation so I can see that I can see how can be a financial helpful budget deliverable, if you will, a measurable offender to a measurable
one more before we go anyone else? Speaking in the back of the room, surprised.
So not so related, but somewhat related. I'm curious about what you think. About four day workweeks?
You don't listen. I do know Friday. Nobody's on Friday so that people can have the time they really do some deep work. So I you know, I think that you need to find the time to really be able to do some some deep work. I think the challenge is is that when you're in a COVID created you know, you know, we all know now that we can work remote right now from that perspective, but now that we know we can work remote sometimes people are what she was saying when she mentioned terms invisible time, right? Because you're just working work and work in right and you're not really finding that work life balance for yourself. So I'm a fan of it, in terms of making sure but it's but it's also just making sure that you're doing deep work. You know, during that time that you're have off to being productive. You're kind of you know, tearing things up. So I can see the justification for it. If people are doing productive work, from that perspective, what's your take?
I mean for a news organization. So for us having a set schedule where there's one day that you're out, it doesn't make any sense. There's going to be a school board meeting there's going to be something right like it just like but what we do instead is we're really we have a workplace culture that I really love, which is comp, you know, like if you have a school board meeting at night, don't work the next morning. You know, like, and we all understand that and why do we understand it? Because it's on the docket? Because it's not invisible that somebody is out there reporting on a Saturday is not, you know, we all see it. Right and, and we trust each other, you know, like, it's such an unusual, which is why I really love it. We're like encouraging people you haven't used your vacation. Days. Like it's not even, like, my reporters are telling me I don't think you've used your I'm looking at our calendar, you haven't used your vacation days. I'm like, thanks. Thank you for the reminder, you know, like it's it's that kind of culture. Because what we are asking for from our staff is to do things like come to Oh, Na and represent the organization and go to 12 cocktail hours. Even though you're really not a nighttime person who likes to be an introvert watching HGTV. Like you were asking for that. Right? We're asking for reporters to do things on a pretty cracked schedule so that they can cover the community or their beats in the way that it needs to be covered. So we give them that grace in return, right. There's really no point in having a really tight schedule for someone you're asking to mess around with their schedule. For a
lot of organizations are moving to it as you know, schools are doing it now. I mean, it's a big shift. My husband's a teacher, they're all kind of moving to the four day workweek. There's a lot a lot of momentum a lot, a lot, a lot of big thinking around you know, this is an approach primarily because of the fact that the work remote and so then people can you know, I don't know what you know, I am whenever I'm working remote, I could be working, you know, continuously right and everything like that, because it creates that, that kind of environment for you.
One thing that we've started doing that I think is really quite nice is that we also recognize that you know, this is a never ending pot to be filled. of news in our local news ecosystem. We cannot like our hardest job is figuring out what not to do, because there's just so little news ecosystem where we are. So one thing we've started doing is intentionally blocking out days or chunks of days for reporters. To actually putting on the calendar. They're working on a long term project for these three days. And everybody knows they're not going to stand up, though call them unless it's, you know, something like, real crisis under beat or something. They're, you know, we're starting to block that out and doing that for three days. And if they want to take half that day to go to the beach, fine, right? Like they should do that it will help them right. But doing giving that space intentionally to space is really hard sometimes if you're a reporter to give yourself that that time is helping us get that pace, actually.
What's your business? What's your business? You know, I don't know if the web is a business justification, you know, you know, how does it align with your core values me all those kinds of things and you know, so yeah, work life balance is important. It's, it's, it's critical.
You know, well, thanks so much. We appreciate your time. Susan, we appreciate your time mentally. I really, so glad to have you here today with us in the afternoon. I know budgeting is just the first thing everybody is excited to talk about. And so I all of your insights have been really amazing. And, you know, I think really helpful. So thank you so much.
You're welcome. We didn't get into cash flow.
