Road washout during Cyclone Hale – image via Tairāwhiti Civil Defence, Facebook.
Well the start of 2023 has certainly been a blast here in New Zealand with Cyclone Hale wreaking havoc around the coast and adding to the woes of what has been billed the worst summer in nearly twenty years.
As I write, people on the East Coast are still without power, the road network needs massive reinstatement and it has been – literally – a washout of a summer.
Personally, this local example of climate change has moved me off the beach – which is where I had hoped to be – and into a cosy chair for my brief holiday break, distracted with some reading (once we got power and services back on and dealt with the waterlogging).
Professionally, most conversations have been concerned with ChatGPT, its power, ability and general cleverness. The big ‘miss’ has been the conversation we need to have around ethical application. That’s the first chat on the agenda. The second is the impact it will have on our profession. There’s no doubt that it has come for the jobs but only if public relations and communications professionals fail to elevate their undertaking from the tactical to the strategic. And only if organisations realise the automation of content may look easy and save them a few bucks (for now) but without context or direction, automation will lead to their demise, huge reputational damage and a disconnection from their stakeholders and communities.
I’ve spent the last week or so whipping up a professional development session that I hope will help practitioners understand not just what is on the horizon but what is knocking at the door ready to eat their lunch. I’ll post the links here next week when (hopefully) it will be ready to go and I’m making it free access because I believe it is essential to encourage practitioners to actively consider and understand what lies ahead for their organisations and themselves. Meanwhile, I suggest you read this year’s edition of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report (gloomy but essential New Year reading) and determine how you’ll be making a difference in the months ahead -mand what you need to learn to help you make that difference.