Culture change organisation The Impossible Institute’s Dan Gregory challenged PR practitioners at the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) National Conference. “Your reputation is what people say about you when you’re not in the room,” chided Gregory.

More than 250 of Australia’s eminent public relations practitioners descended on Brisbane post G20 to attend the conference. Sunday kicked off with Dan Gregory’s Gruen transfer directness. “Other companies are leading the way when it comes to marketing to diverse demographics; we need to make someone’s issue someone else’s problem. What is in it for your customer?’’ he said.

Gregory said the first step was figuring out why your company – or your client- is in business:

1. Find out why you do things
2. Align your values with your customer
3. Love someone better than anyone else does
4. Foster truly open collaboration

“Collaboration is the key. It needs to be part of a team, and it needs to be judged as a team, and not just the individual. We need to incentivize collaboration. Why are company silos fighting each other?”

• Companies fail to plan for failure. Design your organisation around human nature. Make failure hard.
• Profit from the inconvenient truth. Don’t be afraid to tell a surprising truth and gain thrust with your customers.
• Make your vision tangible and visceral. Your mission should be brief, specific, and MEAN something.
• Create stories that are worth sharing. What’s the cultural narrative in your organisation? All cultures are shared by stories. That’s what brings culture to life.