Adrian Crookes was a lecturer in the second module from the CIPR Diploma in PR qualification, conducted in the Accredited qualification centre in Bulgaria - Apeiron Academy.

Adrian is also a lecturer in the CIPR post-graduate qualification programmes for PR Academy (London) - one of the largest centres for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) qualifications and a strategic partner to Apeiron Academy (Bulgaria).

Adrian Crookes is a strategic communications consultant with over 25 years’ experience in the full communications and marketing mix as a communications director, broadcaster and journalist. He is Senior lecturer and tutor for BA (Hons) Public Relations at London College of Communication, University of the Arts. From 2009 year Adrian manages his own strategic communications consultancy called Junction PR .

Hello, Adrian! Thank you once again for being a lecturer in the CIPR Diploma in PR course in Bulgaria. What are your thoughts about the lecturing session?

The students were very engaged and had lots of very good examples of PR in practice. The issues that communicators are facing seem to be the same the world over and we were able to have some really good discussions about PR practice and the application of theory. I always learn so much from talking with students and the session in Bulgaria was no exception.

You talked about PR Planning & management. Could you please share with our readers why do you think planning in PR is important and what the PR practitioner and the client benefit from it?

I think we’ve been too ready in the past to undertake short-term, media-relations focused PR activity. That hasn’t helped organisations understand how they are using that activity to support their wider business goals nor has it helped PR demonstrate its true value to fulfill organisational objectives. The planning process really makes practitioners and their managers and clients think about why they are doing certain things and what organisational objectives are being met by doing so. It’s the grown-up way of doing PR and everybody benefits from that.

You have 26 years’ experience in the full communications and marketing mix as a practitioner and you became an academic just a couple of years ago. What were your thoughts behind this decision? Which one and why is more difficult - to be a practitioner or to be a teacher?

I’ve always been interested in learning and as a practitioner always wanted to know what the latest thinking was that would help me to do my job better. So the teaching is an extension of that curiosity, really. I had an opportunity to pass on some of what I knew and discovered that I enjoyed doing that. I also quickly learnt that in a room full of practitioners, you all have different experiences and therefore different parts of the jigsaw. When you come together in a training session, you can explore all of this and hopefully come out with something unique and valuable that can be put to good use in the day job - or some other aspect of life. I haven’t given up on being a practitioner - I run my own consultancy and I’m not sure I could truly describe myself as an academic - yet! Both roles can be challenging and demanding.

You have over 15 years of experience working for the music industry in the UK. Tell us about some myths about this industry. What is to be working in this field? Are there any differences in terms of planning and further communication?

I have worked in the music industry throughout a time of complex change. When I arrived from my earlier career as a broadcaster, the world just understood the implications of the MP3 file for the sharing of music. The next 15 years have been spent figuring out how this disruptive technology can be implemented for the benefit of consumers and maintain an income stream to reward the creators of that music. The awards nights are glamorous, but the rest of it is graft. There is no difference in terms of planning how you are going to engage with your various constituencies but the pace of change taught me that planning has to be a continual process.

You manage your own consultancy - Junction PR. What are the main challenges for Public Relations as you see it as a practitioner? Are the after-effects of the crisis still present and hampering the development of the field or there are other challenges facing PR?

Probably the biggest challenge facing PR and its practitioners is to help them and the organisations they work with to understand that PR is a strategic discipline that is about more than media relations. There are huge pressures on PR practitioners to ‘get something positive written or said about them in the media’ (and increasingly social media); often without anyone stopping to think why - and whether the strategic objective might be better fulfilled by another route. The more opportunities there are to talk about this the better and the more likely that communications programmes will be more effective as a result.

All over the world there are a lot of practitioners, who do not have educational background. Do you think specific education is essential for the professional practitioner? What are the main advantages of a qualified specialist?

The main advantage of any kind of education is that you have had an ability to stop and reflect, critically, on something. It’s the way that we, as individuals, grow and it’s the way that disciplines and their organisational and societal application develop. PR is no exception and whilst there are some very good practitioners who have not been through formal training, I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t benefit from reflecting on their role and their discipline; seeing it from new perspectives and finding new things to agree or disagree with. It’s healthy for individuals and provides employers with a stronger, more rounded and more knowledgeable workforce. Who wouldn’t want that?

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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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The Conversation blog

In the beginning of this week CIPR started exciting addition to its new CIPR’s website. It won’t match Facebook for functionality or LinkedIn for seeing who’s connected to whom, but it is the first such attempt by a professional body to gather knowledge in such way. Some might describe the idea as ’social aggregation’, but CIPR prefer to say simply that they like to help fuel the conversation. And in the spirit of The Conversation, the CIPR invited some of the UK’s keenest PR bloggers to break this news.

The Conversation is the CIPR’s new ‘one-stop shop’ for great blog posts by practitioners, consultancies, academia and students, from the UK and further afield.

What’s more, this is an open community – you do not have to be a CIPR member to take part in The Conversation. Everyone is welcome to register themselves and their organisation.

What is positive is that people don’t need to ‘make friends’ all over again. CIPR gives The Conversation permission to link up with the existing social networks and those relationships are established immediately. One of the many good things about The Conversation is that users won’t need to share passwords. It is, as the CIPR’s Social Media Panel say, ‘instant social glue’. It will mean that syndicating blogs couldn’t be easier, as it will allow the wider PR community to find your content, find your personal, business and consultancy profiles, and respond to your news and points of view.

So visit and enjoy your time at The Conversation and stay tuned for the latest trends and news from the PR and communications field in Europe!

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On 12th and 13th of February our CIPR Diploma students had their second lecturing session, this time with Alison Theaker, one of  the developers of the qualification program of the CIPR’s Diploma and Advanced Certificate and writer of the popular Public Relations Handbook. As a listener to the lecturing sessions I have to admit that we had a very intense 2 days of teaching and learning and that everybody were very involved in the process. After the lectures I asked Alison for an interview and here it is…two weeks later.

Alison, thank you again for the great weekend in Sofia! What are your thoughts about our students? Did you find any difficulties working with them?

The students were great! They were really willing to engage with the theory and apply it to their own organizations. They were also very patient with me and translated the lunch menu due to my non-existent knowledge of Bulgarian!

You presented several great tools for strategic planning such as Porter’s Five Forces, PESTEL and the Virtue Matrix. Which of these tools you consider most important in 2011 and why?

I think the Virtue Matrix will gain in importance as organizations try and find more ways to differentiate themselves from each other. It also provides clues as to why some CSR initiatives don’t give an organization as much kudos as they expect - if these initiatives are already within the civil foundation and are expected by their stakeholders.  The latest version of the European Communication Monitor suggested that PR practitioners across Europe expect CSR to gain in importance over the next 5 years.

What are the things that PR professionals forget most often at the expense of achieving communication goals? Do you think that one of the problems of specialists today is their impatience?

Sometimes they are asked to solve problems that are not communication problems, but rather organizational culture problems. It is important to make sure that professionals do not over-promise what can be achieved - PR can only give you the reputation you deserve.  I don’t find communication specialists impatient, but sometimes they can focus on the task or tactics at the expenses of overview or strategy.

Everybody today talks about the impact of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on the way PR professionals do campaigns. Would you explain briefly why you think social media did not change the basic PR models that communicators used before?

I agree with Paul Holmes that if you were practicing good PR before the age of social media, you are still practicing good PR now. Paying attention to the attitudes of stakeholders, getting the message out and letting publics make up their own mind, engaging in dialogue, all these were important before we were able to do this directly through social media. They are great channels for reaching specific audiences, but they don’t change the nature of PR.

What is your most favorite PR campaign and why?

