Trust Me, PR Is Dead by Robert Phillips

Author:Robert Phillips
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783521548
Publisher: Unbound

1. Strategy One: Accept Chaos as Reality

The world is interdependent. Events are interdependent. Communities are interdependent. This is not complicated. It is (systems) complexity at work. More systems build more complexity. More complexity means chaos as reality.

The Fukushima accident in Japan led, incredibly, to the cancellation of Germany’s nuclear programme. We also see interdependency in the relationship between lower fuel costs and increasing energy efficiency in the US having a direct impact on the oil revenues and therefore the social investment funds of Middle Eastern states and ultimately their mid-term political stability.

Accepting complexity means accepting chaos. This means shifting communications from command-and-control (telling people what to think; broadcasting messages) to participation and engagement within networks. The conversations are happening anyway. Corporations and brands should join them and have their say.

Many companies have real expertise to share beyond their immediate universe. They should offer expert opinion and proactive advice more publicly, to build authentic engagement and trust. In order to participate and engage more effectively for the betterment of society, they need to liberate their thinking by asking and answering the bigger questions. Novo Nordisk, for example, has followed this path and become the recognised global expert on diabetes.

Expertise also offers a point of competitive advantage. Companies need to explain, rather than seek to control or apologise. Experts continue to score well in all trust data – they are twice or three times more trusted than CEOs, for instance.

In accepting complexity, companies also need to accept fragility. This, too, has implications for the state of trust. Trust is fragile as well as complex. As we have seen, trust is harder than ever before to win but easier than ever before to lose.

* * *

When I was leading the Public Engagement work at Edelman, I suggested that the starting point had to be “embrace chaos”.

“We cannot say that.”

“Why not?”

“It will scare clients. They want us to give them a simple, single answer.”

“But the real world isn’t like that. We need to be honest.”

“We cannot use it.”

So “embrace chaos” became “navigate the complexity” because it was an easier sales message.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.