Navigating organizational operations in wartime: insights from Ukrainian media leaders

Instead of morning editorial planning, the team hides in shelters from Russian missiles. A well-planned evening broadcast may be interrupted by power outages due to damage to the country’s energy infrastructure. News of offensives, the threat of missile strikes, and the emotional toll of this constant stress affect employees, who, like ordinary people, experience burnout. Yet, despite such conditions that seem unimaginable to the rest of the civilized world, everything continues to function in Ukraine, which has been fighting a full-scale and horrific war for its independence against Russia for the past three years. Media organizations are growing, teams are expanding, and performance metrics are improving. But how?
Is a strategy necessary in such conditions when everything can change in one day? Can media make money when businesses are giving all their extra funds in donations to the army? How can managers expect productive work from employees who struggle with sleeplessness due to shelling, suffer from PTSD, or are being mobilized into the army? Have leaders managed to rebuild their systems to operate under wartime conditions, and how is it working?
These issues will be discussed in a panel discussion with the directors of three Ukrainian independent media outlets, whose central offices are located in the frontline regions of Kharkiv and Sumy, as well as in western Ukraine, Uzhgorod.
Moderated by Mariia Leonova.