PR FROM THE BEACH

Why you need public relations

Public relations builds and sustains the relationships we need to keep our licence to operate - but what is a 'licence to operate' and why should your organisation care?  This three minute video and three minute read gives you the reasons why your licence to operate should be at the forefront of your thinking - and why you need public relations to help you keep it.

 

Unlike a statutory licence, granted by an authority - for example, government, association, academic institution - a 'social' licence to operate is the ongoing acceptance of an activity undertaken by an organisation by the community in which it operates. It is the permission we give to others to do something, make something, sell something or run something. Communities consist of many stakeholders - for example, employees, customers and suppliers in a commercial organisation -or voters, ratepayers, politicians and service providers in a public sector organisation. How the community and the organisation relate to each other will dictate the strength of the licence to operate.  

Imagine a manufacturer of goods. Customers want to know workers are not exploited, conditions are good and pay is fair. Should exploitation take place, customers will not buy the product. No sales means the licence to operate is withdrawn - not because of quality or price but because of organisational behaviour. The manufacturer would not be considered trustworthy, customers would be unsatisfied with the behaviour and any loyalty eroded. Add to that consequential reputational damage and the ability to conduct business becomes impossible.

Next, imagine a government. Over years, promises and policies put forward at the time of election remain unfulfilled. Voters have suffered economic and social hardship as a result. Jobs are few, houses are scarce, health care is negligible and everyone is disillusioned. Come the election, the sitting government is voted out, no longer legitimate and licence to operate withdrawn. Again, erosion of trust, satisfaction - even the loyalty and commitment of  long established supporters - results in a relationship breakdown and no renewal of licence.

Without a good relationship between an organisation and its communities the licence to operate is eroded and eventually withdrawn. Sometimes by the community itself - for example no purchases or a withdrawal of labour - and sometimes by legislative default - for example the UK's recent sugar tax or today's announcement in New Zealand of plain packaging on cigarettes.

A licence to operate is nothing new or revolutionary. With its roots in the Ancient Greek concept of moral legitimacy, to the social contract theory of the 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, last century saw further development of the principle in political, social and environmental thinking. The notion that we all do what we do only by the permission of others has gained further ground with the advent of mass digital engagement. Available technologies give voice to communities and empower them to force change, taking back those 'licences' should organisations fail to perform.  

The New Zealand Sustainable Business Council produced an excellent paper on the 'Social Licence to Operate' which makes very interesting reading and one extract illustrates the concept well:

"Society’s confidence in business has been shaken. The global financial crisis, which saw whole economies teetering on the bridge of bankruptcy, a massive destruction of personal wealth and unemployment at historically high levels called into question the right of business to operate in such an apparently uncontrolled and unregulated manner. This loss in confidence in business gave rise to a number of public uprisings, the most prominent of these being the ‘occupy movement’. This movement gained momentum using social media to organise protests and communicate their view that large corporations and the global nancial system control the world in a way that disproportionately bene ts a minority (hence the slogan ‘we are the 99%’), undermines democracy and is inherently unstable. While this movement is seen by many as a radical movement, increasingly connected, informed and financially comfortable parts of our global society are now demanding to see greater ethics, accountability and transparency from the business community. The context in which business is operating in is also changing. Global consumers have greater expectations for the role companies should play in giving back to society."

So why do you need public relations to help you sort all this out? Because our business is organisational relationships. We identify the communities and stakeholders, assess expectations and perspectives, investigate organisational values, culture and behaviour and then develop and implement strategies that will help build and sustain the relationships in question. That involves communication, behaviour and understanding - and courage on our part to challenge that rambunctious CEO or council leader and tell them the culture has to change or the behaviour has to stop. It also means us scrutinising your data, poking about in the corners of your reputation to see where cracks in the relationships are forming, alerting you and providing you with a means to repair the damage. It also means that we will be involved with reporting on the organisation's community impact, its sustainability and contribution to society - and if you are skeptical on that score, I'd suggest a visit to the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) to become familiar with what's ahead. 

So if you were wondering why you might need public relations, now you know. You need to keep your licence to operate and we can help you build and sustain the relationships you need to do just that.

Let's break public relations - and boldly head to the future

 

Everywhere in the world you can hear the same cries - ‘business is broken’ or, more worryingly, ‘government is broken’. If we are to help assuage these cries, then PR needs to break too - break away from past misconceptions, determine its role for the future and equip practitioners with the skills and understanding they need in order to get things fixed.

Public relations builds and sustains the relationships we need to keep our licence to operate - that is what we do. 

Relationships involve trust, satisfaction, commitment, loyalty and reputation. Poor communication undermines and breaks down even the best relationships, so communication (visual, written, oral and experiential) plays a significant part in public relations practice - but it isn’t the only element. There are many facets to public relations practice and to really determine the future and relevancy of the profession, those facets need to be recognised, acknowledged and explained within all types of organisations and at all levels, as well as to wider society.

