News from the FIR Blog

The pandemic has made us look more closely at human and corporate values and the capacity that good values, morality, and ethics can provide to overcome any crisis. ESG has firmly entered the vocabulary of investors, managers, and other stakeholders as it helps assess the risks and resilience of enterprises. The corporate world faces multi-dimensional challenges and all stakeholders are focusing intently on their Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance.

Businesses can be rewarded in many ways when they act in a responsible manner. Through committed ESG performance, businesses can gain legitimacy; a stellar reputation; government support; strong brand equity; increased investment from socially responsible investors; attract socially conscious consumers; entice talent and gain employee trust and loyalty. In this evolving business context, we look at what role communication needs to play.

Join four IABC Fellows for a conversation about communications and ESG. The panelists will also answer questions and share observations from the YouTube chat. The session is scheduled for 11 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, February 17. Mark your calendars!
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How leaders view the communication function depends entirely on whether communication produces results that matter to them. Delivering that value doesn’t just happen. In the first Circle of Fellows broadcast of 2022, four IABC Fellows will explore the various dimensions of communicating for results that matter, from knowing what’s keeping leaders awake at night, the elements of the business and strategic plans, establishing the means of assessing the results of the communication, and how to share those results with leaders.
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It has been some time since FIR conducted a listener survey. For a variety of reasons, we decided it’s well past time to learn why you listen, what you like most (and least) about the show, what you would like to hear on the podcast that you are not hearing now, and other information we can use to make FIR more useful, valuable, and entertaining for you.

TAKE THE SURVEY

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Join Alice Brink, Martha Muzychka, Lety Narvaez, and Mark Schumann in taking a close look at how to diagnose, develop and deliver a culture that resonates with what matters to people, and what’s needed by organizations, where every voice is welcomed and heard.
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As the world struggles with what’s next for the workplace in the wake of the global pandemic, take time to consider your career path as a communication professional. Join Neil Griffiths, Amanda Hamilton-Attwell, Mary Hills, and Brad Whitworth for a Circle of Fellows focused on career assessment and planning, IABC’s Global Standard, strengths, professional development, certification, and more.
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In this lively panel discussion, four IABC Fellows will explore the current ethical challenges facing communicators, discuss the role a code of ethics can (or cannot) play, and talk about how individual communicators can impact the public perception of PR and business through their own ethical behaviors. The session is scheduled for noon ET on Thursday, October 21. You’ll be able to ask questions in real-time using YouTube Live’s chat function.
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There are dramatic changes afoot among employee populations. The biggest of these are pandemic-related, including hybrid workforces and employees required to adjust to new at-work realities, including continued social distancing and other measures designed to blunt the spread of viruses. In addition, employees are leaving their jobs in record numbers, part of the “great resignation,”… Continue Reading →

We have an exciting and different sort of program coming this month to the Circle of Fellows.

During the recent IABC World Conference, Brad Whitworth and Mark Schumann led a highly rated interactive session that examined how we use time to positively impact worlds we hope to change, lives we want to touch, and differences we need to make. Brad and Mark will reprise much of that session — joined by Alice Brink and Jane Mitchell — as the five of us talk about what we are doing with our time.

Here’s how Brad and Mark describe the upcoming conversation: “We fill our days fighting the realities of time. Maybe it’s time to stop the clock, take time to reflect, and recommit to what we contribute to make ours a better world.”

The two will also unveil the first draft of a “time manifesto” that emerged from the session at the conference. The August Circle of Fellows participants will be invited to contribute their ideas to this living crowd-sourced document during the session and will receive a copy of the manifesto afterward.

So be sure to join us next month for the Circle of Fellows. It will be time well spent.
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Crisis communication begins long before an organization experiences a crisis. Planning to communicate in a crisis involves considerable preparation, running the gamut from ensuring contact lists are up to date to establishing an organizational culture that is prepared to swing into action when things go south.

Organizations that prepare are able to identify most issues before they become crises. But every organization will experience a crisis when decisions must be made quickly and communicated deftly and frequently across multiple channels. Missteps can exacerbate the situation but a strategic approach to a crisis can help the organization recover quickly with its reputation untarnished (or, at least, ready to be rehabilitated quickly).

At noon ET on Thursday, July 15, join four crisis-tested IABC Fellows for a conversation about crisis communication and leadership. The conversation, moderated by IABC Fellow Shel Holtz, will cover the preparation and execution of crisis communication, including a look at the leadership role communicators can play.
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