A couple of weeks ago I blogged that the Chief Innovation Officer for Tribune Company – Lee Abrams – was unlikely to make much difference because he wasn’t given any White Space.  He didn’t have permission nor resources to develop a new Success Formula – and as a result he would be allowed only to make minor adjustments around the existing Success Formula edges – a program which is way too little, too late for nosediving Tribune.

Recently Mr. Abrams was interviewed (read interview here), and the reported discussion leads me to be no more optimistic than I was before.  While I grant Mr. Abrams with a lot of experience, good ideas and desire, he’s still without White Space and that means organizational Lock-in, and the Status Quo Police, will keep his efforts from yielding much improved results.

I was pleased to read that Mr. Abrams recognizes the difference in requirements between his success in radio and his challenges with Tribune.  As he indicated, when he applied innovation to radio "what radio needed was discipline.  It was all over the place and we disciplined it."  That made a lot of sense for 1970s radio.  Top 40 had ignited a huge growth wave, and the radio industry was in the Rapids.  In the Rapids, businesses need to develop a Success Formula and become good at executing it so they can keep growing fast.  Good business practices in the Rapids are all about Locking-In on the Success Formula and replicating faster than anyone else so you can grow the most and build the greatest resource base.

But after growth stalls it’s a whole different game.  Once tipped into the Flats or Swamp successful innovation is about finding your way back into the Rapids.  And Mr. Abrams seems to know that.  When he took his new job at XM Radio a few years ago he had employees bring in memorabilia from traditional radio stations and he burned them!  Similar to how he had a Chicago DJ bring disco records to the ball park and blow them up with explosives to mark the shift away from Disco programming!  These actions were symbolic Disruptions – making people see that the past needed to be forgotten in search of a more successful future.  Disruption is the first step to opening the mind, and organization, for a better future.  Then it takes White Space, given Permission to truly develop a new Success Formula and resources to see the efforts through.

But Mr. Abrams isn’t blowing up any artifacts at Tribune.  He sounds much more subdued as he looks to use the six smaller Tribune newspapers as "labs" to test things.  He even says he "can’t do anything too radical right away."  He’s not talking about necessary Disruptions.  He’s talking about attempting some sort of evolutionary change within a horribly Locked-in and resource-starved company more focused on making debt payments than anything else. 

Those 6 newspapers aren’t labs. The management in them is intent on making budget this year so they don’t have to cut more heads from the traditional business.  Those managers are focused on saving their traditional business traditional ways.  Mr. Abrams has no White Space there to develop a new Success Formula.  Those papers have no spare resources, manpower or money, to spend on White Space projects.  They want immediate cost savings or immediate revenue enhancements with no additional investment – and that means working around the edges for minor improvements that don’t run afoul of existing Success Formula Lock-in!  If they see Mr. Zell offer resources to Mr. Abrams those newspaper leaders will be screaming bloody murder to Mr. Zell to give them the resources and they can be much more productive with them than any ideas being offered by Mr. Abrams.  They won’t reject Mr. Abrams, but they will contend that they can do more short-term with the resources than he can!  It will be tough for Mr. Zell to ignore those newspaper heads – after he’s cut their budgets for practically every line item!

Tribune desperately needs Disruption and White Space.  I hope Mr. Zell finds it possible to really support his new Chief Innovation Officer by implementing some Disruptions.  Things need to change in the newspapers, TV stations and radio stations FAST.  The new leaders need to quickly Disrupt, so people realize change is expected.  And White Space, with permission to do new things – radical things – as well as resources committed to their success is required.  Give Mr. Abrams the tools to develop a new Success Formula and he might.  But right now – he’s trying to hook a hose to the kitchen sink while rearranging the furniture in a house on fire.