How would you kill your business?Time after time, I speak with digital publishing professionals who know the industry is changing, but can’t seem to gain traction in their news rooms, editorial departments, or executive meetings to do anything about it.That’s why I started studying change management and organizational development principles, and this week came across a provocative approach to motivating employees for change. Instead of asking, “How can we save our business?” or “How can we stay relevant as a news organization in a changing media landscape?” ask your employees, How can we kill our business? What would lead to our certain death in 5 years?There’s a certain moroseness and ennui pervading many news rooms and print publications these days, and sometimes, instead of being the Pollyanna trying to pep talk the whole company into action, some psychological jiujitsu is needed. Psychological jiujitsu lets managers meet their employees where they are and give into feelings of helplessness and despair, but in a constructive way.By asking your staff how they could kill your business, you’re not only allowing them to voice their concerns, you’re bringing detrimental company behaviors and dysfunctional cultural norms to the forefront. Imagine the things they’d say — Keep giving away our content for free! Ignore new technologies! Refuse to learn new skills! Not launch new products! Not explore new marketing channels! Explore all marketing channels, but with no plan and no metrics of success! Being directionless!Aren’t these the behaviors you’re trying to change? By allowing employees to say what they think is getting in the way, you allow them the opportunity to take ownership in the problem. And when employees can speak truth to management about what’s working and what’s not, they’re more likely to change their behavior than when you diagnose the problem and prescribe the solution from afar.Now the trick is you can’t leave them there — sitting in their helplessness and pessimistic world view. After concerns are surfaced, you have to shift the conversation by asking, What do we need to change these behaviors? And then, here’s the most crucial part — you must be ready to listen and hear their solutions, and provide whatever resources they may need to implement the new desired behavior. That may mean paying for SEO training for your entire editorial department, or stopping a project to allow marketing and editorial to get on the same page, or bringing in a change management consultant to facilitate effective team building in your organization. You have to be the responsive manager that supports the change with resources and your own openness.What do you think? Have you had any success in your methods to initiate change in your paid content business? If so, tell me what those methods are – I want to know! And if haven’t been able to initiate change despite your best efforts, I’m happy to speak with you by phone about ideas to help foster constructive, change-oriented conversations in your organization. Just shoot me an email at minal [at] subscriptioncontent.net.