WAN-IFRA: This programme of training and coaching is aimed at enabling editorial teams to picture and realise the next step in their evolution. Could you tell us a little more about your working methods from the beginning to help us understand how that works?
Jørgen la Cour-Harbo: It is important to have a well defined and well explained strategy. Everybody in the company must understand where you are going and what the thoughts behind the changes are.  It sounds easy, but very often it is not. It is hard work to change a culture based on years of working habits. Management support is needed again and again. The smartest way to reach the goals is to include the staff from the very beginning so it takes ownership in the project. The WAN-IFRA-training is focused on that.

What would you say is the necessary follow-up to these training days and why?
It is to analyse your organisation to define your strength and your weaker positions. Maybe you can do the analyses yourself, but it is also possible that you need help to introduce new ways of working to combine your experience with new needs in the workflow.

In your experience what are the management techniques that need to be developed to best manage change in the newsroom and to always stay one step ahead?
There are lots of small details in that process, but a key element is to be visible. It does not work if the managers are hidden in their offices. Show what it is all about and explain whenever needed the strategy and why the change is important.

Further Interview with Jørgen please see here