Hundreds have played Corporate Snakes and Career Ladders around the world – and we like to check in with people. In this instalment of our series of conversations, Carmen spoke to Steven Shepperson-Smith, a Chartered PR Practitioner and Chair of the Chartered Institute for Public Relations (CIPR) Greater London Group.
Carmen: I noticed that you’re a chartered practitioner, can you tell me a little bit more about that?
Steven: I’ve been working in communications for about 20 years now. I’ve been in the CIPR for my whole career.
CIPR is the only chartered body for the PR industry in the UK, meaning it is responsible for maintaining high professional standards in the industry. It supports practitioners on two fronts: developing their skills and careers; and ensuring that they have a very clear ethical code to follow, enabling CIPR members to demonstrate strong judgment when making decisions.
Chartered status is the gold standard for practitioners in the UK. It is a peer based assessment of a person’s leadership qualities, strategic approach and ethical standards. I qualified a couple years ago and it’s a great club to be in. It tells employers and customers that you’ll do a job in a highly effective and professional manner.
Chartered Status also underpins the importance of continuous professional development (CPD). It’s really important that PR practitioners invest in their careers and keep learning, Committing to CPD is just a way of making sure you do that alongside all the other work priorities!
Carmen: How did you come across Corporate Snakes & Career Ladders?
Steven: I am chair of the CIPR Greater London Group. The last couple of years CIPR has run an ethics month (#EthicsFest) and we’ve used the game in that context. I’ve played it twice myself.
Great turn out at Corporate Snakes and Career ladders. Much fun and debate had by all! Thanks @hotwirepr for hosting! #EthicsFest pic.twitter.com/bCOWBfR1S3
— CIPR – London Group (@LondonPR) 27 October 2016
It’s quite a fun way for people to engage in ethics for their CPD points. There’s a compulsory requirement: you’ve got to do one ethics module – and quite a lot of the time it can feel a bit theoretical and dull.
Instead, playing a game and discussing scenarios and trying to win against other practitioners is great fun.
I talked before about using strong judgment, what was really helpful was sitting in a room just talking with other senior practitioners about ethical quandaries. There is no guarantee at all that any of the scenarios will occur for real in a person’s career but it helps to hear different approaches to a problem. With ethics, as you know, there’s not always a right or wrong – but a lot of grey in between. It was a bit like taking part in BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze from that perspective!
Carmen: Great. What’s next?
Steven: CIPR Greater London Group holds a free Drink event on the second Monday of every month at the Merchant House in Fleet Street. It’s the biggest PR networking drinks in London and we’d love to see you there sometime. You can book for that and other events on our Eventbrite page.
If you would like to learn more about attaining and maintain Chartered Practitioner status, connect with Steven on LinkedIn.
And if you’d like to try the game: see if it is right for you.
If you’re an alumni and you’d like to be interviewed by Carmen, let us know here.
Corporate Snakes and Career Ladders 