People buy People

Thinking out loud about public relations and communication

Since I started working in public relations 20+ years ago, things have changed big time!

From technology evolving to consumer habits changing, the economy, Brexit, COVID, Russia's war on Ukraine and the cost of living crisis.

But some things remain the same. We focus on engaging real actual people and we still need to listen, act, adapt and build relationships, in order to build trust.

Plus a few other thoughts!

Thanks for tuning in, don't forget to leave a review and subscribe!

Laura

ESG and governance - board and corporate

Since relaunching Aura on World Environment Day, with a specific focus on sustainable business, I’ve been conducting a lot of one-to-one webinars. The webinars are meant to help explain my proposition and how the Synergy Framework© works.

Along the way, I’ve been tweeking my slides for different audiences, (agencies, consultants, business owners, CEOs…) and taking note of things people have taken an interest in and also noted that may have been missing.

On a recent webinar where I was talking to the Head of Corporate of an agency and the person asked me about governance, as I focussed a lot on sustainability.

Sustainability is more than ‘just’ the environment

This is a misconception about sustainability, that it only focuses on environment. It’s one I try and address head on in the presentation by explaining sustainability is about people, communities, the economy and the planet. Sustainability means that there is a future because you’ve future-proofed your business/organisation having recognised that change is inevitable.

So, we were talking about that then I flicked back to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and referenced inclusion and equality. Then looked at Synergy© at the very first point, ‘Clarity’, where we would clarify the current governance of the business/organisation before we even start. Why? Because how we can make it part of the transformation if we don’t know where we are and where we are going?

Don’t leave it until the end

Governance in ESG is also something I was talking to a fellow consultant about, and how it’s often not considered until the end of the process, after a strategy and plan has been developed, often because part of the governance structure is broken in the first place and needs fixed for the strategy to work.

It comes back to purpose, the make-up and role of the Board of Directors, values being aligned, ethics and transparency. Also, if there are shareholders, structure, reporting, risk and systems are measured.

Listen and act

Good governance means listening to stakeholders. Things that matter to them and high on the corporate agenda could include benefiting customers, employees and communities, as well as shareholders.

This is why the stakeholder relations part of Synergy© is so important - you need to know them intimately in order to represent them and engage them.

Diversity and equity is also much talked about, although not always acted on, with better representation, equal compensation being top of the list. The financial benefit of creating inclusive workplaces has already been proven, so what’s stopping them?

In summary, although the ‘G’ of ‘ESG’ is at the end, don’t leave governance until the end of your process. It, like all other aspects, need to be fully integrated in order to be a) lived/practiced and b) have an impact.

Please remember to subscribe to my podcast and also leave a review! And if you'd like to get in touch with me to work together, collaborate on a project, discuss my private client mentoring and development, or just to connect, drop me an email laura@auraadvisory.co or find me on socials @laurafromaura :)

PRCA’s Misinformation and Climate Research Results

Last week, the PRCA's Misinformation and the Climate Crisis Strategy Group launched its annual findings of the industry and the consumer research.

It revealed that we must be more brave and lead the way in ethical communication.

• More than 9 out of ten (96%) of PR professionals now advise their clients and colleagues to understand the climate crisis and how they can effectively communicate the part they play - up from 82% last year
• Almost half (45%) have noticed their clients or organisation attempting to greenwash, however 89% have pushed back on this and 57% managed to change the approach as a result
• Almost all (97%) said they have taken action to address the climate crisis but only 48% measure their carbon footprint
• 71% of consumers say they would stop buying from a brand if they knew it had misled its customers about having a positive environmental impact
• 57% of the general public don’t know the outcome of COP26 and a third (33%) felt the agreements made at the conference didn’t affect them

You can read my blog here and PRCA's news release and infographics here.

I mention Aura's ground-breaking Synergy Framework again and I urge small businesses and agencies to get in touch to have a chat to see how I can help you get started. The worst thing you can do is nothing! I'll help guide you and give your teams the tools to do the graft.  View the framework here and please do get in touch!

Summary on today’s Climate Change Committee Report for UK’s NetZero

In this episode, I talk about the 7 key messages from the Climate Change Committee Report, specifically on the UK's progress.

Edie has kindly done the work for me and so I'm just picking out points to discuss for the show. Here's the blog and link to the report.

Key points:

1) The UK is almost halfway to net-zero emissions…

2) …But less than 40% of future required emissions reductions are covered by policy

3) EV sales are ahead of predictions and trajectories

4) Buildings are a real problem point

5) The energy crisis hasn’t been accounted for by Government

6) There could be too much reliance on unproven technology

7) The UK’s land use needs a revamp

 

I refer to the Zero Waste Scotland funding and you can find that here www.circulartextilesfund.scot 

I refer to the PRCA/Work Crowd sustainability event and you can find that here https://theworkcrowd.com/events/twc-prca-achieving-sustainability-in-2022 

SCDI Business Purpose report for Scotland https://www.scdi.org.uk/business-purpose-commission-for-scotland-about/ 

If you need more information on how I can support businesses and organisations to a sustainable future and how to bring along your stakeholders, then do get in touch. 

