Leadership wisdom from Perugia: How to own your sh*t and get sh*t done

We've all been there. The exciting project that we can't make time for or can't get off the ground. Why do so many promising newsroom ideas stall, and what does it take for leaders to stop the rut?

A couple of sessions at the International Journalism Festival aimed to answer these questions.

Firstly, Felicitas Carrique (News Product Alliance), Michaël Jarjour (Trustfund), Lucy Küng (RISJ), and moderator Anita Zielina (Better Leaders Lab) first dissected why projects often die at the first hurdle.

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International Journalism FestivalFelicitas Carrique executive director News Product Alliance (via video)

Jarjour then led another session with Mayuri Mei Lin (MDIF), Kim Bode (Newspack), Sanne Breimer (Inclusive Journalism) and Amruta Byatnal (independent journalist) about the remedy, and their best hacks for getting projects into first gear.

Turning ideas into real progress: practical ways to get sh* done

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International Journalism FestivalKim Bode head of growth initiatives Newspack

Here's what we learned:

Watch out for project killers

Lucy Küng, a renowned media strategist and board advisor, offered a candid diagnosis of why strategy so often fails to translate into impact.

• Burnout: Newsroom leaders have three jobs: keeping up with the news cycle, managing people and strategic planning. Trouble is, short-term fire-fighting is a long-term creativity killer:

"You will get the work done, you will deliver, you will do what's on the list, but there'll be no combining of things in an interesting way or breakthrough thinking. And that's essentially a lot of where the industry's got to."

• Frontloaded strategy: When there is time for strategic planning, managers tend to underestimate the challenge of stitching together old and new parts of the organisation. It's a recipe for burnout and stalled projects: "They over-index on getting the strategy right and put too little emphasis on acknowledging how much work is going to be implemented."
• Strategic creep: And finally, successful projects tend to get deadweight thrown into them because they appear to be capable of handling it from the outset – "and then you find the whole thing's turned into a strategic puddle."

Watch out for skill gaps and large egos

Felicitas Carrique drew on her work with getting global newsrooms to take action. She pinpointed persistent knowledge and process gaps that undermine execution:

• Journalists aren't natural project managers: Many teams lack the frameworks, habits, and management know-how to turn strategy into reality. You need to intentionally upskill team members if you want them to maintain clear objectives, follow-throughs, and communication rituals.
• Accountability is often missing in action: When responsibility isn’t explicitly assigned, projects stall and confusion reigns. As Carrique put it:

"Ownership is assumed as opposed to explicitly assigned, so nothing is actually anyone's problem."

Meanwhile, Michaël Jarjour, a product leader turned founder, focused on the human and structural barriers to execution — from empowering teams to create the conditions for them to have pride in their work. This is far from a given.

• Leadership egos block collective progress: News organisations are usually led by respected individuals, and so a lot of project commitment and responsibility falls onto the shoulders of one busy person.

"I have never seen a journalism company led by a team. It's usually one big star, like the editor-in-chief or a CEO. But a cross-functional team that is visibly cross-functional, visibly works together, and models how stuff is owned across functions – I would wish for that because a lot of that can trickle down. That's how you want your teams to work as well."

Start with discovery, set goals, and celebrate wins

Mayuri Mei Lin shared a practical three-step framework for turning ideas into action in resource-strapped newsrooms.

Discovery: Begin by surfacing gaps and understanding the real motivations behind a project. Interrogate problems deeply, ask questions like an investigative journalist to uncover what’s truly needed, not just what’s trendy.

Goal setting: Once the problem is clear, set specific, ideally quantitative, goals to guide your efforts and measure progress.

Celebrate wins: Recognise and celebrate small victories along the way, no matter how incremental, to build morale and keep momentum. Check-ins are also worthwhile.

Provide clarity and focus

Kim Bode introduced the Goal-getter resource — a simple but powerful framework for mapping projects, their urgency and their lifespan.

Newspack Goal Getter

Google Docs

Brain dump and triage: Teams list all their ideas and fill out the columns. The result is a living document that helps teams focus on high-impact, low-effort wins and avoid being overwhelmed by too many initiatives at once.

Jarjour put it best: "This provides clarity, and clarity is always at the heart of action"

Beware the leadership trap — sometimes you’re the problem

Sanne Breimer, founder of Inclusive Journalism and Cracks Magazine, cautioned that leaders themselves can be the bottleneck to progress.

• When to go over your boss's head: Sometimes, progress stalls because of a direct manager’s resistance or lack of support. In these cases, it’s not only acceptable but necessary to escalate the issue by going to their boss. This is appropriate if progress is truly impossible or the situation is causing significant stress — and after you’ve recognised that the problem isn’t just with you, but with the leadership dynamic itself.
• Founder syndrome: If you’re a manager or a founder, be open to the possibility that your own habits or decisions might be holding the team back.
  Seek feedback, invite honest critique from your team and be willing to adapt your approach: "You also need to realise that you might be the problem."

Find the right moment and the right advocates

In a world of shiny objects, it can be tempting to chase the next big thing. Independent journalist, Amruta Byatnal, stressed that sometimes, a launching a product comes down to timing and support.

• Find champions: Identify peers or editors who can advocate for your idea and help build momentum from within.

This article was produced with the help of an AI assistant with lots of human prompting and editing. It was then edited by another human.