About

Created by Heather Yaxley PhD

Thanks for stopping by.  About me… I am passionate about reflective practice, sustainable learning, ethics, and professional career development.

In case you’re wondering, the concept of Green Banana is a meme for kaizen, or continous improvement – derived from the saying: “If you’re green, you’re growing”.

Personally I’m a dog woman sharing my home with a very special Golden-Husky who loves to spin, and a gobby Jackahuahua and bit of a grumpy old boy.  Missing my beautiful, wilful and adorable Rhodesian Ridgeback, Savannah who left us in September 2021, is why ‘the girls’ also live with us – double trouble but adorable RRs. My other hobbies are reading (everything and anything), and hypnotically watching the sea.  I also collect historical and contemporary books about public relations.

You can follow me on Twitter @greenbanana – or connect via LinkedIn.  To get in touch, leave a comment here or contact me via email (hmlyaxley at gmail dot com).

If you could take a few minutes to review this blog, you’ll note that I don’t feature guest posts or publish content marketing – so please don’t email me suggesting such features.  Also, I object to having my posts republished without permission but really love comments and other engagement.

Thanks

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Crafting my career

Following 10+ years in motor industry public relations/communications roles (in-house and consultancy), I established Applause Consultancy as an independent consultant in 2000.

An experienced and qualified educator, I have been involved with Chartered Institute for Public Relations professional qualfications for over 20 years (I’m a CIPR Accredited Practitioner and CIPR Fellow). I have also lectured in higher education and supported dissertations including at Bournemouth University and London College of Communications.

I am qualified in psychology (BSc Hons degree), public relations (CAM Advanced  & Higher Diploma), business communications (RSA Diploma), teaching (PG Cert Learning & Teaching in Higher Education) and have a PhD in Career Strategies. My supervisors were Professor Tom Watson and Professor Candida Yates.

My consultancy work includes helping Lions Clubs International British Isles plan and implement communications, PR and marketing activities, including magazine publishing, website and social media presence. I was formerly a director and general secretary of the Motor Industry Public Affairs Association, which offered training, career development and networking support to over 400 professional communcators.

I am a published author (see my bibliography below) and support individuals, teams, departments and organisations in performance improvement and sustainable professional development. My approach is to connect with ways of beginning, becoming, being, and belonging. I use proven creative, intuitive, imaginative, reflective and critical techniques to achieve positive changes in  thinking, feelings and behaviours.

I blog occassionally at PR Conversations.

My interests include the importance of career encounters, reflective practice and taking a pro-active approach to accelerated, active & sustainable learning.

Other concepts that I explore include: metamodernism and the riparian zone, feminine leadership capabilities, rhizomatic career tapestries and ecosophical ethical practice. My thinking is organic and based on learning and unlearning to  enhance our existing selves purposefully with new knowledge and experiences. We are always in the middle and have the potential to go in different directions.

I am working on a number of new initiatives to offer a practical structure to support sustainable professional development, research the career experiences of women working in PR in the 1990s, and establish a metamodorn approach to ethical and effective public affairs.

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PUBLICATIONS

Note: My academic profile can be viewed at: Google scholar: Dr Heather Yaxley

My PhD doctoral thesis: Yaxley, H., 2017. Career strategies in public relations: constructing an original tapestry paradigm. Doctorate Thesis (Doctorate) awarded by Bournemouth University is available online. See: http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/29913/

Book / chapters

Authored with my writing partner, Dr Sarah Roberts-Bowman of Northumbria University, and published in 2022, is the chapter: Women and leadership in public relations and communication management: Developing a rhizomatic typology of knowledge and professional development as an ecological radical feminine perspective. It features in the book: Towards a new understanding of masculine habitus and women and leadership in public relations, edited by Dr Martina Topić, at Leeds Beckett University.

We presented some thinking:  Using a meta-modernist and ecological lens to underpin professionalism: Establishing communications as a reflective and sustainable practice at the post-conference of the 2021 Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association: Opening Up the Meanings of ‘The Professional’, Professional Organisations, and Professionalism in Communication Studies, 1-2 Jun 2021, Virtual.

You’ll find two chapters written by me in the 4th edition of the Public Relations Handbook, updated for the 5th edition; published Spring 2016 – and in the 6th edition published early in 2020. This book is edited by Alison Theaker who is my co-author for The Public Relations Strategic Toolkit published by Routledge in 2012 and in 2nd edition in 2017.

I authored a chapter providing a PR perspective in Promotional Culture and Convergence: Markets, Methods, Media edited by Helen Powell, and co-authored a chapter on the history of Internal Communications with Kevin Ruck (revised in the latest edition published in 2019).

My chapter in the #FuturePRoof book offers practical ideas and tools to create a learning culture, develop a learning and development strategy and demonstrate sustainable return on investment. Titled: Investing in sustainable professional development, you can read it in the ebook available as a pdf download, here.

The CIPR book, Platinum, published in 2018 to celebrate its 70th anniversary features my chapter: Professional qualifications: Past, present and future

Research / papers

I have presented papers at the International History of PR Conference (IHPRC), and had journal articles published in Public Relations Review:

• Yaxley, H.M.L. (2012). Exploring the origins of careers in public relations, Public Relations Review, Volume 38, Issue 3, September 2012, Pages 399-407
• Yaxley, H.M.L. (2013). Career experiences of women in British public relations (1970–1989), Public Relations Review, Volume 39, Issue 2, June 2013, Pages 156-165
• Yaxley, H.M.L. (2016). Conducting historical interviews in a transparent age: issues and implications of a visible insider (presented at IHPRC)
• Yaxley, H.M.L. (2017). Opening the box- A ‘pastpresents_ exploration of the archival fonds of a singular PR practitioner (presented at IHPRC)
• Yaxley, H.M.L. (2018). CIPR Diploma 1998-2017: Evaluating the study of a professional qualification as a career development strategy (presented at IHPRC)
• Yaxley, H.M.L. & Bowman, S. (2022). Developing a Café Delphi historical method to study female experiences of sex, sexuality, and sexism in PR in the 1990s. (presented at IHPRC)

I also contributed a discussion paper in the Dissent and Public Relations seminar series (October-December 2012), titled: Dissent PR – the women’s perspective: From Suffragettes to Slutwalks’

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