Leading Ladies - why the future of business is female

With the number of women on boards at woefully low levels in many parts of the world, it is unsurprising that initiatives designed to increase representation are being introduced. Trouble is, these initiatives move at a glacial pace and the big loser isn’t women - it is business itself.

The significant finding in the recently published Ketchum Leadership Communication Monitor  (alongside the poor performance of leaders in general) was ‘a new leadership model, driven by the new breed of ‘Leadership eVangelist’, centered on a more ‘feminine’ leadership archetype and based on a set of clear guiding principles’.

In short, the study found that effective communication is critical but leaders aren’t performing against expectations. However, when present, female leaders outperform male leaders when it comes to the most important ‘leader attributes’ of leading by example, communicating in an open and transparent way, admitting mistakes, bringing out the best in others and in their calm handling of controversial issues or crises.

Beware the creeping algorithms softly invading your privacy

Hot on the heels of the EU Court of Justice ruling around the 'right to be forgotten', I attended the Auckland Writers' Festival debate with Iraqi/English scientist Jim Al-Khalili, Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, New Zealand privacy expert Bob Stevens, and British broadcaster, writer and comedian Sandi Toksvig.  

Under scrutiny was the topic 'Is privacy an outdated concept' and, while Jim and Bob made some interesting points around the nature and history of privacy, Sandi and Frank won the night (for me at least) with their arguments in favour of retaining and strengthening rights to privacy both online and off.

Boosting Energy with creative thinking

Stumbled over this video from Altaeros Energies today. It's a few months old and I can't track the company down via its website (which is only returning cached results at the moment, so it could be a start-up still starting-up) but I thought the innovation was exciting. I also thought it would have enormous potential to help in certain types of disaster situations, given its transportability. There were lots of hyper-critical comments on the channel and while I'm sure it's not a perfect solution this type of thinking needs to be done. Exploring different ways to harness natural forms of energy can only be a good thing for the future.

We live in a switched-on world with an insatiable appetite for power and the poor old planet can't go on forever suffering the things we do to it for energy's sake. I hope we see more of this thinking along with a greater understanding of geothermal, photovoltaic and tidal energy generation.

 

Returning to the Beach...

I have to confess I have sadly neglected this blog over recent weeks, simply because there has been a lot to do offline and, I have to confess, I do spend more time on Twitter than I should when I get round to blogging. Probably not the best approach, as there is a lot more to be said than can often be contained in 140 characters, but I have an early New Year's Resolution to be more regular in terms of updates on here.  

One thing you might like to have a look at is the Global Alliance survey on advocacy and the future of the profession, which you can find here and which I would urge you to complete if you are involved in public relations and communication management.  The survey is only open for a few more days - so take a look and help shape the future of the profession. For the sake of transparency, I am currently secretary of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, so I am hoping that as many practitioners and academics as possible will take part.  The survey results will inform part of the agenda for the next World Public Relations Forum in Melbourne, Australia, which will take place this time next year.

Mind the GAP - Proof Positive of the need to measure public relations?

Findings from the latest GAP study have been doing the rounds over the last day or so, with commentary primarily centred on the use of social media. More interesting for me was the data they had pulled together on how communications professionals were dealing with measurement and evaluation. 

With 382 communication decision makers participating in this latest University of Southern California project, it was interesting to see that those who offered up their activities for scrutiny spent an average of just four to five percent of their total budget on formal evaluation. This makes for an interesting 'PS' to my last post, particularly as the study suggested that corporate participants felt that higher spend on measurement and evaluation meant higher standing with the CEO. 

As the GAP survey summary put it "In other words, the greater the investment in evaluation (as a percentage of the total PR/Communication budget), the greater the likelihood the CEO believes PR/Communication makes a bottom-line contribution."

I don't consider this to be a surprising finding. In fact, it teeters into the realm of Monty Python's 'bleeding obvious'. However, because there are seemingly still so few practitioners operating robust evaluation programmes, perhaps it will take more research findings like this to convince them to get on and do what they should have been doing all along.

I did find myself weeping into my afternoon tea when I read the 'top five metrics' revealed by the research as, still there at 'No.5',  was 'Total Number of Clips'.  Now who in their right mind would take that seriously as a measure of organisational performance, reputational health or relationship strength? 

Obviously, there is a huge business opportunity here for evaluation-savvy professionals to corner the market with great ethical practice, reported well and demonstrating the value of the work undertaken. As professionals, we know that the work we do has value, improves the organisation and its relationships and creates positive change.  So why are professionals so shy about demonstrating this through good research and reporting practices?  The old excuses of cost, fear and uncertainty as to what to do have no place in today's operating environment. 

GAP stands for Generally Accepted Practice and the research is published every two years. The final report from the 2009 study, which outlines best practice, will be released soon. From the reports so far, I fear that we are a long way from best practice in measurement and evaluation, even though it is entirely possible, affordable and achievable.