PR Knowledge Hub

  • Home
  • Learn here
    • Online courses
    • Train at your place
  • Blog - Think Forward PR
  • About
  • What is PR?
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Learn here
    • Online courses
    • Train at your place
  • Blog - Think Forward PR
  • About
  • What is PR?
  • Contact

Think Forward PR

shifting the business of storytelling

19/5/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Have you ever finished a really good story and found yourself missing the characters? They’ve become your friends, bound to you forever as you have been immersed in their world? I know I have - and I still miss some of them, occasionally re-reading well-worn books just to check in and see if everyone's ok.

Sadly, the same engagement won’t be found in organisational storytelling. Even though we have a proliferation of channels and a multitude of means to tell a good story, they mostly go untold, unread and ignored. 

I’ve spent the last six weeks with a variety of organisations working with them on their storytelling, helping their public relations and communications teams overcome some of the frustrations that lock up a good story and prevent their stakeholders from getting to know - and understand - the organisation’s heroes - and occasional villains.

In leadership sessions, authenticity is a prized quality, with the majority of would-be organisational leaders doing their utmost to be as authentic as possible but put them back into the workplace and in an instant, the transformational strengths of transparency, clarity and purpose disappear into the ether in favour of old-fashioned command-and-control. This means the real stories are seldom told, unceremoniously booted out in favour of ‘things we think we should say’ rather than ‘things that actually mean something to stakeholders’.

Organisations - be they government, businesses, charities, schools - default to the provision of information rather than telling the story of who they are and what they do for those they serve. The problem with information is that it is passive, is generally hard to find, it is presented for the organisation and there’s generally a lot of it that is very hard for the ‘outsider’ to piece together.

​Stories on the other hand are active. They go walkabout and they are for somebody - designed to help them, connect or engage. Stories explain and create meaning. They show us your world and invite us to build - or maintain - a relationship with you.

​My tip of the month is don’t be sitting comfortably churning out information. Reimagine storytelling for your business. Break the information chains that restrict understanding. Show us your characters and how they build your world. Engage me in such a way that I miss your organisation and actively seek you out. Tell me a story that changes my mind, makes me think differently or helps me understand. That’s our job to do - and to do it well.
0 Comments

    About Think Forward

    Think Forward is written by Catherine Arrow.  It answers PR questions, highlights practice trends - good and bad - and suggests ways forward for professional public relations and communication practitioners.

    Why Think Forward? Because if we want to practice public relations in the future we must learn constantly and keep thinking ahead

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    August 2018
    July 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017

    Categories

    All
    AC19
    AI
    Algorithms
    Arrow's PR Atom
    Artificial Intelligence
    Australia Bush Fires
    BC19
    Behaviour
    Business
    Change
    Change Communication
    Change Management
    ChatGPT
    Christmas
    Communication
    Communication Training
    Compassion
    Coronavirus
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Creativity
    Crisis Communication
    Culture
    Cyber Security
    Data
    Digital Relations
    Digital Strategy
    Elections
    Empathy
    Employee Engagement
    Employee Experience
    Ethics
    Europe
    FERPI
    Free Course
    Future
    Global Alliance
    Global Capabilities Framework
    Indonesia
    Internal Communication
    International PR
    Issues
    Italy
    Job Search
    Keynote Speaker
    Language
    Leadership
    Learning
    Licence To Operate
    Liminal Space
    Malaysia
    Manipulation
    Media
    Misinformation
    New Beginnings
    New Era
    Online Course
    OpenAI
    Organisational Purpose
    Politics
    PR Atom Model
    PR Evaluation
    PR Horizons
    PRINZ
    PR Measurement
    Professional Development
    PR Research Measurement And Evaluation
    PR Training
    Public Relations
    Purpose
    Relationships
    Reponsibility
    Reputation
    Research
    Risk
    Robotics
    Social Capital
    Society
    Space
    Speech Writing
    Story Arc
    Story Forms
    Storytelling
    Strategy
    Training
    Trust
    UK
    Value
    Visual Storytelling
    What Is PR
    WPRF2020
    Writing

    RSS Feed

 ©PR Knowledge Hub Ltd
+64 (0) 7549 4721
learn@prknowledgehub.com