We can improve the day-to-day of whatever newsroom work culture we find ourselves in. Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Sponsored By Editor's Note: Hey y’all. We’re still looking for the next editor and writer to host The Cohort. Check out the opportunity here!  Today’s column comes from Poynter faculty Samantha Ragland, and just in time. Many of us are already grappling with hybrid, distributed, remote, or just completely different workplaces as the pandemic shifts gears. Sam's experience transforming Poynter’s Leadership Academy for Women in Media into an engaging virtual experience for dozens of participants all over the U.S. can show us how to look forward with intention … and maybe even some excitement.  — Mel Grau, outgoing editor of The Cohort  3 transferable lessons from the virtual women’s leadership academies By Samantha Ragland  Have you exhaled yet? Breathing out the anxiety of a pandemic year that put relationships on hold or on screens, that blurred the lines between work and home, that made us question what we know about life and living it. While many of us are vaccinated and eager to get back to “the before times,” the truth is that those times should no longer be the goal. And for a large portion of the post-pandemic workforce, those times won't be the goal. Whether we’re entering into a hybrid workforce, which 52% of employees recently shared is their preference, or a fully remote one, working through a pandemic has taught us what’s possible. And when it comes to work, to showing up, to being productive, I hope for many of us that the pandemic has forever benched the excuse that “we do (fill in the blank) this way because it’s the way we’ve always done it.” With this in mind, I wanted to share three lessons I’ve learned in moving Poynter’s flagship Leadership Academy for Women in Media from an in-person retreat to an engaging virtual experience. I believe these lessons can transfer and improve the day-to-day of whatever newsroom work culture we find ourselves in later this year. It sometimes got goofy during the virtual Leadership Academies for Women in Media. Do more than show up. It’s worth it. It can be hard to really show up, especially after the year-plus that we’ve all had. However, when you do have the mental and emotional energy to do so, protecting your time while managing the expectations of others so you can really show up to a call, a conversation, a meeting is totally worth it. Studies in phatic communication, or small talk, have confirmed the importance of showing up early or staying late. This has all but fallen by the wayside in our move to online work. But the research shows that this casual conversation before meetings — especially virtual ones — can increase trust, decision-efficiency and brainstorming. It can also help replicate the downtime we miss in the office. The chat is a whole other resource. In the leadership academy, the chat can be overwhelming. There’s just so much to share and so little time. What I love most about the chat is it never discounts the expertise in the room, and it gives a chance for all communication preferences to be heard. Extroverts? Drop it in the chat. Introverts? Yep, the chat’s for you too. Sometimes, we forget to lean on the expertise in our own newsrooms — not by choice but because of circumstance. The news just doesn't stop; we’re so focused on the next story that we can forget to take a beat and amplify our own talented journalists. By optimizing meetings with an agenda and some open ended questions, the chat in your video conferencing platform can become a ripe resource for knowledge shares and innovative coverage ideas. But it’s up to you as the manager, editor and meeting leader to set this expectation. Connection isn’t relegated to IRL experiences. Thinking of spending an entire week in an online training can be daunting. Zoom fatigue is absolutely real. But over the past year, programming our women’s leadership academy for a virtual experience has taught me how possible and how necessary connection is — no matter the platform. We have to be intentional about connecting, and you don't have to don a leadership title to create and hold space for your colleagues to connect. This will look different to everyone, and no, it’s probably not in the daily news meeting. It may not be the weekly happy hour or virtual trivia night either. But yes, it can still be work related, and in the video conferencing world, yes, it will likely put breakout rooms to use.  As journalists, we can connect around the storytelling and re-envisioning our coverage. We can put our minds together to brainstorm ways our reporters can become active members of the communities their reporting serves. With editors being at capacity and deep editing taking that hit, we can connect around story analysis and feedback. The bottom line is this: When leaning on virtual spaces to lead and manage teams, we can look forward into the potential and lean into that through experimentation and intentionality instead of looking back and standing still because of what was. A message Freedom Forum: The Freedom Forum’s Power Shift Project trains your newsroom and classroom leaders to teach our Workplace Integrity curriculum. 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