Use praise as a training tool

[Steve Buttry]

Several of my staff collaborated on a series that started today, "The Year of the River." It was an occasion for praise. The journalists accomplished some important objectives we have for our newsroom, so I wrote my note to the staff focusing on these accomplishments and making some points about some of our priorities. Effective praise does more than making people feel good. It's a training tool that says, "Look at this. Here's how they did it. Try that yourself."

Here's the note I sent to the staff:

When I was a freshman at TCU many years ago, my first journalism professor, the late Lew Fay, told me that first person had no place in journalism. With all due respect to Mr. Fay, bullshit. Orlan Love shows in “The Year of the River,” starting Sunday, how powerful and eloquent journalists can be when we aren’t afraid to be who we are. Though he uses first person throughout, this story is never about Orlan. He is merely our guide. This story is about the river and Orlan guides us along the river through its history, science, nature, humor, facts, policy, bridges, shores, fish and river rats. And all that storytelling is more powerful because Orlan didn’t hide behind the kayak. He developed himself and Jim Slosiarek as appropriate characters in the story. The story is better because Orlan didn’t let outdated journalistic conventions get in the way of telling the story the right way.

The subtitle of the series is “Reflections on the Cedar.” This is a perfect description both for Orlan’s writing and for Jim’s enchanting photography. Just as the river was the central character in Orlan’s writing, it was the central character in Jim’s photos, again and again reflecting and multiplying the beautiful scenes from the shore. In photos of the Quaker plant, 3rd Avenue bridge and collapsed Waterloo railroad bridge (and on and on), Jim’s photography captures the enduring damage of the flood and the beauty of the river, often in the same frame. His moody silhouette-reflection of the Sutliff Bridge is spectacular.

Orlan and Jim collaborated well with colleagues here on dry land: Mary Sharp edited the project, David M-K is putting the finishing touches on a moving multimedia package (Orlan reading haiku summaries of each day; outstanding idea brilliantly executed), Richard Pratt edited the audio and Michelle Wiese did the graphic design (super logo).

Besides praising these colleagues for their outstanding work, I want to make three points in this message:
· Don’t be held back by rules or journalistic conventions (except for that one about telling the truth). We can’t let these notions keep us from telling the best stories we can.
· Reach for the best journalism you can. When you deliver, we’ll make room for it in print and dress it up for sharp presentation online.
· Make each story yours. I hesitate to assign stories because I think reporters, mojos, photographers, video journalists and artists generally come up with better ideas than editors and because they do their best work on their own ideas. I pitched this idea to Orlan back in June or July. I could see in his eyes at that moment that he saw the possibilities for this story (and not just the fishing opportunities). He immediately took ownership and authorship of this story and produced something far beyond what I was imagining (frankly, I think I had a more detached piece that would have pleased Mr. Fay in mind). My grandmother was a successful novelist and once dismissed a publisher’s suggestion of a book idea, saying she could no more write someone else’s book than birth someone else’s baby. Too many reporters react with similar enthusiasm to assignments from editors. Orlan made this baby his own (and Jim’s). And she’s a beauty.

Steve