Reaching young people doesn’t need to be hard, but it needs to be engaging
Youth engagement is becoming an increasingly important part of engagement activities where projects and decisions have an impact on the youth of today and are likely to keep impacting them into the future. In any engagement project young people are typically one …
Four favourite methods to bring your workshop or focus group to life
When delivering a workshop or focus group it can be a challenge to hear from all voices in the room. One way to encourage everyone to have their say this is to use a few tried and tested methods that are engaging …
Four reasons you should engage with your community
Community engagement is a two-way street that can deliver benefits not only to your organisation and project but more importantly the community and stakeholders directly affected by or interested in your project. Here’s the top four benefits we see when delivering community …
How to write a community engagement plan
StickyWriting a community engagement plan can be a daunting task for any project manager or community engagement officer. There’s a lot to consider when planning community engagement. Here’s a list of what to include in your community engagement plan and why it’s …
When you need an independent third party
Working across a range of projects for different sectors and organisations, Articulous is often called in to assist as an independent third party on often controversial and contentious issues as it doesn’t have a vested interest in the outcome. As an independent …
Behaviour change – more than a communications strategy
The fastest way to fail on a behaviour change project is to focus on bombarding people with information in the hope they’ll see the error of their ways and change their behaviour to make the world a better place. Although your message …
Moving beyond the loud voices with live polling
If you’ve ever been in a town hall style meeting you’ll know they can cause angst amongst people. That’s because they provide an easy environment for angry responses and group think. So how then do you get people in a room together, …
Clarity trumps assumptions in stakeholder engagement
“Clarity comes from engagement, not thought” – Marie Forleo This is one of my favourite quotes about engagement and it’s equally relevant to all types of stakeholder engagement whether it be customer, employee or community. It often seems easier to make assumptions …
Gain deeper insights with stakeholder interviews
Stakeholder interviews are an effective way to gather rich data from your stakeholders using open ended questions. On the IAP2 engagement spectrum they are at the consult level: to obtain public feedback on analysis, alternatives and/or decisions. …
If you think customer engagement is about driving sales, think again.
When it comes to your business, your customers are the most important when it comes to your bottom line. But they are also important for contributing to a business that they want to keep coming back to. Customer engagement is a whole …
School holidays. To engage or not? When it’s appropriate and why it’s usually not.
As a general rule the school holidays are best avoided when planning community engagement activities because people are generally harder to reach and disengaged from reality during holiday periods. This is especially so at Christmas when everything tends to get that little …
Facilitation: behind the scenes
If you’ve ever been to a facilitated workshop or event you’ll be familiar with the role of the facilitator: the person who welcomes everyone, encourages participation in engagement activities, introduces guests, highlights the key messages of the speakers, asks thought provoking questions, …
Engagement tools: paper vs digital. Which is better?
In recent years digital engagement has really taken off with people experimenting with new technologies that make engagement activities more accessible and sustainable. As leaders in the digital engagement sector, Articulous is often called upon to help clients who want to be …
Beware of this four letter word when analysing community responses
You may have heard that online surveys are dead. Even though you’re constantly being bombarded with emails and website pop ups requesting your valuable input in the form of an online survey. How many of them do you simply ignore? …
Are online surveys dead?
You may have heard that online surveys are dead. Even though you’re constantly being bombarded with emails and website pop ups requesting your valuable input in the form of an online survey. How many of them do you simply ignore? …
Avoid the last minute engagement rush
The proverb – “he who hesitates is lost” could be true when it comes to last minute stakeholder engagement. If we spend too much time thinking about engaging rather than planning and delivering it strategically, we can run out of time to …
The truth about common ground and community engagement
Common ground is something that people agree about even if they disagree about other things (Merriam-Webster, 2018). It can be an important objective of community engagement where there is strong disagreement or conflict between groups. However, reaching common ground is not always an …
IoT Conference
Humans, technology and data in focus at the IoT conference Drones, self drive miniature smart cars, and smart data were highlights of the National IoT (Internet of Things) Conference in Melbourne on 4 June. Amongst the smart gadgets, it was the human aspect of technology that was brought …
Articulous goes global
May was a busy month for Articulous team member Rob Gravestocks who spoke at conferences in Melbourne and Beijing. Rob spoke on community resilience in the face of climate change at the Climate Adaptation 2018 Conference in Melbourne. Mounted by the National …
Why live community forums are making a comeback
In the past few months I’ve had the pleasure of attending a number of live community forums in South East Queensland. While attending these forums it struck me how much has changed in community engagement practices in the past ten years. More …