Achieving

In our careers, we don’t always achieve everything that we would like to achieve. We may not secure a promotion, win an award, gain a payrise or attain our outcome objectives. But life isn’t a game of hopscotch where you have to follow the rules to get from 1 to 10. Does it matter if…

Platinum

What is platinum? Platinum has been called “white gold”; its name derives from the Spanish platino, meaning “little silver”. Platinum is special – in chemical properties, colour and symbolism. Platinum is the name of a new book – more on that below. The alchemical symbol for Platinum connects those of silver (moon) and gold (sun)….

Recovery

There has been a lot spoken and written about mental health in recent months. The prompt for this post is my own story of recovery over the past year after completing my Phd and the decade since my dad died. This has been a process of grief and re-engaging with life. Triggers to mental health…

Dedication

At this time of year, it is common to look back over recent achievements and plan ahead to how we may dedicate our time and efforts in future. This approach is a key step in sustainable professional development and involves two of three stages of reflective thinking: Reflection on action – what have we done?…

Normal

What is normal? It is something that is usual, typical, standard, average, unexceptional, routine, predictable, to be expected. Normal is the way things are done, part of the fabric of society, everyday habits, the unnoticed, taken for granted, culturally embedded. It defines the benchmark against which everything else is measured. The middle of a normal…

Being human – mental well-being lessons for Thomas Cook PR

This post started out as a critique of the response by Thomas Cook to the tragic deaths of the Shepherd children in 2006. It supported Andy Barr writing at The Drum who argued a failure to be human, and the FT conclusion that the company mislaid its moral compass in putting legal advice over the paying public. In…

A sinister perspective of diversity in public relations

I belong to a sinister minority group – I’m left-handed. We make up around one in ten of the world’s population, although apparently, about a third of people are cross-dominant, or ambilateral, favouring different hands for various tasks. I have no idea of the number of PR practitioners who may be left-handed as it isn’t…

In praise of the amateur in PR

I tend to refer to public relations as an occupation or practice rather than as a profession (although sometimes I use the term public relations professionals as well as practitioners). Bill Sledzik’s 2010 post Is PR really a profession? sums a lot of my thinking. In 1969, Goode reported the “industrial society is a professionalizing…

Can you help in my search for PR career stories?

Can you help? I’m searching for 20 research participants for my PhD who meet the following criteria: 10-20 years’ career experience in public relations UK based (although may have international responsibilities or travel outside the UK for work) Not well known to me – to avoid any possible complications arising from existing personal or professional…

Public relations needs to be rhizomatic – academic, scholarly, professional and practical

I describe myself as a hybrid, which I view as representing heterogeneity or a mixture of different things. I prefer the complex and chaotic to the simple and predictable. I relish individuality, variety and multi-tasking. For me, that also sums up public relations. Hence my argument that public relations needs to be rhizomatic and embrace…