The FedEx corporation celebrates its 35th anniversary this month. The company's sophisticated website is happy to
let you in on the celebration with videos aplenty. They boast about the company's approaches to innovation,
especially online, and provide a look at
FedEx Labs, a place where employees can experiment with new ideas.
Don't you wish media organizations could brag about the same things? Cultures of innovation, savvy online strategies and R&D laboratories where smart people test wild ideas? Instead, they're inching toward transformation while simultaneously shedding staff and selling assets.
While that's underway, newsroom leaders are urging wary or weary employees to learn new skills and try new approaches to reporting, writing and delivering news. In short, to take risks.
And that's hard.
Employees are more likely to take risks when their managers share some important "Ts":
Let's talk about it -- just click on the SuperVision video, which includes advice from Anne Glover, AME/Features for Poynter's tampabay.com and
St. Pete Times. In 2004, Anne led the team that developed
tbt* Tampa Bay Times, the Times' free daily news and entertainment paper aimed at young adults. She's asked folks to take some risks - and has a simple, succinct philosophy:
