Outgoing IABC Executive Chair Talks Future of Communications Profession

Adrian Cropley, ABC. Photo: Leland Holder

Adrian Cropley, ABC, fresh from serving the past year as chair of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) executive board, talked trends and the future of the communication profession during a special appearance with IABC's Atlanta chapter on Tuesday.

“The landscape is changing quite rapidly for us,” says the former food-chef-turned-communicator.
Cropley began his career in internal communications at Ericsson 20 years ago, when the CEO challenged him to improve communication with employees.

“I became hooked ever since,” says Cropley, whose career has included working with Unilever, Ernst & Young, Shell, NAB, ANZ, National Foods and Kraft, as well as various government organizations. Today, Cropley runs Cropley Communications, a global internal communications training firm based in Melbourne.

Cropley with members of IABC Atlanta's board. Photo: Leland Holder

He observes that communications professionals are starting to take on more roles that encompass
engagement and culture – functions historically belonging to the HR organization – as well as embracing digital platforms for their communication messages. 

“In this day of communications, it’s not just about internal communications that drive engagement; it’s internal and external because the boundaries have completely blurred. We’re crossing over boundaries and we’re seeing this happen globally,” he says.

While communications is going to get bigger on the agenda, we as professionals “could face an identity crisis if we don’t clearly outline our value to the organization and continue to make ourselves relevant,” he cautions.

One area we can’t take control of is the message with citizen journalism and social media today.  He referenced Kevin Thomson’s book, Emotional Capital, which contends that organizations have two types of capital – intellectual capital that firms harness, and emotional capital, or the will of people in an organization to put their knowledge and abilities to the betterment of the organization.   
An interesting insight is that the value of both of these to the organization is “identical.”

“Today we are looking today that this blurring of the boundaries between on internal and external means we really need to focus on things like engagement no matter who the organization is – it’s all about that emotional message- how do I engage people in a very honest, open way?”

In the future, we are all about multi-disciplinary communication globally because that’s where the landscape is eventually going.”  That’s the beauty of IABC, he adds, given IABC’s multi-disciplinary focus.


Why should companies care about engagement? Communicating and connecting with employees can have a major impact on organization productivity, he says, citing the Towers-Watson Change and Communication  ROI Study Report, which found that companies that are highly effective at communicating are 1.7 times likely to outperform their peers. He also quoted a study that found engaged employees in the UK take significantly less sick leave than those who are disengaged. 

Three findings from the Towers-Watson report are that sustainable business performance depends upon:

• Clarity – having a clear direction for everyone
• Competence – competence in leadership and in organizations
• Community – it’s all about giving everyone a shared experience

He cited the 2011 European Communications Monitor study that tracks the evolving role of the communications profession in Europe and where the field is headed. The report pointed to the changing perception of PR globally and whether “PR” as a title creates a negative connotation in the market. To illustrate his point, Cropley shared a press article in New Zealand that complained that the government employed too many “spin doctors.”

“We have to reposition communications to make it very clear that it is a business value to organizations: What is our scope? What is it that we deliver?” Cropley says. “We have to start to clearly brand ourselves and what we do for the organization, then we’ve got to measure the tangible of what we do.”

Cropley contends that communicators are at a key moment in their profession where they can play influential roles. What do we need to do today as communicators to thrive in the future?

• Understand the cultural context in the global business world.
• Understand that our audience is different and it is we who must adapt our approach based on the audience – with honesty and a desire to build a relationship with our audience.
•  Broaden our skills as we converge – understanding the path for communications is knowing a lot of different disciplines.
• Meet our audience where they are.
• Don’t drop the tactics, including core skills like writing– “find the sweet spot between tactics and strategy,” he advises.

Putting the Creative into Corporate Communications

Communication evangelist Steve Crescenzo says it’s never been a more exciting time to be a corporate communicator. Why? Because of all the new tools available for communicators – from podcasts and blogs to videos and social networks. This new world has led to a massive shift in how organizations communicate to each and every audience – from employees to communities to the world at large.   

“The best thing about the new tools? They’re inexpensive to do and anybody can do them. The worst news is anybody can do it and they’re doing it wrong,” says Steve, a plain-talking Chicago native, who was the No. 1 rated speaker at IABC's World Conference from 2008 to 2010, and is the opening keynote speaker at this week’s IABC Southern Region conference in New Orleans.  

