Feelings...the Big Hurt

This quote popped up on the internet the other day:

            “The one that angers you, controls you.

            Don’t give anyone that power, especially

            The one who does it intentionally.”

I don’t know who wrote it but it is a dandy. And timely in my case.

We publish a newspaper in our town. We've been doing it for 5 years now. Volunteers write the articles, gather the news, share the personalities and happenings, build the calendar, keep track of public meetings of elected officials, track issues and take pictures. We write and edit and proof all of this material. We lay it out as artfully as we can, we include want ads and advertising that hopefully serve the interests of the community. The newspaper is produced bi-weekly for its little city of 13,000.

Volunteers get reimbursed for expenses incurred; one person gets paid a tiny stipend to do design and layout work which takes about 40 hours per issue, sometimes 60 hours! Other than that the volunteers are unpaid.

Our management team has four key people: an executive editor, a managing editor, a layout and design manager, and a person who fills three important roles – technology director, bookkeeper and ad sales director.

After five years our roles are rubbing up against each other. Emotions have become tattered, at least a bit. Trust is invariably a victim of these upsets. Did someone make a mistake, or did they intentionally do something they shouldn't have? Are all the tasks getting done by the assigned person or is the organization struggling because someone is not carrying their full weight? Is the content of the paper accurate? Is there bias present in our reporting? Are columnists grinding a personal ax?

You see where this can go! And in a hurry.

Some team members have lost their cool from time to time. Each of us has. That includes me, too. Our personalities are challenged by circumstances both inside and outside of the newspaper. Life happens and we each face challenges – career, family, financial, etc. pressures build on each of us.

If team health is good we slough these challenges off easily. If trust issues are allowed to fester, the challenges grow and are not easily removed. Team health begins to suffer. Motives are questioned. Feelings are hurt. And the emotional weight becomes large.

Occasionally someone threatens to quit. I've done that. It is the only ace I have in my hand to play. If someone thinks my job performance needs improvement and I don’t agree, someone has to leave. I stand on that principle. One person doesn't like the content of an article/letter to the editor; he wants it omitted; he isn't an editor so doesn't have that call in his job description. He threatens to quit. I will have to quit if he gets his way. I don’t tread on his set of responsibilities and he needs to do the same with mine. I don’t like a number of letters we print; that is our compact with the readers. Write or wrong they get their say as long as they are not libelous or grossly uncivil. Usually the public handles the matter well: ho hums the boring and reacts to factual errors with their own letters. Works every time.

Meanwhile our job is to report what is happening and why when we know it. We build an archive of facts so the community can understand the issues before them. They can research our materials and files at their leisure. Opinion is present in columns and letters but for the most part columns are focused on food, technology skills, calendar items, religious events and issues, gardening methods, and environmental issues. Bit by bit we assemble a chronicle of the community. Thus our name – Village Chronicles.

This process of running a community newspaper by the community has worked well for 5 years. If personal matters remain out of its way, the paper will survive for another 5 years, and maybe 5 after that, and another 5………

If emotion and anger are allowed to enter the process, however, the control of the enterprise is likely doomed. We have to fight the urge to get angry; frustrated, yes. But work out the differences without anger and the control of the organization remains healthy and productive.

I’ll keep you informed on what happens. For now a publishing deadline looms as well as the shadow of yet another management team meeting that may be fraught with anger. Cross your fingers and hope the community witnesses a continuing win.

April 26, 2013