Paul Willis, Director of the Centre for Public Relations Studies, was the only foreign member of the jury of PR PRiz 2011, the Bulgarian PR award contest.
He came to Bulgaria on the invitation of the Bulgarian Public Relations Society and took part in the annual PR Festival with a lecture on the topic of ‘The New PR Generation: personal development and new educational models in an uncertain world.’
This all happened last month and CIPR Blog was able to have a chat with Paul the day he was leaving back to UK.
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We would like to present you the basic concept of his presentation he made at the PR Festival because we’re sure you’ll find some very interesting stuff in it.
In his presentation Paul Willis emphasized on the strategic role of PR activities in a very uncertain, chaotic, over-informed world. A world in which dynamic interactions produce nonlinear effects. A world in which we can easily observe a butterfly effect (situation when a small change at one place can result in large differences to a later state). A world in which we have limited ability to predict, plan and control and we have to create a skilful strategy process, not an optimal strategy. Public relations thus have to change their behaviour to be successful. In order to achieve good results we should transit our reactive or proactive approach and made it interactive.
So where does this leave practice? What are the new roles for the PR professional? What demands personal development?
The four levels of strategic contribution
Paul sees the PR specialist and his contribution to an organization on four different levels – societal, corporate, stakeholder and functional.
PR team looking for threats
1) Societal level requires a high level of contextual intelligence and deals with external factors. This level sets its focus on strategy and deals with the role of organization in society. As the PR specialist has to observe and analyze the situation and pay attention to values, principles and obligations, his role on societal level can be compared to meerkats behaviour. Just like meerkats, the PR team has to look around, observe, advice and warn the organization for approaching dangers.
Paul gave example that during the Credit crunch only the big players that understood the zeitgeist and the philosophy of history (see Hegel’s philosophy) responded to the shock well. Public relations played and still play a very important role for the good business results of those organizations.
Sometimes we have to do it...
2) Corporate level is more financially focused and deals with the way the broad strategy is translated into action and is internally orientated. The role of the PR specialist on this level is to build reputation and create and communicate relationships.
It is essential the PR person acts like a parrot on the shoulder, the personal Captain Flint (remember Long John Silver and Treasure Island?) of top management members. On corporate level PR is responsible to alert management to reputational opportunities/threats, ensure decision-making aligns with value and the mission of the organisation. But PR person should be aware that sometimes he will have to put lipstick on a pig in attempt to disguise the true nature of an organization – something that is very popular tactic nowadays. Paul advised the audience: ‘Remember, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig! So be careful – it’s a very tricky business!’
3) Stakeholder/service user level is the level where the PR specialists should answer the questions who is in our value chain and who is part of our closer stakeholder community. Then after the analysis of results on this level the needs of organization should be identified and the possible collaborations. And afterwards the PR team should monitor the performance.
4) The last functional level deals with implementation of strategies, specific programmes of activity in support of organisational objectives, organisational capability and capacity building. This level is known also as the level of technology which determines the success of a campaign. It’s essential for the organization to have staff that is qualified, adaptable and possess modern thinking.
What are the end results of effective communication on all levels?
• improved trust, legitimacy and reputation of the organization
• informed business decisions
• better equipped senior managers
• good stakeholder networks
• services that uphold the brand
• an effective PR team contributing at all levels
The ‘secret’ role of PR specialists
Paul mentioned that the PR specialists have to take different roles to be really effective. On social level they have to be orienters, on corporate – navigators, on stakeholder/service-user – guardians and on functional – implementers.
And added: ‘PRs and CEOs are the only two people that need to see the organization as a whole, not as different department. And we go lool back at Captain Flint and the meerkats one again.’
Searching new models
A need for new educational models
In the last part of his lecture Paul talked about education, the gap between business and universities and different educational challenges.
The main conclusions from this part is that academia must be willing to embrace co-creation, improvisation, experimentation and a risk taking ethos to support the current and next generation of PR professionals. Paul mentioned Jones/McKie and their term ‘Intelligent participation’, a model also known as ‘co-create education’ that includes the mechanical transmission of existing material.
Education can’t be one-way; it has to be transferred because ‘static knowledge’ is problem in a turbulent age. Thus, the educators don’t have to be just mentors that have the final word. Project team knowledge should be co-created and shared.
Therefore, modern PR education should be an experience that encourages dialogue, deliberation and joint problem solving in an environment where tutors and students collaborate to develop and deliver an agreed learning programme.
Finally
See our interview with Paul especially for CIPR Blog below.
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