If successful women build portable skills, and if journalistic chops like those of Katie Couric are ostensibly portable, why has her stint at CBS been such a debacle?
And within the context of 'daring to dream', is there a lesson to be learned?
As we try and answer this question, there's a framework known as jobs to be done developed by Professor Clayton M. Christensen that I think can be useful. Rather than trying to understand the typical viewer's characteristics (age, gender, for example), the 'jobs to be done' framework focuses instead on what job a viewer needs done or what problem she needs solved, and who or what can she hire to do that job.
For example, in Caitlin Flanagan's piece A Woman's Place - Katie Couric's Long Day's Journey into Evening, Flanagan writes that the job that women with small children need done on weekday mornings is "adult conversation".
When they tuned into Katie Couric on The Today Show, they were hiring Ms. Couric to help fill the time during "one of the most psychologically complex and lonely--and most emotionally fulfilling--times of their lives; their tenure as mothers to small children."
However, the very same women (the "typical viewer") who had hired Ms. Couric in the mornings who have nothing but time, time that must be filled, endured, killed -- is the person who is in a race against the clock by early evening...
At nine o’clock in the morning, Katie was the personification of The Today Show in its perfected form: not just a television program, but a cheery marker of time, a blessed imposition of structure and order on the disquieting entropy of life at home with children. But at 6:30 in the evening, she’s a drag....Just one more person who wants something from you...nagging you to be interested—really, really interested—in Anbar province.
The problem that stay-at-home moms with small children need solved (not enough time, too much conversation) in the evening is diametrically opposed to the problem they need solved (too much time, not enough adult conversation) in the morning.
Katie Couric was the right person to solve the morning problem.
At night she has been all wrong.
We can learn some great lessons from Ms. Couric's career. For example:
When you or I are thinking about starting a new business (whether an Etsy shop or large corporation) or a new job, what problem will we be helping people solve? What job will they be hiring our product to do?
Does the problem that we want to solve for people play to our strengths? If not, is there a job that needs to be done that does?
What do you do if there's a mismatch between the job you were hired to do and the job you want to do?
In your relationships, what job are your loved ones hiring you to do? And you them?
P.S. Thanks to Whitney Clayton for passing along Caitlin Flanagan's piece which, in turn, inspired this post.
Related posts:
Now the News -- Couric Still Isn't One of the Boys
I also read and enjoyed Caitlin Flanigan's piece on Katie. I musing on this post while I was in a meeting this afternoon. The meeting was filled with conflicting viewpoints and posturing until I "called the moment" and asked "what problem are we trying to solve". That's a powerful question when the direction seems unclear and the solution does not have a direct "owner".
I am not sure if Katie asked CBS what problem they were trying to solve in hiring her - becuase I am not sure that CBS accurate diagnosed the problem.
Katie may have been swept up in a "quick fix" and took a rare opportunity to join prime time as a woman without asking "what's the down side if this doesn't work out".
Then again, I am not sure how many women look at both the pros and the cons when they are handed the keys to a shiny treasure they have been working towards for several decades...
Posted by: Stacey P | April 25, 2008 at 03:05 PM
#1: Response to "When you or I are thinking about starting a new business...or a new job, what problem will we be helping people solve? Having a clear answer to this question is essential to success. Recently while judging an entrepreneurship competition at Harvard, I observed that the strongest idea pitches were those that clearly and substantially articulated the need that would be met or the problem that would be solved with their business. The answer to this question, as Staci P suggests, provides the foundation for relevant discussion and development of solutions/products/services.
#2: Response to "What do you do if there's a mismatch between the job you were hired to do and the job you want to do?" My instinctual response to this question is, "Be brave" because more likely than not, a change is needed, which requires you to really dig deep and muster courage. This change could come in the form of a job switch (or even a field/industry change) or a heart-to-heart with your supervisor about engaging projects and tasks that take advantage of your strengths.
I think this analysis is equally as helpful for stay-at-home mothers. I've had several discussions recently with women about playing to their strengths in the home. One woman felt energized when she played for hours with her children, and drained managing the household maintenance. Another woman experienced the opposite. I suggested that each of these women "be brave" and consider outsourcing that which drained them, and doing what energized them. I think this is particularly scary for mothers because of erroneous ideas about being perfect at and willing to execute every aspect of this choice.
Posted by: Janna | April 30, 2008 at 08:11 PM