That doesn't mean all broadcast journalists are good at coaching. Photojournalists routinely gripe about reporters who see today's assignment as "my story," and who literally want to call all the shots. Reporters rail about photographers who show no interest in the assignment and no creativity in the field.

But when coaching happens--and it does happen--in television newsrooms, it's because the journalists involved have learned something simple yet profound: how to listen to each other.

Coaching often begins in the morning editorial meeting. Instead of running through a list of "must do" stories for the day and assigning them at the start, coaching newsrooms solicit story ideas and encourage everyone present to weigh in with suggestions. At WOWT-TV in Omaha, Nebraska, staffers share responsibility for running the meeting, rotating the assignment week-to-week. Their only rule is that managers are never allowed to be in charge. "Giving people a little bit more power and control," says assistant news director Mike Plews, "they really get excited about bringing stuff in."

Coaching also happens outside the newsroom, often in the car on the way to an assignment. Reporters and photographers who coach each other apply what Dateline NBC's John Larson calls the rule of thirds. They can complain about the boss or the assignment or the weather, but only for a third of the time they spend driving to a story. The rest of the time they have to discuss and plan what they'll do that day.

Teams that coach don't practice "standing around journalism," to borrow a phrase from Lane Michaelsen, news director at WTSP-TV in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a former news photographer. The reporter doesn't wait in the car while the photographer shoots the b-roll, and the photographer doesn't go for coffee while the reporter does pre-interviews. Instead, Michaelsen says, they stay together and talk frequently so they both know what they're getting and what they still need to tell the story. In a broadcast newsroom, coaching means sharing responsibility for what goes on the air. Photographers help reporters write. Reporters and photographers offer newscast producers material for teases and tags. Assignment editors ask questions instead of just giving orders.

Reporter Kim Riemland and photographer Bill Strothman coached each other regularly when both worked at KOMO-TV in Seattle, Washington. Kim says Bill wrote the best line in one of her daily news stories about the protests against the World Trade Organization--"In downtown Seattle today, the First Amendment ended at Fourth and Spring." Bill says Kim suggested the perfect audio transition, from the sound of a machine gun to a sewing machine, for one of his favorite long-form pieces on a woman who makes quilts for war refugees. But they weren't just a two-person team. Each of them involved others throughout the reporting and editing process, asking for ideas and feedback, and sharing the compliments after a story aired.

In a coaching newsroom, no one is shy about seeking the help they need and they often turn to peers to get it. Chief photographer Bob Gould at WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan, invites other photographers into his edit bay to screen stories that he's working on as a kind of reality check, "to see if an edit works, if sound is understandable."

Coaching newsrooms build on the positive. They may begin each morning meeting with a "daily win," reviewing what went well the night before. When Scott Libin was news director at KSTP-TV in St. Paul, Minnesota, he regularly showed tape from the previous day's newscasts to celebrate successes. "The practice is a part of our culture," he says.

Changing the culture may be more difficult in a television newsroom than at a newspaper, because the staff turnover tends to be higher. But even if only a few people are committed to the practice, coaching can take hold in what Kim Riemland calls a "conspiracy of excellence"--a bottom-up effort that improves the product and makes the newsroom a better place to work. "When you get a few dedicated people who are committed to excellence to be supportive of each other, not only will your work be better, but others will notice," Riemland says. "It can be contagious, and pretty soon that small core group has coached the management by example."