Study: Assuming Agency And Achieving Balance In The Age Of Angst And Rage

(MENAFN- PRovoke) LONDON - International issues, risk and crisis communication expert Rod Cartwright has released his latest 'Reputation, Risk and Resilience' report, calling on professional communicators and those they advise to“assume agency” and“achieve balance” in what he calls 'the age of angst and rage'.

Commenting on the report's publication, Cartwright said:“If the environment into which I placed the previous editions felt complex and troubling, the practical and psychological context surrounding this year's report is like little any of us have experienced in our lifetime”.

Critiquing what he calls the“rather supplicant PR industry refrain” of“why doesn't communication have a seat at the top table?”, he hopes this year's report will help the communication function to“kick down the boardroom door and inhabit a seat that's been actively earned – through an attitude, mindset and substantive approach to practice that mean it can't not be there”.

Cartwright has this year focused on the theme of 'Assuming Agency and Achieving Balance in the Age of Angst and Rage'“not as an illusory proxy for control, but rather as a central focus on intentional action and purposeful choice as the ultimate drivers of the real-world outcomes we aspire to achieve for ourselves and others.”

This is the fourth annual edition of the report, in which Cartwright summarising and analyses all the major global reports on the inter-related topics of reputation, risk and resilience. This year the report covers 12 publications, totalling nearly 850 pages of source material: Aon's Global Risk Management Survey; AXA's Future Risks Report; the Business Continuity Institute's (BCI) Horizon Scan Report 2025; the International SOS Risk Outlook; the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Risks Report; the new Gallup/World Governments Summit report, 'The World's Most Important Problem'; the Oxford-GlobeScan Global Corporate Affairs Survey; the Ipsos Reputation Council report; The Conference Board's C-Suite Outlook; the Edelman Trust Barometer; the Page–Harris Poll Confidence in Business Index; and Gallup's State of the Global Workplace Report.

The 2025 edition was downloaded in 67 countries across six continents, underlining the report's status as a valuable reference source for professional communicators worldwide.

The new 2026 edition summarises the 12 publications covered, divided between those on 'risk and resilience' and reports focused on 'reputation and engagement'. Each includes its own“too long, don't read” (TL;DR) synthesis.

The individual summaries are bookended by ten key themes that run through them, as well as ten critical questions to consider and address in rising to the challenges – and unlocking the opportunities – they present.

Alongside themes relating to geo-economics, AI, cyber and the climate emergency, Cartwright explores“a world divided, fragmented and insular”, the“embedded psychological pandemic”,“the awareness vs preparedness gap” and“the human risk blind spot and human infrastructure deficit”.

The ten questions are organised within a single 'Assuming Agency' framework, five covering 'sensemaking' and five 'sensegiving'. They are accompanied by what Cartwright calls ten“highly practical yin and yang pairings” organised under 'Achieving Balance' – essentially the critical success factors in“making the implementation of the ten recommendations truly stick”.

Cartwright says:“Taken together, the Assuming Agency Framework and Achieving Balance critical success factors provide a potentially new way of thinking about what we do as issues, risk and crisis communicators”.

In characteristically provocative fashion, Cartwright again includes a hard-hitting“Letter to the CEO and Chair” – from imaginary chief communications officer, 'Ms. Dee Risk' – and a new“Letter to the Reader”, in which he asks readers to read the report“through a personal lens” and to“consider its content through the prism of your role as a partner, a parent, a neighbour, a friend and a citizen.”“Our professional capacity starts its journey in our own personal back yard”, he says.

Cartwright has also retained last year's 'Expert Commentary' section, in which a number of leading communications professionals explore the themes and recommendations which most resonated with them.

The 2026 edition of 'Reputation, Risk and Resilience' is delivered in collaboration with a wide range of sponsors and industry partners – including PRovoke Media as media partner – which Cartwright says will“bring a whole new dimension to the report's international journey over the coming year”.

Ipsos in the UK is again the gold sponsor for 2026, with Roxhill Media as silver sponsor. The CIPR, EACD and ICCO are again industry partners, and AMEC has joined the partnership line up, with Cartwright set to unveil the report's key findings at the 2026 AMEC Global Summit in Dublin on May 20.

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