Presenting Corporate Citizenship...
Why do we invite speakers to address audiences for important occasions? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to communicate ideas in print?
If you were going to learn about an important initiative of your firm, would you prefer to receive a memo or to hear the news from a person? Why?
When you prepare a presentation outlining a corporate citizenship effort, how much time do you spend thinking about your delivery? Your voice? Your nonverbal communication? Your language? Your organization? Or do you think mostly about your message – the ideas, the “content”?
If two different people deliver the “same message” to an audience, will the audience receive the “same message?” These questions invite us to think about when and why we prefer spoken over written communication and hence, what is special about the role we take as speakers.
Corporate citizenship practitioners know that one of their most important jobs is continually demonstrating how their efforts help achieve business goals. Those in the field understand the business and social value that environmental, social, and governance initiatives bring to an organization, but in an age of streamlining and fast-tracking business objectives, establishing the significance of these often long-term efforts requires constant communication—but how is this best achieved?
