The future of the communicator is mindful, purposeful, entrepreneurial, and playful

A few years ago there was a mercifully brief fashion for the term ‘intrapreneur’ to describe someone who is entrepreneurial in attitudes, but working inside a large company. The word may have fallen by the wayside (and won’t be missed) but the idea has gained currency.

The rise of employee engagement has put the spotlight on the value generated by proactive employees who take the initiative, ‘own’ their actions, and see them through to completion. It’s easy to see why that reminds bosses of entrepreneurs. But entrepreneurs are people who, typically, deliberately choose to operate outside the large company. That’s because they seek the kind of autonomy, flexibility, and responsibility that employees, typically, don’t have. Yes, they also want the lion’s share of the rewards, but these days that is less likely to mean profit. It’s more likely to mean the rewards that come from starting something with a social purpose that contributes - as Scott Beaudoin points out (on SKOJ blog) - to solving societal problems.

In their excellent white paper Grow the Global Economy, the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship defines entrepreneurs as “people who create opportunity rather than wait for it.” This is the challenge now facing communicators - internal or external, the difference is declining - as we seek to build our presence in the C-suite, or find new ways as consultants and agencies to solve C-suite problems. We must create opportunity, not wait for it. And to do that, we need to take a good look at our skill set. The good news, in my view, is that much of what we have practiced instinctively is turning out to be completely validated. The validation is coming both from looking outwards to social and economic trends, and inwards to the physical structure and evolutionary function of our own brains.

There are, of course, new skills that we must also acquire. However, they are not coming from the MBA curriculum or the standard in-house training and development agenda. They're coming from literature, video game design, theatre, and a range of social sciences from anthropology to structuralism. These are exciting times.

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Ezri Carlebach is a consultant, writer and lecturer with a background in senior communication roles for public sector, FTSE 100 and non-profit organisations. He is a Senior Associate with the PR Network and has clients in the education and government sectors. He writes for The Guardian, simply-communicate.com, D&AD and other publications. He is a Visiting Lecturer in Contemporary Issues in Public Relations Practice at the University of Greenwich. Ezri is Director on the IABC Region Board for Europe, Middle East and North Africa and is a Fellow of both the Institute of Internal Communication and the Royal Society of Arts.