A CSR Thoughtpiece from the CSR Training Institute -by Wayne Dunn CSR and stakeholder communications have a strong relationship to value. Do it right and you can create and preserve value. Do it badly and you can destroy value, or simply leave value on the table. Yet, CSR communications are seldom looked at strategically, and almost never from a value creation/preservation perspective. This article discusses eleven mistakes to avoid to help your CSR work and investments to better create and preserve value, for shareholders and community To keep updated on postings and events go to www.csrtraininginstitute.com and sign up for the newsletter

1. Helping business to
serve shareholders AND society
SIMULTANEOUSLY
CSR Communications
Eleven mistakes to avoid
-by Wayne Dunn
www.csrtraininginstitute.com/knowledge-centre

2. Eleven mistakes to avoid in CSR Communications
CSR and stakeholder communications have a strong relationship to
value. Do it right and you can create and preserve value. Do it badly
and you can destroy value, or simply leave value on the table.
Yet, CSR communications are seldom looked at strategically, and
almost never from a value creation/preservation perspective.
I often use a simple set of questions to help clients get clearer on value
and strategic issues.
I’ve found that questions like the ones below can help clients
to be clearer on value and strategic issues. This helps to make
communications much more effective.
Who all is involved in the project?
Who is benefiting from the CSR project?
Why is that important for them?
Why is it important for society?
Who is helping us with it and what are they doing?
What have we really achieved?
How have we achieved it?
Why is the company investing in it?
What are the challenges and issues?
Somewhere in the answers to these questions is a simple, concise,
humble and informative communication that can create or preserve
value for your company and your stakeholders.
Let’s take a look at eleven common mistakes that I’ve come across
over the last couple decades of working in the space where business
meets society.
These mistakes cost shareholder value and too often result in missed
opportunities for companies and stakeholders.

3. Eleven mistakes to avoid in CSR Communications
Page 02
We’ve all seen it, glowing corporate communications that would
make you think the company was up for a sainthood nomination.
Yet, when you get behind the glitter, there isn’t much there.
Don’t oversell what you are doing, or talk about results you ‘expect’
or haven’t achieved yet.
Trust me, ALL of your constituencies will appreciate candor and clarity.
Your company or project isn’t expected to change the world through
CSR. Don’t use language that suggests you might, or worse yet, that
you are changing it.
Language that communicates genuine effort and real results is your
most effective message.
I’ve actually found that a sprinkling (or more) of humility is actually
helpful.
And on this socialwash word. I’ve struggled to come up with a word
that is equivalent to greenwash. If you have a better one, my email is
below – please let me know!
Amazingly, you can read some CSR communications and you’d think
that nobody else did anything to make the project successful. That the
company did it all.
Share the credit. Liberally. It is way better in every way (and probably
way more honest too)
As much as possible in your communications acknowledge the work
of all who are associated with the project or work. Do this in writings,
in presentations, in casual conversations; inside your company and
outside.
Credit for CSR is NOT a zero sum game. When you share the credit
with others it doesn’t make you have less credit. You end up with
more. And with more willing and engaged partners.
1. No Socialwash
(Greenwash for CSR)
2. It was all us

4. Page 03
Eleven mistakes to avoid in CSR Communications
CSR is about the company’s interests, but not so much about the
company. It is about the space where business meets society and how
value is created (or not) for shareholders and society.
Yet, we often see or hear CSR communications that sound like an
advertisement for the company.
Yes, it is OK to focus on the company’s interests. But, make the overall
focus more on the issues, the stakeholders and the partners and the
efforts to address/resolve problems.
If people want to know more about how wonderful your company is
they will ask. No need for you to volunteer it and take away from the
important messages of your CSR communications.
Don’t try to use fancy communications as a veneer to cover CSR
challenges and shortcomings.
If your CSR project is like a pile of crap right now, try to fix it, not to
spin a pretty picture.
Life is complex. Issues are complex. Accept that and don’t try to
disguise it in your communications.
Nobody expects you to be perfect or to have all the answers for
everything.
Often an open acknowledgement of concerns, shortcomings and
alternative views can make your message more credible and help to
facilitate dialogue and engagement.
If you can’t make your CSR communications easy to read and digest,
then you better take a look at your projects and work. I’m guessing
they are too complicated and complex.
Remember, CSR is simple, but not easy. Stay focused on the
simple stuff.
3. Focused on
company and not
on issues and
stakeholders
4. Doesn’t
acknowledge
concerns,
shortcomings,
alternative views
5. Too complex

