The Carnival of Journalism is back and this time, it’s serious.

Well, at least is might have some practical tips for newsrooms, thanks to our host this month, Will Sullivan, who asked: What are small, incremental steps one can make to fuel change in their media organization?

Change is not a word that sits well in many newsrooms, above all in newspapers. After visiting a newspaper newsroom, one of my journalism students felt particularly discouraged. They left thinking that this was not a place that fostered competition and creativity.

Shifting the culture of a newsroom is a mammoth task. But there are small steps that can be taken to create an atmosphere of competition and creativity.

Here, news organisations can learn from Google – encourage your staff to experiment, try out new projects, and yes, perhaps fail.

But think small. Encourage ideas that require little investment in time and resources and might be far from perfect in their first iteration.

Don’t try to reinvent the wheel by wasting time and effort on replicating online tools. There are dozens of online resources so use those, rather than creating your own version.

For example, for the recent Canadian elections, I created a social media buzz tracker using Netvibes at NetPrimeMinister.ca. It was quick to make, at no cost and it worked.

And a group of my students used Google Maps to map out local issues in Vancouver that resonated on a national level.

The tools exist to try new ideas.  Let your journalists experiment, accept imperfection, learn from failure.