It is hard to pick one, but I am still impressed by the Nambarrie Tea company case study that I used in the first three editions of the Public Relations Handbook. This was an example where an organization researched which organization it should support - Action Cancer - based on its customer base - women aged 25-45 in Northern Ireland. After the campaign they were able to demonstrate both that they had raised more money for the charity than it had done before, plus raised favourable impressions and sales for the company.

The first exam for our CIPR students is on its way - Critical Reasoning Test. Tell us some important tip/secret for achieving a good result on it.

The most important thing is to read the question and make sure that your answer covers what is being asked.  There are often clues like - discuss, compare - plus make sure that you have answered all the elements.  Be clear and make sure that you demonstrate your reasoning. It is not important to try and think what the “right” answer is (in PR there is rarely one right answer anyway) but to argue your case logically using supporting evidence from a wide range of reading.  Good luck all of you!

Students and Alison

 See more photos on Flickr.

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* Alison Theaker has 25 years experience in public relations and management as a practitioner, academic and author. Alison has excellent interpersonal and organisational skills and expertise in copywriting, editing, in-house PR, and freelance journalism. She is author of the The Public Relations Handbook, a standard text in PR. Co-ordinator of the first SW PR practitioners Conference, Behind the Spin,in 2006. As the first Head of Education for the CIPR, built a bridge between practice and education in PR.

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Richard teaching Diploma

Richard, after the first lecturing session you spent at Apeiron Academy teaching CIPR’s Diploma in PR, what are your initial impressions of the Bulgarian PR students?

I met some very sophisticated practitioners working in international organisations in a multilingual environment. It’s additionally impressive that they’re willing to study for a professional qualification in English (not necessarily one of their languages in the workplace).

Students were introduced to a large amount of theory in their first module. What is most important in the absorption of such large amount of PR knowledge? How would it be easier to learn and understand all this theory?

Rather than teaching lots of theory, my intention was to put it all in context, and so make their future study easier. All educators say this: we don’t try to teach – we encourage people to learn.

How CIPR Diploma in PR helps the development of PR specialists? Which are the strengths of this qualification?

I’ve noticed a connection between the Diploma qualification and success in public relations careers, but there are several possible explanations for this. It could be that the qualification spurs people to success. But it could be that the qualification is attempted by the more ambitious and thoughtful practitioners. Either way, the high level content of the course should help with arguments that need to be made with senior colleagues over the role and significance of public relations and communication management. We are helping to develop a new generation of reflective practitioners.

You are committed to teaching at the expense of practice. Isn’t the teaching task sometimes more difficult than being a practitioner? What is it to be a PR tutor?

Teachers, like PR practitioners, are communicators; and both can usually only achieve results indirectly. I do sometimes feel that teaching is the biggest challenge of my PR career.

What are the things that PR professionals forget most often at the expense of achieving communication goals? What would be the values of your own PR company, if you had one?

I have run my own PR business and managed PR teams. And I’ve always tried to tell the truth – even when it’s at the expense of picking up business in the short-term. (It’s a trait, though, that’s more comfortable for a lecturer than for a practitioner.) One thing I was always willing to do was to put important external relationships ahead of relationships with employers and clients. Clients come and go, but in PR you are only as good as your relationships with key opinion formers.

Do you believe in excellence? Do you think PR professionals should embrace some kind of personal working standards before starting every new PR project?

Again, I do feel we should tell the truth. One truth we should tell is over the limitations of PR. We should promise less and deliver more.

What are you expectations for the development of the PR profession in 2011? Do you think that PR specialists will have to add some to typical HR skills and responsibilities to their expertise?

I looked out at my class of postgraduate students in Leeds today and told them I envied them. There is so much change in the internal and external environments that this is a great time to be a young communicator. I predict that the PR departments of the future will be larger than they are now, and will embrace many more disciplines than currently come under the umbrella of public relations. (There will be much more data gathering and analysis, for example.) Yet those larger departments will probably be given a different name than public relations.

