Relationships.You can’t build them in the heat of a newsroom crisis, but that’s generally when you discover their value. And, frequently, the people you encounter in a deadline moment don’t report directly to you– but you need their cooperation and support.
What is a relationship?
It’s the level of ease between individuals. It provides the unspoken opener when one of you needs to get down to business and seeks the other’s help. The ease can be created from small, seemingly inconsequential, conversations over time that allow openness and individuality to be shared.
Newsrooms can be generous and open, but they also accentuate stress when work is ordered in quick, abrupt style. The stress can be long lasting if the individual leading the deadline march is seen as aloof from those who carry out the orders. Almost always the crisis subsides, the job gets done right and on time. But a seed of discomfort can sprout between people if that is the extent of their relationship.
A recent Poynter participant influenced the whole class when she said she makes an effort to know the life stories of the people in her newsroom. She was describing how connected that knowledge made her feel to those who work around and with her. She created a bandwagon effect in the seminar. Other participants began talking about how to return home and find the “stories” in their colleagues.
Here are things I’ve enjoyed knowing about people in the newsrooms where I worked. There was the Scrabble tournament competitor, the news assistant who was an artist, the fine arts critic who composed music, the reporter involved with Big Brothers and Big Sisters, the proud tomato grower, the church deacon, the basketball coach, the woman who always has a couple bucks in her pocket for the homeless, the ex-rock musician, proud parents of children of any age.
Once you know these kinds of things, deeper levels of insight begin to accumulate. You begin to know and relate to pictures and the knick-knacks on their desks. You have something to say other than “I need this by 5”.
Why does it matter?
Newsrooms are intense and the work is fast-paced. Relationships can ease the roughness of some of the most trying times. And no journalist can succeed alone. It takes many people to get one person’s work through the daily process– editors, clerks, photographers, reporters, artists, designers. Ultimately, the work may go more smoothly if people are at ease with one another.
It’s not necessary to go into the newsroom tomorrow and start asking everybody questions about their private lives. Let the opportunities come about naturally. Or follow up on something you’ve heard elsewhere about an individual’s hobbies or interests. Or notice that photo or knick-knack. It’s highly likely those are sitting on the desk for the precise purpose of inviting a conversation with you or whoever stops long enough to notice and inquire.
At ease.
