Do you enjoy a juicy diagram to situate yourself in a complex context? If yes, you’re in luck.
The brilliant writers and systems thinkers Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze have generated the “Two Loops” model, which describes how complex organizations and all living systems follow a predictable, albeit non-linear, pattern of change.
I keep coming back to this image as my home base to grapple with WTF is happening in journalism, other institutions that form the pillars of democracy, and well, pretty much everything in life.
The Dominant System. Most journalism outlets are part of this top loop — the dominant system. And most are in some state of downward decay. We see hospice, death, and decomposition taking the form of layoffs, consolidation, mergers, hedge-fund takeovers, and the inevitable complete shuttering of news outlets. The gravitational pull toward the grave remains rather ferocious.
The Emergent System. But what’s exciting is that there are many seeds being sown, watered, and tended to in the bottom loop — the emergent system.
Here are some of the themes I’m noticing:
So hw do newsrooms on the downward slope of the dominant system — those that aren’t yet hip to or able to adopt the business models, qualities and platforms of the emergent systems — transition and evade the compost bin? Here are three practical recommendations.
Getting back to the title of this prediction, “The Great Transition”: The word “great” can mean something that’s positive and out of the ordinary, or something that’s very large in size. I believe both interpretations of the word are true for the transition that’s in process for journalism. The chasm between dominant newsroom practices, ownership structures, and incentives, and that which is emergent, is indeed great. So are the pioneers who are either still working within the dominant system or have left it, and so are the adjacent practitioners who are coming in fresh to build the emergent one. In this case, the adage “what you pay attention to grows” serves as an invitation: which of these two loops, these two systems, are you investing your precious attention in growing?
P.S. While the people who know me in a journalism context likely know my work at Hearken — which endeavors to help the dominant system players transition to the emergent — since 2016 I’ve been working in parallel on the emergent system through cofounding Zebras Unite. I wager that this entity and collection of practitioners has the power to do more to transform journalism than Hearken can. We’ll see in a decade or so if that sub-prediction is right ;). Meantime, if you’re interested in the emergent, be sure to follow the work of/at: Nathan Schneider, MEDLab at Boulder, Mara Zepeda, and Exit 2 Community. For those entrepreneurs building the next journalism companies, join Zebras Unite’s free online community.
And if you’re curious about Margaret Wheatley, the brilliant thinker who co-created the Two Loops model and so much more, I had the chance to interview her in 2018. I’ll leave you with this quote from her to ponder.
It will take a lot of courage and fearlessness to make a choice about how you want to succeed in your profession. Do you want to have moral integrity? Do you want to stand up for the profession, and change it? You recognize where it’s at now is pretty abysmal. You have to decide if you’re going to be one of the people who is going to do your very best to change it.
Jennifer Brandel is cofounder and CEO of Hearken.
Do you enjoy a juicy diagram to situate yourself in a complex context? If yes, you’re in luck.
The brilliant writers and systems thinkers Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze have generated the “Two Loops” model, which describes how complex organizations and all living systems follow a predictable, albeit non-linear, pattern of change.
I keep coming back to this image as my home base to grapple with WTF is happening in journalism, other institutions that form the pillars of democracy, and well, pretty much everything in life.
The Dominant System. Most journalism outlets are part of this top loop — the dominant system. And most are in some state of downward decay. We see hospice, death, and decomposition taking the form of layoffs, consolidation, mergers, hedge-fund takeovers, and the inevitable complete shuttering of news outlets. The gravitational pull toward the grave remains rather ferocious.
The Emergent System. But what’s exciting is that there are many seeds being sown, watered, and tended to in the bottom loop — the emergent system.
Here are some of the themes I’m noticing:
So hw do newsrooms on the downward slope of the dominant system — those that aren’t yet hip to or able to adopt the business models, qualities and platforms of the emergent systems — transition and evade the compost bin? Here are three practical recommendations.
Getting back to the title of this prediction, “The Great Transition”: The word “great” can mean something that’s positive and out of the ordinary, or something that’s very large in size. I believe both interpretations of the word are true for the transition that’s in process for journalism. The chasm between dominant newsroom practices, ownership structures, and incentives, and that which is emergent, is indeed great. So are the pioneers who are either still working within the dominant system or have left it, and so are the adjacent practitioners who are coming in fresh to build the emergent one. In this case, the adage “what you pay attention to grows” serves as an invitation: which of these two loops, these two systems, are you investing your precious attention in growing?
P.S. While the people who know me in a journalism context likely know my work at Hearken — which endeavors to help the dominant system players transition to the emergent — since 2016 I’ve been working in parallel on the emergent system through cofounding Zebras Unite. I wager that this entity and collection of practitioners has the power to do more to transform journalism than Hearken can. We’ll see in a decade or so if that sub-prediction is right ;). Meantime, if you’re interested in the emergent, be sure to follow the work of/at: Nathan Schneider, MEDLab at Boulder, Mara Zepeda, and Exit 2 Community. For those entrepreneurs building the next journalism companies, join Zebras Unite’s free online community.
And if you’re curious about Margaret Wheatley, the brilliant thinker who co-created the Two Loops model and so much more, I had the chance to interview her in 2018. I’ll leave you with this quote from her to ponder.
It will take a lot of courage and fearlessness to make a choice about how you want to succeed in your profession. Do you want to have moral integrity? Do you want to stand up for the profession, and change it? You recognize where it’s at now is pretty abysmal. You have to decide if you’re going to be one of the people who is going to do your very best to change it.
Jennifer Brandel is cofounder and CEO of Hearken.
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