All right. So by way of, kind of closing us out for the day, I'm gonna share just a few thoughts that I've had as part of lessons learned, frankly, as I've kind of gone through management, my own experience, and then I'm gonna bite Evelyn and Martin up to the front of the room. They have anything they'd like to share in terms of closing, and then if there's anything we have covered, if there's any kind of burning questions that might kind of be addressed, is now it's gonna be a good time for that. Otherwise, we're available to you. I love obviously talking about this stuff, very passionate about it. So it's something that you're gonna catch me later in the week. The contracts are just talking about and zoom in later. Available for that. So let me get back to my presentation. Thank you. Okay, were things that I have learned the hard way. One of these harkens to your conversation that we were having earlier and I think it really gets too bad. I am slowly becoming Kandra to invest in your best. When I took my first role as the manager. I really wanted to be like the world's best manager, and I wanted everyone to grow up everyone to succeed. Everyone had an amazing time, and everyone to look back and be like, Wow, what an amazing manager. And I had someone who was really underperforming. And I was spending a lot of time with this person, a very, very large amount of time, working with them trying to get everything kind of right here going through all the priorities that we just talked about last session and trying to kind of bring that person on to where we needed them for the organization. And what I was noticing is that I could spend a lot of time with this person because I have all these other amazing people and they're all just going to do their thing and it's gonna be fine. I'm spending all my time over here. And all of our metrics were off, everything started to tumble very, very quickly. It was really hard for me, frankly, to actually recognize what's going on and like I just don't understand all these people really solid like why are people like, you know, like, doing the amazing work they used to do and finally like had like, you know, in hindsight, it seems like a really dumb epiphany, which is like, because I was not spending the kind of time that I usually spend with people who were coming in and doing what we needed them to do as an organization and that's thinking about like personally and not talking about like, you know, kind of, even in terms of professional interest. Sometimes people have a lot of stuff they're interested in, you know, it's just kind of like not quite aligned with like, where you're going. And things started like tilt. And so I finally just had to like stop and wait, go the other way, like spend very little time from someone who just really wasn't doing what we were really needing as a management team. Start spending a lot of time with everybody else. And all of a sudden, everyone else's performance came back up to the amazing level that is at so I'm not advocating pick favorites here. But there's someone that is becoming that time suck and is just starting to become a distraction. It can distract the entire organization, or at least everybody else in your team. So think just really carefully about how you're spending your time and what they might need. Like maybe they don't need what your organization has to offer. Maybe they don't maybe they you know, need some external coaching. There's some resources for that and that's where they're getting that that's not from you. So that's just something that has been my experience and I had to work through. So I thought I'd share that with everybody. Another thing is I mentioned we have a very high performing team and I love his team. They are just like going 90 miles an hour all the time every day. It's really fun. It's also a really bright culture for potential burnout, because people are going to charge really hard when you're doing an event like this. It is so intense. We all got here on a Sunday. And by Tuesday you're done midnight, done midnight every single day. So we are you know as long as our feet sometimes but it's gonna get to the end of the week. Now we're getting notice that there are ebbs and flows to events and everybody's you know, pretty committed to that we try to make a lot of space after a conference for people to wind down. So I'm not like immediately responding to you next Monday. Just know we're having a little bit of a quiet week or to give people a chance to recharge and reset. But more importantly than that. We had a really good habit of just like flying through something cheering and being like, Yeah, we did it. We're moving on to the next thing. And one of the things that I had learned was to actually pause my team and say this is a big deal. Like we did something like really impressive here. And let's take some time and celebrate that. If you're in the office. Maybe that's just getting out and going to see a movie. Maybe that's you know, doing a special staff dinner. If you're virtual like sometimes we've done like deliveries. to people's houses and everybody you know, like a small gift, or sometimes we just got on Zoom and four o'clock on Friday kind of come as you are and you know just tried to socialize a little bit. So if you're the kind of person right that's just like yeah, like we're really tracking through or checking a lot of boxes or like kicking back right now. Just taking the time to say like, let's take a breath and like recognize a lot of really great things this year. It goes so so far. In terms of team culture. Our colleague, Jessica strelets is our chief partnerships officers amazing at this. And I have learned a lot from her being the person to be like hey, we're gonna pause and we're just gonna acknowledge like someone you know, did this really amazing achievement or that we as a team have gotten through something really tough together. So take the time it feels like time and you're like a real you know, like go getter like that. It feels like, like time out of your day and it matters matters so much to your work culture. We talked at nauseam today about tying everything to management goals to get what you want. So I'm not going to belabor that point. And the last thing hits on something that Kim talked a lot about, which is that there are ebbs and flows to finances as I mentioned there are also apps in place to people. I mentioned we've had four different staff on parental leave this year. None of us are operating under a desk right now. I have not slept for six months. And everybody knows that and everybody's offering a lot of grace. I know Kim had talked about that. In her as well. We've had people that have had deaths