There is one key life (and professional!) lesson I have shared many, many times over the years:
Assumptions are the mother of all screw ups.
This has been one of the biggest lessons I have emphasized with students, colleagues, and professional connections in the public relations and social media field. If we “assume” something – which can be anything from being protected from challenges or change, or overall confidence of surviving a crisis – we are getting ourselves into trouble.
Public relations, for many decades, has had a lot of assumptions as a field. We have always assumed we will have a place in every school, brand, organization, and aspect of society. We have always assumed our field will always be valued as a profession. We also have assumed we are protected as far as jobs go since everyone needs PR.
Well, Tesla really broke a lot of these assumptions this week.
Why do I say this? Tesla announced as a company they would be eliminating their PR department, which of course sent shock waves across the public relations industry.
Many professionals (and professors) were asking: What does this mean for PR? What will the future of PR be if more brands and companies follow what Tesla has done?
Here are some of the takeaways I would like to share w/ my fellow colleagues and friends in PR. Some of these points may be hard to hear, but I think what has happened at Tesla is an early warning sign for the public relations field to take note of. This is just the beginning.
PR has to modernize its approaches in teaching. This was a big focus of mine when I wrote Discovering PR – it’s so important to look not only at our past and present, but where the field is going. In the book, I’ve tried to explore areas of insights, expertise, and skills professionals entering the field need to have to not only be successful, but appreciated and valued for their work.
What are the new skills we need to have to be able to have in order to be integrated with other teams? What areas can we work as a team? If we know the traditional PR approaches that are being practiced and applied in the industry are not valued or appreciated, we need to reevaluate what we are doing, and how we can modernize our approaches.
PR has to be leading, not following, in providing value for businesses, organizations, and society. For decades, PR has let other fields (marketing, advertising, etc) lead the way in providing innovative ideas and value for their work. We have to reverse this trend and see what we can do to be the ones leading the way. We do have the talent and experience to do this, but unfortunately, we do not have the system or professional culture that encourages this.
In addition, PR has been very comfortable in relying on news, trends, and updates from siloed organizations and professionals groups. I have found that some of the “new trends” or case studies that are presented at PR organizations or functions are items I had seen months ago from other places. These groups, unfortunately, are not in tuned with what other related disciplines are doing and have been political in deciding which ideas, practitioners, programs, and leaders have a “voice” in where the field is going.
How do we address this? Looking innovative talent, perspectives, and approaches in new places.
We got to be more in tuned with how others view PR. My background is in PR, but wherever I go in my work, people are surprised when they hear it is in PR, and not marketing. I have asked why they are surprised, and they usually go off on the various perceptions, experiences, and views of PR. We are still battling the perceptions of what PR actually is, versus what people think we do.
I have always taken business oriented classes in my studies, and social media has to be aligned with what marketing and other related disciplines are doing.
Summary
While the news of what has happened to the PR department at Tesla is still being discussed online and other professional circles, it does bring a call to action for public relations professionals.
There are two choices for us to make:
One choice is to say, “Hey! Elon Musk is someone that does his own thing and this is just going to be the case for Tesla, and we are good as a field.” Can we assume this will really be the case? Whether you like Musk or not – he does influence trends and people, and it is important to take note in that.
The second choice is we can evaluate where we are, and where we need to go. Understanding we are all dealing with a vast array of changes, evolutions, and experiences that are lightyears from where we expected to be a few months ago. In PR, we have to embrace this time to re-evaluate what we are doing to see how we can evolve to the next level of public relations practices.
We can’t assume everything will be okay. We have to take action as a field.
I’d be interested in hearing what you all think about this. Happy to chat!
Hope all is well and have a great day.
Best Wishes,