Steve and his communications partner, Cindy, recently held a one-day IABC International seminar in Atlanta that attracted communicators from across North America and Mexico.  The information-packed day included a number of planning tools to guide attendees,  and examples of corporate communications at its best and at its worst.  Here are four insights I gleaned from their presentation:

#1 Corporate communications is dying – including formulatic writing, jargon, buzzwords, platitudes and top-down information flow.

Says Steve: “We have to stand up to management and say the way we’ve always done it doesn’t work -- the world has changed. There is a lot more information out there. The formal style, the corporate style, the stiff style, doesn’t resonate with anyone.”

#2 Our role has changed – we are not just “publishers” anymore; rather, we’re talent scouts, the talent itself, community organizers and conversation starters.

“We have to coach executives,” Steve says. To illustrate his point, Steve shared a story of how one CFO wanted to do a podcast in which he would restate the company’s earnings numbers. Instead, the company’s communicator convinced the executive to do a brief podcast on “Behind the numbers – what the quarterly numbers mean to you.”

 “Without the communicator’s help, this guy would have run amok,” Steve says, adding, “Without trained people, organizations will create really bad communications.

#3 Stop fighting the wrong battles – namely, the battle to make the deadline and to create something that will make it through the approval process.

“The only battle that matters is the battle for our audiences’ attention,” says Steve, adding, “The dirty secret of our profession is that we are often churning out things that no one pays attention to.”

#4 Take the corporate out of communications and replace it with “creative.”

-         Instead of communicating top-down, be interactive and participatory.

-         Instead of using stiff and formal language, be conversational.

-         Instead of talking policies and programs, focus on people.

-         Instead of “safe content,” try creative (so-called “risky”) content.

-         And, instead of formulatic writing, do great storytelling.

Steve shared a local example -- Tim Whitehead of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta successfully creating an employee recruitment blog titled, Are You Strong Enough to Care Enough? The site features first-person stories of staff on what makes working at Children’s special. 

 “Great web content is built on three things – interesting stories about people, interaction and multimedia,” says Steve, observing that the Children’s site features all three components. “To me, this is what communications is all about – real people telling real stories.”

To conclude, Steve emphasized that the job of communications is not to give employees what they want; instead, it is to give them what they need in order to help the organization. “It’s about aligning people with the business strategy.”

He then asked, “What is your communications manifesto?  What are you here to do? If a communication piece can’t be tied to a business goal or objective or to a communication goal, why are we doing it?”

Read more about Crescenzo Communications and check out their blogs at: http://www.crescenzocomm.com/blogs.php

Facebook’s Allure

Earlier this month, my client, EMS Technologies, Inc., launched its Connect In-flight page on Facebook at the World Airline Entertainment Association conference in Palm Springs, Calif. The online community, launched to bring individuals together to discuss the future of in-flight communications, was the first corporate-driven foray into social media for EMS, a technology supplier of avionics gear that enables airlines to offer WiFi services on Blackberries and iPhones. As a corporate communicator, I am a fan of social networking as a way to reach influencers and create stronger ties to partners, customers and of course, employees. In these tough economic times, social media channels, whether it be a company blog, a Facebook page or tweets by key executives at a tradeshow, are cost effective to deploy, are easy to try out to determine if they are an effective channel before committing additional resources to maintaining and growing the social channel.

The challenge, as with any social networking outlet, is how to engage your fan base so they will want to share and debate…and reach out to their friends to get others to join in the conversation. Clearly, for those of us who write for a living, taking time to become part of these online networking sites creates opportunities for us to be an “in-the-know” resource on how to create fresh content to drive interest and buzz to these sites.

While external customer-driven sites are great, the timing has never been better to pursue social networking as part of your employee communications efforts. The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) finds that employers faced with reduced communication budgets and resources are turning to social media to keep their workforce engaged. IABC’s survey, co-sponsored by Buck Consultants, found that company blogs are the most popular social media tool currently in use (47 percent), with discussion boards ranking the highest for future planned use (33 percent).

Current use of social networking sites such as Twitter (21 percent), Yammer, or Twitter inside a corporate firewall, (20 percent), and Facebook (18 percent) is significant, but organizations are planning to use those tools even more in the future.

Based on what I am seeing within my own clientele and what I am reading and hearing from my communications colleagues, it's a trend that will continue --count on it.