Building community with your colleagues

By Sabrina Herrera

As journalists, we spend so much time looking forward — to the next deadline or the next story — that we sometimes forget to look at the people working side-by-side with us. Our news organizations are places of connection working toward a shared goal. So, how do we build an authentic sense of belonging? And how do we avoid the cringey “mandatory fun” we’re all familiar with?

Leadership and staff at The Seattle Times have found in-house activities to be a low-cost, fun way to engage with one another. Staff contribute ideas and multiple groups bear responsibility for organizing, so they’ve created a variety of culture-building touchpoints, from more casual meetups to mentorship BINGO.

Naomi Ishisaka is The Seattle Times’ assistant managing editor for Diversity and Inclusion, the paper’s social justice columnist and a member of the 2024-25 Table Stakes Advisory Board. She said that with the challenges that journalists face, it’s great to take a break, do something fun and connect with one other along the way.

“When we have these events, there’s a lot of smiles, a lot of laughter, a lot of connection across teams that might not get to interact with each other very much,” she said.

While the Times’ newsroom Equity Team organizes a lot of culture-building work, Ishisaka said the whole newsroom drives and helps organize these events, with ideas coming from the staff.

“If you can learn something along the way, too, all the better,” she said.

Take “Washington Day,” for example. It’s a day that celebrates the state the newsroom covers. Because many staff members hail from out-of-state, it’s a great way to get to know the area and coworkers’ connection to it. Staff wear Washington-related outfits and bring in potluck items such as salmon, apples or Ishisaka’s pick, Spam musubi. One staff member even organized “know-your-state” trivia.

In the years Ishisaka has worked for the Times, she says these events stick out in her memory.

“It’s creating moments and memories out of the day-to-day grind of journalism,” she said. “Everyone remembers the two [neighborhood] walks we’ve done so far, because you’re out of your element, you’re out in the world, it breaks up the day-to-day routine a little bit.”

An Equity Team member from the sports department came up with the idea of neighborhood walks. The goal is to walk through areas around Seattle that are less well-known or more marginalized to get a deeper understanding of the community’s challenges and opportunities. Sometimes, sources will join and be the journalists’ guides in these areas. Then, they wrap up the experience by sharing a meal.

Ishiaka said the more we focus on building a culture of belonging, the better our journalism will be. Listening activities like these can help.

“I think it makes us look around the room a little bit more at what the whole needs, rather than just what my team might need on any given day,” she said. “One of our Equity Team members was in the sports department. I learned a lot about the cycles of their work, or things that I need to be mindful of as a newsroom leader, in terms of scheduling things, and being mindful of particular events. I might not have known about that had I not had that close relationship with them.”

Here are three tips for creating a culture of belonging and connection in your newsroom:

• Encourage everyone to share ideas: Ishisaka said many of the events they hold are from staff, not leadership. Having staff-led efforts helps get people excited because they want to support their peers. Ishisaka also wrote about best practices for ways staff can drive knowledge-sharing earlier in the series.
• Keep it simple: Try not to overcomplicate an activity or gathering. Keep in mind that organizing a gathering is an extra load on everyone’s plates. “You’re not planning a wedding,” Ishisaka said. “Get the people together, and make sure they know where to go and when.” There’s no need to over-engineer this, especially if it makes it harder to replicate.
• Allow people to participate on their terms: Throwing a potluck? Not everyone has to prepare a dish. Discussing a podcast or movie? Anyone should be able to pop in, listen and participate at their leisure (as long as they don’t mind potential spoilers!). Organizing an outdoor recess event with lawn games? Staff should be able to come and just watch. The idea is to make it easier to connect as people, not harder. Let people engage in a way that’s comfortable for them.

TRY IT OUT

• Throw a monthly “All-Birthdays” gathering to celebrate your colleagues: One monthly party to celebrate everyone means no one gets left out. Have the birthday folks organize the following month’s gathering to rotate the organizational responsibilities. Include a short presentation with photos and facts about the birthday staffers. They get to choose the cake or treat, of course!
  • Virtual option: Present the slides over a video call and encourage folks to indulge in a treat of their choosing. Share birthday wishes, traditions and what treats you have.
• Get together for a game hour: Encourage staff to bring in board games or puzzles from home. Set up tables and chairs where staff can float between gaming stations. This can be held in the office or off-site at a community space or brewery.
  • Virtual option: Play games online, like Spyfall or Jackbox games, and split people into breakout game rooms, if necessary.
• Bring in a theater group to lead improv exercises: Improv is a creative way to open your mind, shed your inhibitions and be vulnerable with your colleagues in a silly, low-stakes way. Partner with a theater group or college drama program to support local artists.
• Stretch & share: Form a circle in an open space in the office. Each person introduces a new stretch, while telling a story or answering a question prompt. The questions don’t have to be deep, but the stretches can be! (Stretches can be modified or done to a person’s comfort level, of course.)
• Hold an internal video screening: Does your newsroom produce video content? Organize an internal screening to celebrate the work the team has put into reporting a visual story. Share behind-the-scenes stories and social content related to the story.

Sabrina Herrera is a member of the 2024-25 Table Stakes Alumni Advisory Board. She has experience leading and building teams at Connecticut Public, including creating the station’s social media team and in her current role as the editor of the ¡Somos Connecticut! Latino Initiative. Sabrina is also host of the narrative podcast, “Generation Barney.”