Let’s take a closer look at another of the five “great boss” resolutions I suggested for 2010. We’ve already covered tips for doubling your feedback and leading strategically. Today we tackle how to do a “systems check.”
Here goes:
Let’s imagine that I’ve been asked to leave Poynter and lead an organization. It could be a newsroom, as I did for nearly two decades, or any other business or nonprofit operation. What would I do first? The answer is simple. I would do two things, simultaneously:
- Get to know the people on our team. Know them as individuals, not just “head count.”
- Ask those folks to help me examine a wide variety of systems that run through our organization.
Why? Because unless you rigorously vet your systems and processes, you undercut your chances of innovation and improvement.
Here’s my metaphor: systems are like river currents. They flow where they want to. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve assembled an all-star team in your raft, brainstormed exactly where you want to go and have a plan for getting there. If you drop that raft into the wrong river, you’re paddling against the current. You’re exhausted. The system beats you.
That’s why you and your team need to evaluate your key systems and processes on a continuing basis. To simplify this, let’s break it down into two types of systems:
1. Hard systems: These are mechanical and technical operations. These days, much of what we can and can’t do is a function of technology.
2. Soft systems: These are the human interactions and assumptions we make as we process our daily work.
If this still sounds like theory to you, let me make it practical and give you an example of a big systems check that involves both hard and soft systems. At one of our Poynter seminars, we challenged the group of TV news managers to chart how an idea became a story in their newsrooms. We gave them big sheets of paper and had them draw and annotate the actual journey of an idea. As they made notes on their maps, they answered questions like this:
- Where do our ideas come from? From staff journalists’ enterprise, news tip from public, press release? Do we value some of these sources more than others and why?
- Where are ideas stored and by whom? In a computer queue or hard copy file? Is this queue or file open to everyone, or just some staffers? Is it easy to access and edit?
- Where are ideas reviewed? At what meetings? When are they held and why? Who’s there and who’s missing?
- Who decides which ideas are selected as stories for today? Only top managers? Producers? Do reporters or photographers get a vote?
- How do we prioritize stories? Do we have a strategy for story selection? What is it based on? What do we know about our audiences?
- What do we do with good ideas that can’t get done today? Do we have a formal system for capturing these?
- When stories are assigned, to whom do the journalists report? How do we let them know the form(s) in which we plan to deliver their story: on air, online, social media, print partner? How do we keep in touch with them?
- How do we keep the whole team informed of the status of stories in progress and significant changes? Do we use human interaction or technology (or both) for sharing the info?
- What are our quality control and editing systems? Who signs off on stories? Who coaches and edits? Managers? Senior staff? Peer editing? How much work do we do on the front end of stories versus after-the-fact review?
As we covered the walls of the room with these big charts, the managers discovered that no two newsroom systems were identical. Their systems were driven by many things: tradition, technology, the preferences of managers past and present, the skill sets of certain staffers and a whole bunch of assumptions and values that we may or may not discuss. By doing a check like this, you can discover:
- Choke points, where communication and information get bogged down
- Lack of clarity of roles and responsibilities
- Needless expense and duplication
- Missed opportunities to tap peoples’ strengths
- Alternative ways to meet your goals
Systems checks can seem exhausting to perform, but I guarantee you they are worth your time and effort. I’ve shown an exercise for one major system in a newsroom. That’s one big river, right? But there are streams of all sorts to examine in every organization. Think about yours. Pretend you’re brand new to the place. Look at the way things are flowing — check your hard and soft systems.
Where to start? There are four areas in any organization, newsroom or otherwise, that are ripe for review. I share them in today’s podcast: “What Great Bosses Know about System Checks.”
Poynter’s “What Great Bosses Know” podcast is sponsored by The City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. Poynter’s leadership and management expert Jill Geisler shares practical information on leadership and management that’s valuable for bosses in newsrooms and all walks of life.
You can subscribe to this podcast via RSS or download a series of these podcasts free on iTunesU.
