A Member Writes: "It's Time for PRSA to Change Course"
By Stuart Z. Goldstein
PRSA Member

(This letter was previously published in PRSA's Tactics newsletter and on the PRSA Web site, July 2003.)

In April's issue of PR Tactics, one article focused on how to retain senior professional involvement in PRSA and another tried to explain PRSA's professional certification program. Since these issues are linked, I'd like to offer a perspective.

The dynamics of the communications profession have changed dramatically in the last 10 years, but many trade organizations like PRSA have failed to keep pace in fundamentally redefining their mission to reflect the drivers of change and respond to the very different needs of their members.

A case in point is the insistence on an Accreditation process that, while perhaps has some revenue raising benefit for PRSA, has no relevance to the real world. In the complex and competitive business environment many of us are in, employers and hiring managers in corporate communications/PR could care less about if an APR (showing certification) is on a resume.

What PRSA has lost sight of is that the idea of accreditation, if it ever had any relevance historically, has been supplanted by the growing number of high- quality university undergraduate and graduate programs in communications that teach the basics of tactical communications. These university programs provide all the credentials required, absent real work product, to demonstrate professional expertise.

The earlier role definition of a trade group in public relations was successfully accomplished more than 20 years ago, and the problem is that PRSA has not repositioned itself to keep pace with the profession itself. Colleagues, who run corporate communications departments or serve as senior practice managers in large PR firms, would generally agree that the greatest challenge to the profession is finding people who can think and act strategically.

We have lots of folks in communications who are talented tactically, but we have fewer who bring the analytical and big picture perspective that can really add value to the development of strategy for senior management and clients.

When I use the term strategic, it has to do with influencing outcomes and affecting results. It means not seeing yourself as adjunct to the business strategy, but as an integral part of that process. Strategic means not seeing yourself less as "client driven" (e.g., I do whatever my client asks), but seeing your self as a "catalyst for change."

So why isn't PRSA initiating new approaches, as a trade group, to address the more important questions we need answered? For example, how will facile access to perception research and the creation of innovative technology infrastructure change the PR profession? Why is it that many of the leaders and the most innovative, breakthrough strategies in communications comes from the world of politics and not from our own trade group sponsored research or from mainstream communications professionals?

If PRSA redirected its resources and energy to focus on issues of major strategic importance to the profession, like creating laboratories of innovation, we'd see resurgence in interest and commitment among senior level professionals.

Trade conferences need to be more than dog and pony shows for speakers who outline tactical communications programs. PRSA should adopt a Fred Friendly style workshop approach, with a panel of experts discussing and even debating best practices. We need more controversy and divergent views to redefine the paradigm for how the PR function will be staffed and structured in the Information age.

The emphasis on Awards programs should give way to research and authorship on issues, trends and innovation at the quality level of a Harvard or MIT business review.

I'd like to know how experiments in nanotechnology underway at MIT and other universities will radically transform our society - and the PR profession? How do I set a direction that like Wayne Gretzky suggested, "skate not to where the puck is, but where it will be?"

No one keeps his or her PR job by winning an award. With the Internet, the quantity, quality and speed at which we communicate is redefining the function itself. Communications has become a knowledge-based profession. PRSA is much better served, and serves us better, by empowering folks with the "out of the box" thinking skills that ensures PR staff can contribute effectively and significantly to senior management. And a key element of our survival is the ability to see ahead of the curve of change.

PRSA, on behalf of its members, should be forming a more active collaboration and closer working relationship with colleges and universities:

• To provide assessments on the academic preparedness of students, based on feedback from senior communications practitioners.
• To sponsor research on best practices looking at the dynamics of communication leadership.
• To facilitate academics in residence programs that give these professors real-world experience.
• To promote internships for students in alternative communications learning experiences, like the example of a political campaign.
• Today, more young people are pursuing the field of communications than ever before in history. The question is whether they are being prepared to succeed in the field they've chosen? Do they even understand the criteria and drivers of their success?

Instead of proving what we know about public relations through a certification process, we should be focused at PRSA about what we don't know as a profession. The margin for error in communicating the right message is narrower and access and the opportunity to communicate messages from outside the company is broader.

We can't be reacting to today's realities. As communications professionals, we need to be influencing them. We need to stop the emphasis on testing. Determining our ability to be a mechanic is not nearly as valued from a CEO perspective as being a designer and catalyst for change. It's time for PRSA to change course and lead this revolution.

About the Author:
Stuart Z. Goldstein is Managing Director, Corporate Communications at The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation in N.Y. His 20+ years of experience cuts across the disciplines of corporate communications and public affairs, including serving as a spokesperson at two Fortune 500 companies. He also spent a decade running political campaigns in New Jersey. He can be contacted at sgoldstein@dtcc.com.

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