Looking Back to Move Forward: Kaizen in the Newsroom

Learning how to increase efficiency, clarity, and psychological safety in newsrooms through Retrospective meetings and Kaizen.

Too often, we forge ahead with new projects without having or taking the time to look back and see what could have gone better. Retrospective meetings are a way to easily and quickly synthesize past work, allowing for the past to inform the future. This session will provide tips and tricks to help newsroom leaders, whether on the technical side or otherwise, to hold and learn from these meetings. We’ll go through multiple formats of retrospectives, such as The Four Ls, The 5 Whys, and more!

One of the most important products of a retrospective is a kaizen, meaning “continuous improvement.” This allows a team to leave a meeting with tangible action steps to implement. We’ll dive into how to identify, form, and implement these Kaizens throughout your working life, to increase happiness, reduce waste, increase quality, and more.

Finally, we’ll detail the process of moving forward with these Kaizens in mind, including experimenting, staying agile, and not being afraid to try something a little different. Whether on a weekly or other repeating basis, these meetings and processes will create more clarity, efficiency, and psychological safety on any team.

Suggested Speaker(s)

  • Ken Medley
    Agile Process Leader, Alley Interactive