5. If you can’t escape the complexity, then you better take a look at your
strategy and how you are doing CSR because I’m guessing that is
over complicated too!
Step back and try and look at it with fresh eyes, or, consider getting
a set of experienced fresh eyes to come and do a quick review. That
may be the highest return CSR investment you ever make.
If you don’t own your interests it will be hard for the communication
to seem sincere and transparent.
Your company doesn’t exist to save the world. Don’t pretend that it
does. Nobody will believe you anyway.
Your company exists to serve its shareholders. That is actually the law.
In the process of serving your shareholders you can also serve society,
often through CSR projects and activities. That is what you want to
communicate.
You don’t need to hide your interests or try to hide behind some
altruistic motivation that nobody will believe.
Be open about what is in it for you and for your stakeholders. That will
make the rest of the message much more credible.
Sometimes the best CSR projects are initiative in response to activists
or as a response to larger issues.
Sometimes the company is on the wrong side of these issues, or is
seen to be on the wrong side, or has just messed up really bad.
Don’t let your CSR communications end up being a defense of your
stand or situation. Deal with that directly.
Let your CSR communications be about the questions asked under
#5, Too Complex. Let them tell stories about what is happening
where your business meets society.
If you are too defensive, and often even a little bit defensive is too
defensive, the rest of your message will get lost.
6. Doesn’t openly
acknowledge
the company’s
motivation
7. Too Defensive
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Eleven mistakes to avoid in CSR Communications

6. Of course you want your CSR communications to support and promote
your company and your social license, reputational capital and other
issues.
But, often your effectiveness at that is much better if you simply share
the CSR story and don’t try too hard to promote your company story.
If your company is doing good works through your CSR then you
don’t need to shout it.
Simply sharing the CSR story, complete with credit for all who deserve
it, is the loudest and most effective way to carry your own message.
Sure, you want to have some data and details, but you also tell the
people stories too. Have a mixture of both balanced to suit what you
are communicating and who you are communicating it too.
And, if want it to reach more people, circulate further and be seen
as more credible, consider having a third-party do a case study and
publish it, especially if they have a relevant publishing platform.
You lose a bit of editorial control but will gain from the added
credibility and circulation.
And, if you have a third-party that knows the CSR space you can
likely get strategy and execution feedback as well.
Sometimes the best communication is silence and simply let your
results speak for themselves, even if they take time to be heard
This can happen if there is a lot of controversy around the company
or issue. In that situation communication can easily backfire.
It can serve as a catalyst for opposition and you end up with the CSR
message getting lost in the controversy and noise.
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Eleven mistakes to avoid in CSR Communications
8. Too much promote,
not enough share
9. Too much fact, not
enough story
10. Bad timing

7. Make it interesting and fun.
You are communicating about good works and helping to advance
good interests. Let it come alive.
Use pictures and videos and graphics. The project is often about
real people and situations. Let that come through. Tell the stories.
Let people feel the energy that your company and your stakeholders
and partners bring to the project.
Sure, sometimes you have corporate communication guidelines that
seem to stifle the life out of anything.
11. Too boring
Page 06
Eleven mistakes to avoid in CSR Communications
When I was advising Placer Dome in South Africa they launched an incredibly ambitious and
far-reaching CSR program in the midst of a huge controversy. A controversy that had them
in court with the National Union of Mineworkers and led to their being named as the worst
employer in South Africa.
In the midst of this the company committed several million dollars to a massive and ambitious
CSR program, one that was eventually credited with changing the social face of the mining
industry in South Africa.
Despite the stakeholder pressures the company was under and the very public criticisms it
was enduring, they resisted unnecessary public communication about the CSR program.
As tempting as it was to tell the world what was being planned, they maintained public
silence. Even after the project started achieving results we stayed silent.
We knew that if we opened any public discussion we had problems. Those who were in a
public battle with the company on other related fronts would bring the battle to the public
face of the CSR project and it would be much harder to succeed.
We stayed quiet and let the results accumulate and pretty soon our partners started to
communicate the results. This actually led to an incredible public, and promotional, profile
for the company and the project.
At the end of the day the project and the company gained a global profile and won many
prestigious awards (see Stanford Case Study on it here). Had we communicated it too early
I am not sure it would have survived.

8. Page 07
Eleven mistakes to avoid in CSR Communications
If you have internal communication cops don’t be afraid to sneak
something past them in the interest of making the communication
less boring. After all, do you think the first CSR projects had all the
appropriate internal approvals!!
As with most of my Thoughtpieces this one will have undoubtedly
missed some important mistakes and issues. You may even disagree
with some of them.
That’s all good. None of us (and especially not me!) has all the
answers.
To see other Thoughtpieces and articles by Wayne click here>>>
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Wayne Dunn is President & Founder of the CSR Training Institute and Professor
of Practice in CSR at McGill. He’s a Stanford Sloan Fellow with a M.Sc. in
Management from Stanford Business School.
He is a veteran of 20+ years of award winning global CSR and sustainability
work spanning the globe and covering many industries and sectors including
extensive work with Indigenous Peoples in Canada and globally. His work
has won major international awards and has been used extensively as ‘best-
practice’ by industry and academia.
He’s also worked oil rigs, prospecting, diamond drilling, logging, commercial
fishing, heavy equipment operator, truck driver and underwater logging, done
a couple of start-ups and too many other things to mention.
Wayne’s career includes big successes, and spectacular failures. He hopes
he’s learned equally from both.
Wayne Dunn
About the author