Speakers: Eliza Anyangwe, Alexandra Borchardt
Moderator: Graham Griffith
Organized in cooperation with Heinrich Böll Stiftung e.V.
December 8th, 2020, 17:55-18:00 (planned: 18:00-18:35)
Written by Lea Siebel
Key words: Leadership, Digital Transformation, Change Management, Personal Development
Short annotation, summary
Due to the ever-changing landscape and digital transformation in the field of media, leadership is becoming increasingly important. However, there are many crusted hierarchical structures and disparities. The speakers shared how leaders should address these challenges and how leadership in media can achieve a successful digital transformation.
The project or approach to be discussed in the session
The speakers discussed various approaches: First they agreed that good leaders should encourage their staff to make changes and hold their own organizations accountable. Second, decentralized structures are prefered but hierarchy is not necessarily bad, boundaries help structure and organization. Leaders should foster a learning mindset in their staff.
Evidence of impact
The successful development of leadership is measured in nothing less but in the survival of media outlets in the digital era. If they do not review their structures and leadership styles, they may cease to exist.
Limitations, risks of the approach provided by the speaker
The speakers also mentioned that hiercacial structures aren’t necessarily bad. The absence of boundaries does not automatically result in freedom but more into anarchy.
Takeaways
1. Change is difficult but crucial for a successful transformation and for the survival of news outlets. The structure of the organization should always reflect the workplace and the community it serves.
2. Good leaders should help their people to achieve a learning mindset and enable them to make changes within their own organizations.
3. Change can happen from the bottom up (e.g. small-scale experimenting) but also from outside.
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