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* Richard Bailey is a public relations educator with experience of teaching at   undergraduate, postgraduate and professional levels. He is CIPR-approved professional trainer and course leader on the CIPR Advanced Certificate and Diploma qualifications. He was Apeiron Academy’s first lecturer in on CIPR’s Diploma in PR course started 2011.

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And it finally happened! On 29 January 2011 the small student group from the forth course for CIPR Diploma in PR were welcomed at Apeiron Academy for their first lectures in the qualification. It started well and we are all prepared for a profound PR education that will last approximately 12 months and will include several lecturing sessions and 3 exams…

The tutor that introduced to the students their first module from the teaching program was Richard Bailey. He was visiting Bulgaria for the first time with his wife and without a doubt was in very good mood…And maybe questioning himself how the lecturing days will pass as he didn’t know anything about Bulgaria and its people. But that was just in the first 15 minutes.

Richard in action.

The first module that the students covered in their 2-day lecturing session was named ‘Introduction to PR Theory and Practice’and included such topics as:

• ‘What is and what is NOT PR’

• ‘What is to be studying PR’;

• ‘What are the perspectives on PR (Golden Age of PR or Century of Spin?)’;

• some PR theories and systems and their pros and cons.

The second lecturing day was devoted to public relations and management.

The CIPR students and Richard.

See more pictures at our Flickr profile.

And so…our group made their initial steps in the Diploma course but more is to follow!

Second lecturing session is this weekend and the lecturer will be Alison Theaker.

She has 25 years experience in public relations and management as a practitioner, academic and author. Alison has excellent interpersonal and organisational skills and expertise in copywriting, editing, in-house PR, and freelance journalism. She is author of the The Public Relations Handbook, a standard text in PR. Co-ordinator of the first SW PR practitioners Conference, Behind the Spin,in 2006. As the first Head of Education for the CIPR, built a bridge between practice and education in PR.

So prepare for another weekend filled with fresh and exciting PR education and hopefully knowledge! See you on Saturday!

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In the 20 min conversation Richard talked about how retail organisations measure and modify their PR programmes in response to sales data, his views on the role of PR in change and internal communications, both for clients and at Hill & Knowlton as it moves to a new sector based model.

Robert is a senior consumer marketing practitioner that has crossed from agency to in-house and back again.

Prior to taking the UK CEO role at Hill & Knowlton, Richard was the Consumer Marketing UK Practice Head and leader of the agency’s retail practice with clients including B&Q and Sainsbury’s.

The retail environment is arguably one of the toughest sectors in which to operate. Daily sales logs shine a harsh light on the results from PR and other forms of marketing.

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A book on internal communication theory and practice

We are pleased to announce the new book in internal communication from the international expert, practitioner, founder of PR Academy and fellow of Apeiron Academy - Kevin Ruck. Thanks to Kevin, who left few copies from the book “Exploring Internal Communication”, available for purchase in Apeiron Academy.

“Exploring Internal Communication” is both a companion for Chartered Institute of Public Relations qualifications in internal communication and a general introduction to the fast developing fields of internal communication and employee engagement. It is relevant to people currently working in these areas, from either a corporate communication or human resources background, and also to operational managers seeking a better understanding of internal communication.

Watch here the book video preface in an interview with Kevin Ruck.

It is relevant to people currently working in these areas, from either a corporate communication or human resources background and also to operational managers seeking a better understanding of internal communication. From the outset the book takes the view that internal communication and employee engagement are closely linked.

The book emphasises that there is no magic internal communication “silver bullet”. Instead it aims to provide a basic grounding in theory and practice that can be used to tailor effective internal communication to the enormously varied organisational situations that exist. It is, however, written from a perspective that argues that effective internal communication puts the employee at the centre of the organisation and that genuine, honest, two-way dialogue forms the basis of effective, strategic, practice.

What’s the role of the internal communicator, according to Ann Pilkington - a co-author in the book?

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