In the constant stream of LinkedIn posts wrapping up 2024, one caught my attention from Paul Argenti, a frequent commentator and professor of corporate communications at Tuck.
He posits that PR and perhaps comms more broadly remain stuck in the 1950s, saying “There’s a disconnect between communicators’ presence at the leadership table and their actual impact on decision-making,” which has been an issue as long as I can remember.
And, well, Argenti says that this was noted nearly seven decades ago and that not much has changed.
Honestly, that’s been my own experience and what I’ve heard anecdotally across our community.
Why, then, are we seeing all these reports that trumpet our profession’s success?
Reports with headlines like: “CCO+ roles are rising,” “More comms executives are reporting into CEOs than years past,” or CCOs are “leveraging close alignment with CEOs to influence strategy, manage reputational risks, and build trust.”
Researcher and consultant Stephen Waddington has a theory: Industry guard dogs “protect and defend boundaries, maintaining the status quo,” rather than challenging it. He says there’s a difference between acting on BEHALF of management and as PART of management.
To be clear, I’m not calling all these positive reports fake news.
Rather, I’m saying that as communicators, particularly in healthcare and life sciences, it’s incumbent upon us to bring together these one-off hard-truths I see here and there across platforms like LinkedIn, and to reframe the conversation.
The good news is this year we’ve seen a noticeable shift toward community-driven professional growth.
I believe that niche communities like Ticket to Biotech are the wave of the future.
These spaces that provide a variety of access points to enrich your career or your relationships however you see fit are where we’re going to have those productive, but hard, conversations.
My hope is that for my last video a year from now, in 2025, maybe I’ll have even more good progress to report!