in the family. We've had people that have been down with illnesses we've had people whose family have enough illnesses that they're the primary caretaker. All of that has to happen next. And if you're asking too much for people, that's a another situation where you can get in kind of a like burnout for Tech's it also has become frankly like a tool that I have to talk to people about getting things done in the time that we need to get it done. One thing that I'm really good at is seeing that if you don't it came talked about this in her own way of like, she sees things other sometimes can't she has to kind of think about how to frame it. One of the things that I'm really good at is saying like well, if we don't do this now, the next year, here's what the problem is. And I sometimes have a really hard time like translating that to my team. Not to Holly she's amazing, but it's just you know, I have like translation issues, I think sometimes like getting that through to people. So we talk about what really they experienced or what we've experienced throughout the year. Right. So I'd say like I'm not setting a deadline because I want to fight with you over deadlines. And I don't know some of this translates to news but sometimes your daily lives it gets kind of squishy by events like you know, this conference started today. So it didn't matter if people tried to bless something or it still had to get done and things just stacking stacking second second stack. Now we're here at the conference and there's lots of work to be done. So we talked about if things are done early, then that makes space for the rest of your life to happen for you to take vacation for you to deal with something that comes up that's unexpected for you to deal with. I you know I had the flu is out for three days. And that's helped honestly like how those conversations can my team and kind of start to think about like okay, we really do need to set this really early deadlines. Holly talked about setting this kind of with your peers. So I think there's both like the gray side but it also can become like an ally in terms of like talking to your team about like, where we need them to be at the time you need them. To view them as a kind of layout, the initial goal. So, you know, just four things I thought I'd pass along because they're things I had to work through. So if some of you are dealing with that, maybe that's helpful. So you don't have to kind of repeat what I had to do any questions on this. Great learn I will in turn things over to you
I know it's been a long day and you've absorbed a lot. I just want to say how much I appreciate how you all showed up today. So really great group. It felt like it came together quickly. And I also want to just share that how much I appreciate you stepping into this role because it's not easy. It's difficult work some of the hardest work I think we can do. It can be done in organizations. And so I want to commend you for for taking on that challenge. And I want to encourage you and empower you to just the thing that stands out to me so much when you think about great management and what it can mean is it really affects people's lives. Because our jobs are so much a part of what we do, even as we seek to find balance that you have the ability to affect the day and I think Evelyn you mentioned this on your on the sheet that you have the ability to affect how someone's day potentially goes and how their life is going. Since work is such a large part. It's a big responsibility, but such a great opportunity. And so I would just also encourage you when you think about what Aaron said and the culture of empathy and care to really hold that and also care for yourselves because the work you are doing is very difficult. And and so thinking about what kinds of self care you will do for yourself as you move along in this work and to try and have fun with it. And to know that there are some days that a solid B plus is all right.
Thank you. I do want to encourage you to look into our programs. We do do multi day programs, obviously you cannot boil the ocean in one day. There were many things that I am sure that you're interested in including things like difficult conversations, performance management. We cover a lot of those in our trainings led me on behalf of anybody who's an introvert in this forum. I am offering you the introverts guide to management. Markers dry so you will have to write this down. This comes from John Green Men who was a very successful publisher, but he admitted himself that he lacked people's skills. And you've gotten great advice about reaching out to your employees but I'll offer you the core advice. He said you can boil it down to two sounds us this is what we need from you. This is how you're doing and from that you can build a universe. Thank you all for hanging in. It's been a pleasure, really your honor to be with you and to know the great work that you're doing and we'll do take care
before we go, is there any burning questions, anything we haven't touched on? And we've obviously read? We've talked about throughout the day to three session surveys so I'd say you know, we're probably hitting 85 90% I think of what was in the air, although very fast. So is there anything that's kind of a burning question that maybe you just haven't touched on? And of course for the day, that's something that might address
this was typically a week long drink right? What do you think goes when long ago?
We will have a training. That will be in March and June of next year if you are admitted into the program. You'll attempt both. You'll attend both sessions and it's going to be the Bob Schieffer School of Communication at Texas Christian University. And if you are thinking of applying our there was no question but think about ways in which you might get Employer Support for travel and housing. We are looking, always looking for ways to cut subsidies for them, but we cannot guarantee that since you've just listened to that much conversation
others you're listening that did a great job but yeah, so what I did was everything that's in your packet we also have virtually so I'll start populating that folder with as many decks as I can. We'll collect photos from today. And then I'll email that as a, like a shared drive file on Google File to everybody. All right, any others? Thank you so much. You made it
through the rest of 2023 PCs, feel free to grab us in the hall and enjoy the rest of time
you guys how are you feeling? Introverted questions? Yeah. All right.
Right. Survey two,
you get a chance to share your love any feedback. We've all been doing this a long time Kendra.
Thank you so much.
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