Please leave a review and subscribe! Thanks!

The 21st century CEO

Laura refers to the article she read on McKinsey recently, about the 21st Century CEO. You can read it here.

It talks through the six components of a great CEO:

 - Be bold

-Treat the soft stuff as the hard stuff

- Solve for the team’s psychology

- Help directors help the business

- Start with “Why?”

- Do what only you can do

Laura talks through the article and her thoughts about each of the points. There is a lot of resemblance to Laura's former campaigns, blogs and thinking.

Please do share the podcast if you enjoyed it and don't forget to leave a review.

You can follow me @laurafromaura or my consultancy @AuraAdvisory and my new website is www.auraadvisory.co 

Aura relaunches to help businesses accelerate to a sustainable future

Today is World Environment Day and it seemed appropriate to relaunch Aura on a day which mattered. Visit www.auraadvisory.co for the new website!

Laura has been thinking and developing ideas over the last couple of years and these last few weeks everything has come together. Aura's senior communication and business advisory is now launched and ready to help organisations accelerate to a sustainable future. Responsible businesses are sustainable businesses.

Aura also launches its ground-breaking ‘Synergy Framework©’, which aims to bring businesses and organisations, their strategies, policies and decision-making, into alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through research, collaboration, integration and strategic communication.

It’s flexible and scalable depending on sector and size of organisation, and the starting point for any business which wants to work towards a sustainable future. To be sustainable, a business has to be profitable, it has to recruit and retain the best talent, it has to advance and modernise with technology.

Stakeholders demand that businesses and organisations be more sustainable but too often businesses don’t know where to start or jump right into offsetting, or worse, greenwashing.

The only inevitable is change and will only accelerate further in tech and innovation, ways of working, culture and more. Organisations need to consider the impact of their decisions on their staff, customers, community, and environment, to ensure a sustainable future, good reputation and great relationships.

Tangible SDG successes and failures are felt most directly in towns, neighbourhoods and villages, in homes, workplaces and communities, and that’s where the work of public relations and communication professionals impacts – everyday lives.

Aura’s integration of strategic communication and stakeholder relations fits seamlessly with the framework, bringing everyone along on the journey. 

Fancy a chat about how we could collaborate and accelerate change? Drop me an email laura@auraadvisory.co or a DM on Twitter @auraadvisory @laurafromaura 

The only inevitable is change. Are you ready?

Laura on Aura’s carbon footprint, Good Business Charter and the BIG news

In this solo episode, Laura talks about Aura's carbon footprint over the last 12 months and how she's included her own personal mileage, Aura being Accredited by the Good Business Charter and the BIG news coming your way on Sunday 5 June.

It's been a busy old month so far!

The PRCA's survey I mention is here https://survey.opiniumresearch.co.uk/p?qif=ce267b93-554f-4649-84c6-9c9498cd3e22&qsid=cbaf7c61-677e-448c-a18e-0ae92ea15a9c You've got until Friday to complete it and be in with the chance of winning £100 Amazon voucher.

As always, please share, subscribe and leave a review! 

Speak soon!

Laura :)

Laura recaps on reputation’s place in public relations

Last week, CIPR Wales asked me to chair a panel event around reputation, following a keynote from Amanda Coleman about reputation and crisis communication.

Last week was also #GetChartered week, so fittingly, I split the conversation into three categories which the Chartered assessment is centred round - leadership, ethics and strategy.

Tune in to hear about proactive and reactive reputation management, the role leaders must play and how we must be more brave in our roles.

Thanks for tuning in, please remember to leave a review and subscribe.

Also, follow @CIPR_Cymru for when they share the Senior Practitioner Forum webinar and podcast! 

Laura talks about Q1 challenges and what lies ahead

In this solo episode, I talk through the challenges I've faced in Q1 and what's to come in 2022, including the following:

- PRFest and PRsUnite update

- the importance of line managers

- the importance of pushing back and having a good reason

- giving permission to your team to take time out

- being nice

- the feeling that 2022, the year that was supposed to be 'better', is a long way off, with food and fuel poverty, war, rising COVID cases and more uncertainty.

As always, please leave me some feedback and a review and please share this episode so others can tune in.

If you've got a project you'd like me to work with you on, please drop me an email laura@aura-pr.com to discuss or give me a call on 07764 936840. I have availability to work on stakeholder relations, crisis planning, audits and research from April.

New podcast showtrailer for 2022

Every year it's good to revisit what your podcast show is about and so this year, I want to focus again on relationships and trust. 

I want to bring you my professional experiences and discuss them, giving you helpful advice based on real scenarios.

The single biggest challenge I've experienced is that businesses still think of 'comms' as sending out messages. The art of communication is data-based, human and should be developed with behaviours and actions at the heart of it. 

I'll cover everything from working remotely to better engaging audiences, plus segmenting audiences and being truly targeted to get better results. 

Tune in on your podcast app, if you're a subscriber already, please do leave me a review, and if you'd like further information about how you can work with me, please visit www.lauramsutherland.com. You can follow me @laurafromaura on most channels.

Thanks and look forward to your feedback!