Run a horizon scan drawing on regulatory, media, social and stakeholder sources.
Public Relations & Media
Issues Management and Horizon Scanning for Reputational Risk
Build horizon scanning and issues management processes that catch reputational risks while they are still manageable, before they become a crisis.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
By the time a reputational issue reaches a crisis communication plan, it has usually been visible for months as a comment in a regulatory consultation, a recurring theme in customer complaints, or a slow build of trade press coverage that nobody in communications was tasked with watching. This course builds the discipline of catching an issue while it is still a signal rather than a headline. Participants learn a horizon scanning method that draws on regulatory activity, trade and specialist media, social commentary, competitor behaviour and internal stakeholder feedback, and practise turning scattered signals into a structured issues register with an owner, a likely trajectory and a review date for each entry. The course introduces an issue lifecycle model that tracks a concern from potential through emerging to current, and a prioritisation approach based on likelihood and potential impact that stops every issue from being treated as equally urgent. It also covers the handoff between issues management and enterprise risk management, so reputational risk is not tracked in a separate silo from operational and financial risk. Sessions include running a horizon scan on a real sector, building a working issues register, and presenting a horizon-scanning briefing that gives a leadership team enough warning to act before an issue becomes a story.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Build and maintain an issues register with an owner, trajectory and review date for each entry.
Apply an issue lifecycle model to track a concern from potential through to current.
Prioritise issues using a likelihood and impact approach rather than treating all as urgent.
Link issues management reporting to enterprise risk management processes.
Brief a leadership team on emerging issues with enough lead time to act before escalation.
Design an escalation route that moves an issue from the register into crisis response when needed.
Who Should Attend
Corporate affairs and communication professionals responsible for reputational risk.
Risk and compliance managers who want closer links to communication early warning systems.
Public affairs teams monitoring regulatory and political developments affecting reputation.
Communication leads in regulated sectors facing frequent stakeholder scrutiny.
Sustainability and ESG teams tracking issues that could affect organisational reputation.
Agency consultants building horizon scanning services for client accounts.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Foundations of Horizon Scanning
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Sources and Methods for Scanning
- Identify regulatory, legislative and trade sources most likely to surface an emerging issue early.
- Set up structured monitoring of social and mainstream media for recurring themes, not single mentions.
- Use internal sources, including customer service and sales feedback, as an early warning channel.
- Track competitor and sector behaviour for signals of an issue likely to spread across an industry.
Session 2Turning Signals into a Structured Scan
- Distinguish a genuine weak signal from routine background noise in the monitoring data.
- Record scan findings in a consistent format that supports comparison over successive weeks.
- Assign an initial owner to investigate each signal that passes a basic relevance threshold.
- Set a realistic scanning cadence that balances thoroughness against the team's available time.
02Building and Maintaining the Issues Register
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Structuring the Register
- Design an issues register that captures description, owner, trajectory and review date.
- Apply an issue lifecycle model that moves an entry from potential through emerging to current.
- Write a concise issue summary that a non-specialist leader can understand in under a minute.
- Link each register entry to the stakeholders most likely to raise or be affected by it.
Session 2Prioritising and Reviewing Issues
- Apply a likelihood and impact matrix to rank issues on the register by urgency.
- Review and re-score the register on a fixed cycle so priorities reflect the latest evidence.
- Retire issues that have not progressed and archive the rationale for future reference.
- Flag issues approaching a threshold that requires escalation to leadership or legal review.
03Linking Issues Management to Enterprise Risk
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Connecting to Enterprise Risk Frameworks
- Map reputational issues against the categories used in the organisation's enterprise risk framework.
- Agree shared terminology for likelihood and impact with the enterprise risk function.
- Identify where reputational risk ownership sits relative to operational and financial risk owners.
- Build a joint reporting line so communication and risk functions are not duplicating registers.
Session 2Governance and Escalation
- Define escalation thresholds that move an issue from routine monitoring to active management.
- Set out who has authority to commission a fuller response plan once an issue is escalated.
- Agree how issues management connects to the organisation's crisis communication plan.
- Build a governance cadence that reviews the register with senior stakeholders regularly.
04Briefing Leadership and Sustaining the Practice
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Communicating Findings to Leadership
- Prepare a horizon-scanning briefing that gives leadership actionable early warning, not raw data.
- Recommend specific mitigating actions alongside each significant issue presented.
- Handle leadership scepticism about an issue that seems minor but shows a concerning trajectory.
- Present a horizon-scanning update within a fixed time slot in a regular leadership meeting.
Session 2Sustaining and Improving the Process
- Review past register entries against what actually happened to calibrate future scanning.
- Identify blind spots in current sources and add scanning coverage where signals were missed.
- Train a wider network of colleagues to contribute signals into the central register.
- Build a business case for scanning tools or resourcing based on issues caught early.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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