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 …
Why everyday people turn up to solve community problems
It was a Saturday morning. The first day in a four-month process for members of a citizen engagement process to tackle a very tricky issue. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Engaging on Transport Infrastructure
“I’ve been yelled at. Threatened. Spat at. Cried at. I’ve felt in danger. I’ve felt frightened. I’ve felt exhausted.” That’s how one colleague has described her life as an engagement manager on a major road construction job. But it’s her perfect job. “I …
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. …
UQ Sport Engage
Almost 1,500 people took part in UQ Sport Engage, initiated to better understand the role of UQ Sport in the community, the needs of stakeholders, and to help guide future strategic planning. UQ Sport Engage set a benchmark for future engagement to …
Community Engagement Toolkit for Planning
In 2017, the Minister’s Guidelines and Rules under the new Planning Act 2016 came into effect. These changes prescribe a higher level of engagement and for earlier engagement to be done by local governments. They also require that the communications plan (comprising …
Five things every community engagement person should stop doing
Every day and in every industry we are continually adding ideas or processes. But so often we forget to delete. When we review or audit community and stakeholder engagement within organisations, we see how passionate our engagement colleagues are. Their passion for …
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 …
When engagement gets tricky: tips to get you across the line
When engagement gets tricky: tips to get you across the line A question we hear time and time again from our clients is how to tackle difficult engagement. Whether it be highly emotional issues, opposing viewpoints, lack of strategic direction, or differing …
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 …
Why staff, stakeholders and community are better at innovation: 5 Insights
The development of new app that will streamline compliance processes costs and save millions to an energy organisation, creation of a centralised system to map capability to automate HR processes, financial commitment by disparate parties to create a regional ecosystem to drive …
Queenslanders: The State of Health
As our attention turns to State of Origin this week, the team and I have stopped to recognise the many amazing wins that the State of Queensland has championed. Our discussion sharply focused to what we do better than NSW. …
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? …