Using your workplace as a lab

An experiment by a CBS affiliate in St Pete to give 20 citizens video cameras and pay them $20 for submissions reminds me of some excellent advice I received a few years ago when I was still managing editor of the Indianapolis Star.

The advice was to use the workplace as a laboratory to try new things. That will feed your soul, the advice giver said, as well as create energy in the newsroom and build the capacity of your staff. From then on, I  had at least one major, far-reaching initiative going at any given time that was not on anyone else's formal agenda.

Some things worked and some didn't. But like the CBS citizens video project, I found there's often a lot to gain and little to lose in trying something bold. And for me, it made work more interesting and fun.