Cultural Change
Ignition Program
for Latin American News Publishers
October 2020 - January 2021
Ignition Program: Comprehend the need for cultural change & how to activate it in your organization
The Cultural Change Ignition Program for Latin American News Publishers organized by WAN-IFRA and The Facebook Journalism Project is an online executive program which will offer its participants insights and mentoring in order to trigger cultural change within their companies.
The Ignition Project is aimed at rising Latin American media leaders interested in upgrading their digital and management skill-set in order to better lead their organizations’ adaptation to the new reality.
Running from October 2020 to January 2021, the Ignition Project will provide attendees with 8 high performance sessions delivered by selected regional industry peers & renowned global industry experts through interactive online formats. Each intervention is specifically designed to provide participants best-in-class instruments and thought-provoking concepts needed to stir up cultural change in their companies.
Ignition Syllabus* - Oct. ‘20, Jan. ‘21
*Titles, speakers and dates are subject to change.
Selection Criteria
By invitation only: a first group of companies will be invited to apply. Only the best applications will be selected.
Selection Criteria
By invitation only: a first group of companies will be invited to apply. Only the best applications will be selected.
Session 1: Introduction
The elephant in a pool dilemma
Ignitor: Diego Carvajal, 🇨🇴
Regional Digital Director, Discovery LATAM
Date: Oct. 23rd, 2020
Time: 12:00 to 14:00 hrs Mexico City & Bogota // 14:00 to 16:00 hrs Brasilia & Buenos Aires
True change is much more about culture than anything else. Tools or even investments always follow culture.
The elephant in a pool dilemma tells a common story about adaptation but while at it, touches upon the topics the next seven ignition sessions will take a deep dive on.
Install a true startup mentality & digital mindset, discover talent acquisition and retention tactics for digital connected individuals. Learn to put data at the center and truly transform the relationship with your audience.
This first session will ignite thoughts on how to start removing those safety pins that are preventing your organization from starting its very own adaptation.
Session 2: Organizational change
Triggering change in a legacy media company
Ignitor: Borja Echevarría 🇪🇸,
Managing Editor at El País
Date: Oct. 30th, 2020
Time: 12:00 to 14:00 hrs Mexico City & Bogota // 14:00 to 16:00 hrs Brasilia & Buenos Aires
Digital is not a unit within a company but a mindset that can benefit the most analog of processes just like change is not about learning , it's about doing.
Learn on how to generate change, break silos, inspire innovation, implement cross functional methodologies and lead your organization’s adaptation.
Get actionable insights in how to identify perspectives to develop influence strategies.
Session 3: Organizational change
Cases studies: learnings of cultural changes in industries outside media
Ignitors:
Ryan Thomas 🇺🇸 Former Catholic News Agency Director
& Digital Transformation Advisor to the Vatican
Joao Adao 🇵🇹 Managing Director Facebook for SP South America
Date: Nov. 6th, 2020
Time: 12:00 to 14:00 hrs Mexico City & Bogota // 14:00 to 16:00 hrs Brasilia & Buenos Aires
Digital is not a unit within a company but a mindset that can benefit the most analog of processes just like change is not about learning , it's about doing.
Learn on how to generate change, break silos, inspire innovation, implement cross functional methodologies and lead your organization’s adaptation.
Get actionable insights in how to identify perspectives to develop influence strategies.
Session 4: Talents and Roles
Attracting, keeping and adapting your organization’s talent
Ignitors: Anita Zielina 🇦🇹
Director Strategic Initiatives at Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY
Date: Nov. 13th, 2020
Time: 12:00 to 14:00 hrs Mexico City & Bogota // 14:00 to 16:00 hrs Brasilia & Buenos Aires
Leading people means understanding human behaviour. Leading change means developing models and mindsets for innovation beyond the day to day operation.
Understand key roles, skills and resources needed by media companies to drive adaptation and how to find them in the work market. Trough examples from within and outside the media industry learn how you can make your media company an attractive purpose-driven professional opportunity for present and future young talent.
Session 5: Data
Putting Data at the Core
Ignitor: Beth Diaz 🇺🇸
VP, Audience Development & Analytics Washington Post
Date: Dec. 4th, 2020
Time: 12:00 to 14:00 hrs Mexico City & Bogota // 14:00 to 16:00 hrs Brasilia & Buenos Aires
Data informed is not the same as data driven.
�Data allows for a sharper understanding of your audience. It enables far more informed editorial, product, distribution, UX and business decisions.
You will learn how data’s vital importance can be embraced by the whole company, understand ways to effectively share it within all levels of your organization and build a data team according to your company’s resources.
Session 6: Transformational leadership
Cultural Change Ignition Instruments for media companies
Ignitor:
Ken Doctor 🇺🇸
CEO, Lookout Local/ President Newsonomics
Date: Dec. 11th, 2020
Time: 12:00 to 14:00 hrs Mexico City & Bogota // 14:00 to 16:00 hrs Brasilia & Buenos Aires
Transformational leadership is far from being the norm in media companies’ culture. Such status quo often blocks creativity and innovation, vital ingredients for companies to truly adapt to digital.
Understand how transformational leadership culture can trigger change by effectively empowering, inspiring and motivating your teams, through a strong sense of ownership, autonomy and corporate culture.
Session 7: Audience
Shifting the relationship with your audience
Ignitor: TBD
Date: Jan. 15, 2021
Time: 12:00 to 14:00 hrs Mexico City & Bogota // 14:00 to 16:00 hrs Brasilia & Buenos Aires
The new reality transcends digital. It also means enticing a new and more demanding audience.
Learn from real experience how to better empathize with the customer, how to develop rapid prototypes, and iterate on your ideas for products, services, and experiences in a way that it triggers mechanisms to better comprehend your audience’s needs, through transparency, trust, and societal mission.
Session 8: Strategy
Rethinking your media organization’s strategy in the post-advantage world
Ignitor: Rita McGrath 🇺🇸
Professor, Columbia Business School
Date: Jan. 29th, 2020
Time: 12:00 to 14:00 hrs Mexico City & Bogota // 14:00 to 16:00 hrs Brasilia & Buenos Aires
The Ignition Program will conclude with a keynote session with Rita McGrath, best-selling author and sought-after speaker, regarded as one of the world's top experts on strategy and innovation.
In this session, she will explain how there is a pervasive belief that a competitive advantage, once established, is enduring. This leads to complacency, inward focus, loss of customer engagement and a stifling of innovation. Instead, smart strategists leave old assumptions at the door and pursue opportunities to establish and exploit transient advantages.
Learn how to embrace continuous reconfiguration, why you need to update your success metrics, why you need to know when it is the right moment to disengage from fading businesses, why believing your most important competitors are others in your industry is a trap and many more key insights.
Selection process, deadlines and dates
Session anatomy and office hours