Ten ways to engage with young people
If you want fresh thinking and innovation, then you need to engage young people. We’ve run Australia’s first youth summit on climate change initiated by a Council, and engaged thousands of students through travelling shows, and ran a curated film competition. We’ve …
Climate Change the Hot Topic
Aside from COVID, the hottest topic raised by community and stakeholders alike is climate change. Even before the IPCC this month issued a Code Red for humanity, ordinary folk were issuing their own concerns and seeking guidance and leadership. Even in communities …
Stories of our Regional and Remote Communities
Travelling into regional and remote communities earlier this year I was told many stories of heartbreak resulting from devastating natural disasters. Like one person’s plight to shift 1000s of dead cattle off a property devastated by flood waters. Not only did they …
Using the Maccas, Woolies and Coles Mindset to Engagement
If we really want to get more people to engage with councils and governments on the important topics, then we need to shake up engagement. Let’s apply a McDonalds or a Woollies / Coles / Aldi approach to public engagement projects and …
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 …
To cry or not to cry?
Imagine this. A community member has bravely taken the microphone. They’re shaking but determined to tell their story. They’re detailing their years of abuse. They talk about specific incidences, how they felt, the frustration, the sense of helplessness. It’s not the first …
Building resilience
StickyResilience comes in many forms, whether it be discovering new skills, building new relationships, being more informed, taking decisive action or working with people who share common goals. Having worked in several regional areas across Queensland in 2020, one thing that always …
A strategy can fail without the will to drive it
Can a well-constructed and resourced strategy succeed without the will of those driving it? A good strategy, communicated, will keep things moving, but often it is an individual or group’s will, particularly ‘the sheer force of will’ that delivers the most change. Work, …
Substance over slogans
When you think about some of the great marketing campaigns in the world, you think about the slogan and the catchy jingle. You know the ones – they give you ear worm when you turn on the TV or radio. Undeniably these …
A picture tells a thousand words
We all know that feeling when we just can’t communicate what we are trying to say. It’s not because we don’t know what to say. It’s because it’s often hard for people to visualise what we mean. You can put forward the …
Facilitation: Tips for successful sessions
Here at Articulous we facilitate a LOT of meetings and workshops. Thankfully we love doing this, especially when the content is complex or contentious. We have been tweeting a selection of our favourite twenty tips for making sure that your facilitation session …
Asking the right questions – it’s all in the framing
For some people the tricky part of engagement can be actually making the decision to engage and working out how to go about it. While it’s vital to have a strategy that informs engagement, it’s equally as important not to skip past …
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 …
Help stamp out burnout in a 24/7 world
You know them. They left the office at 10pm, kept working overnight and they’re back in the office at 6am. By then they’ve already scanned what was trending, the media clippings and their emails. Breakfast was a double shot coffee. But it …
No one’s listening, right?
How good are your powers of persuasion? Here’s 5 simple steps to selling the most complex ideas. …
It’s a celebrity… get ME outta here!
When it comes to reality TV, celebrities sell. But when it comes to facilitation, sticking a celebrity out front won’t fool ‘em. And you might pay dearly for the mistake. …
We know how to manage complex change
Climate change is an issue facing all of us. Community awareness and engagement around how to deal with climate change is something that a number of councils are working towards. Articulous recently worked with Moreton Bay Regional Council to plan how to …
Good presentation skills require us to challenge our preconceptions
What are the elements that make for a good communicator, or conversely, a poor one? Why is it that some have the gift of presenting and some do not? How do presenters stand out when most follow a very similar formula? …
Artificial Intelligence: Is it something to fear or favour?
I am intrigued by the fear of a potential technological revolution. Will technology steal away my livelihood? Will it mean we are devoid or lacking of skills required to fully embrace new technology? …