Take more risks and don't fear failure, Reuters tells staff

President and editor-in-chief Stephen Adler (photo) encouraged the agency’s 2,600 journalists “to embrace a bit of risk as we work together to thrive and grow”.

At the same time, managers must strive to do a better job helping staff to try new things without jeopardizing their careers if the moves don't work out.

In an internal blog posting titled “The importance of taking risks”, Adler said: “Anyone who covers investing knows that risk correlates with return. A risk-less portfolio is unlikely to be a stellar performer. Nor is it likely to be very exciting to manage.

“The same applies to one's career. At best, playing it safe can be, well, safe - though in these times of rapid change, it's not even that. To position yourself for stimulating, rewarding, and memorable work, you have to take some chances. And, inevitably, you have to make mistakes and suffer setbacks along the way. Sometimes, in fact, you have to fall on your face, and then get up stronger. 

“I don't advocate recklessness by any means. And the mistakes I welcome don't include making factual errors in your stories. But it's not only ok but necessary for all of us to take some chances. With ambitious story ideas that might or might not pan out. With transfers to challenging locations. With new beats that stretch our knowledge and experience. With promotions we're not sure we're quite ready for. With new approaches that the market demands but that we may resist because they disrupt our work rhythms or challenge our culture. 

“Risk-taking is needed in every generation. But I believe this is an especially exciting time for those willing to leap out of their comfort zones. Our own industry and those of our customers are in flux. Many of last generation's winners are turning into losers in our digital/mobile/global age, as habits and practices that once sustained them become less relevant. Meanwhile, new opportunities abound. For us, they include - at a minimum - harnessing social media to strengthen our news file; building a Reuters TV business that reaches consumers 24-7 on mobile devices; delivering insight on top of company news to help asset managers build smarter portfolios; providing more and better multimedia packages for our digital news customers; and deploying news to help companies engage in so-called content marketing.

“These initiatives will call on many of you to take some chances - perhaps to build on-camera and scriptwriting skills for Reuters TV, to learn how to shoot and edit video on a smartphone, to work company sources in creative new ways, to participate in an investigative project, to manage a live blog or community conversation, or to curate streams of social media content in your area of expertise. 

“I encourage you to embrace a bit of risk as we work together to thrive and grow. In turn, we managers must strive to do a better job helping you try new things without jeopardizing your careers if the moves don't work out; indeed, we all need to embrace productive failures as learning experiences that help us get better.

“In my own case, sometimes risk-taking has worked out as I'd hoped, sometimes not. I know, however, that the difficulties that resulted in some instances taught me more than anything else in my career. Taking over a weekly magazine in a fading industry? Painful - but an incredibly useful total-immersion business education." Prior to joining Thomson Reuters in 2010 Adler was editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek from 2005 to 2009 - before the US weekly was bought by Thomson Reuters' rival Bloomberg. "Undertaking an ambitious web-site launch (yes, Reuters Next) that didn't quite work out? Deeply disappointing but highly instructive for future digital projects. And I could go on..." Reuters Next, billed as a ground-breaking upgrade to reuters.com, cost too much and consistently missed project deadlines. It was killed off in one of the first acts by Reuters chief executive Andrew Rashbass when he took over business leadership of the agency a year ago. 

“The point is that reasonable risk-taking typically yields benefits even when it produces mistakes, and that making mistakes is, and has always been, the best way to learn,” Adler said.

His message was prefaced by one from Rashbass who said: “We can't win big without risk and even when we fail we learn.”

Writing on the train back to London after visiting the Paris bureau, Rashbass said he had met the media sales team and had a chance to talk with the newsroom.

“I was struck by the passion and commitment of the whole team. In the hurly-burly of the Q and A I am not sure I acknowledged sufficiently how much I appreciate what the bureau and the sales team do every day. Resources are tight and my visit reminded me just how hard our journalists in Paris (and, of course, not just in Paris) work to uncover the news every day for our clients. Also, in AFP, our sales team has to contend with one of our strongest local competitors in any market. I realise even more now just how tough it is for everybody. So many, many thanks to everyone in Paris for contributing so crucially to our success. 

“There were many good questions. One was about whether we are structured right in our industry coverage. You made the case that perhaps we're not. We need to look into this more. If any of you have thoughts about it, do share them with your bureau chief and regional editor. As I said at the meeting, don't assume your ideas can't have an impact - in fact, assuming the opposite and acting on that assumption makes it more likely they will.”

Another question was about the usability of Eikon 4, the latest version of Thomson Reuters’ flagship terminal for information, analytics and news on financial markets. “We had a robust discussion about it,” he said. “The upshot? We need to make sure you're properly trained on Eikon, but you need to make sure you turn up to the training.” ■