Communicators, take your seat at the risk table
Most organisations expend time and resources identifying, understanding, categorising and mitigating risk to ensure uninterrupted business operations. As communicators, what can we bring to this process and do we have a seat at this table?
It's an important seat for us to occupy, not just to help understand the risks that the business is exposed to, but because we can contribute given our understanding of the reputation landscape and the stakeholders who inhabit it, and in our environmental spanning role, the bigger picture view. We offer an appreciation of reputational risk.
When seated at this table, we see the accountants, the risk assessors, the auditors and the lawyers. We must be there for two main reasons:
1. we need the output of this group to do our job
2. we can contribute - we understand reputational risk driven by stakeholder interactions and interdependencies.
1. Why do we need this output?
Knowing the organisation's risks will prevent our strategic communications plan from being undermined by events that we can foresee. Without their inclusion, we plan blindly, hoping that what we need to achieve will be possible. When we are responsible for reputation protection and enhancement, this is not a comfortable place to be.
Without including business risks in our planning process, we undermine a crucial tenet of our raison d'être; this is to be ready and prepared. Furthermore, not only does it help us schedule activities and prevent them from being derailed, it can support our investment decisions and team development. We cannot plan comprehensively for every possible risk in the same financial year. Therefore, we need to prioritise our resources. It's a process of continual improvement. Therefore, prioritisation must occur to give importance to the most likely, with the most significant impact on the organisation's reputation. The risk assessment supports and underpins this process, forming a key component in the businesses' mitigation plans.
2. How can we contribute
As we have seen above, our active use of the risks in our planning processes leads to support the mitigation of the company's risks. We have, however, another role to play which is core to our communications principles.” We know and understand stakeholders. It is where our communications manifest and where reputation is built or eroded. It is where we mitigate reputational risk.
As part of our communications plans, we build stakeholder maps that identify their reactions to us and their interactions with each other. We predict how each stakeholder will behave and tailor our communications to meet their needs. We also know that stakeholders do not act in a vacuum; they are dependent on and influenced by each other. How one group perceives our actions will lead to their reaction and the reaction of other groups they influence. Also, their relationships are not static; they will change with time and with developing circumstances.
Therefore, there needs to be a stakeholder communications map for every mitigated risk to manage reputation.
It is a grave mistake not to factor the interdependence of stakeholders into mitigation plans. When a risk materialises, it creates a tremor that reverberates through all connected stakeholders. It often triggers related or completely unrelated risks; now, we are managing two or more issues, not just one. It is why our contribution is invaluable. However, it also underlines that we need to be ready to handle unforeseen risks. Predicting every risk or eventuality is not possible.
Communicators should take from and contribute to the corporate risk assessment. The benefits to the organisation are significant. By aligning all disciplines within the business, the risk management loop can be closed.
We need the risk data to know what we can expect to happen and, if not mitigated, the outcome. It allows us to identify determinate events and those that are unpredictable yet probable, along with whether we can control them or other stakeholders will drive them. The knowledge this imparts helps us plan effectively.
Moreover, our organisation's reputation will ultimately be built or eroded one stakeholder group at a time. Their reactions towards us and each other will be formed by how they perceive our actions, our ability to take ownership and be transparent. Playing with a straight bat and telling the truth must be the foundation to any activity. We bring this knowledge to the table, demonstrating that our organisations' collective actions can contribute to reputational risk.
So, pull up a chair and take your seat.
How do we take our seats?
understand who manages risk in the organisation and develop a relationship
tell your CEO you want to be involved, why it's important and how you can contribute
ask to see the risk assessment to build your communications plan
demonstrate how you can constructively contribute
explain the importance of reputational risk to the organisation
use the risk assessment to establish budgetary requirements and priorities
be patient, persistent and listen
Authors: Elizabeth Maclean & Mike Evans - Herdwick Communications.