We’re feeling energised as we zoom through the first month of the new year. That’s because we can see what’s ahead, and we’re excited about the possibilities. Are you ready to set sail with us? We’re celebrating what’s been achieved in partnership with people just like you so far, while setting our sights on facilitating more important conversations in more places and having even more positive impact on more communities. We’re ready to embrace where engagement and deliberation are going, are you?
A message of thanks to you - our clients, participants, partners and friends - and hope for what’s ahead. As we head towards the end of a big year of big conversations, our team shares what they’re grateful for, their biggest highlight of 2023 and what’s really lighting them up when they think forward to the new year ahead.
Meet the newest additions to the MosaicLab team: Belinda Lowing and Fox Gillen. Both Belinda and Fox have long career histories that span across interesting and complex roles that have included facilitation and engagement in many forms. Learn more about these two and gain some insights into who they REALLY are through their answers to our fast five questions!
Ever wondered what makes our facilitators tick? Meet the newest additions to the MosaicLab team: Jody Kingston and Aaron Bosch. Both Aaron and Jody have fascinating, diverse backgrounds and have come to MosaicLab and facilitation via interesting pathways. Find out what they love about their work, what impact they hope to have and how they answered a list of fun and probing questions that we like to call The Telling Top 10...
Four language interpreters. Child-minding. Recruitment challenges. Birthday cake and a lot of laughs. These are just some of the unique highlights of our work with Quit Victoria and VicHealth in 2022 on a project to reduce tobacco-related harm in public housing. This case study takes a detailed look at how MosaicLab supported this process with a residents’ panel and sense-making workshops. All to drive improved, long-term outcomes for community and public health.
AI is both wonderfully amazing and exciting and fun, and worrying, overwhelming and scary…..and it’s coming towards us at a pace that our brains are finding hard to reconcile. In this article we’re exploring some of what’s coming up for us so far around using AI. Including how our natural, human biases are coming into play, the risks and opportunities we’re identifying and the three key principles we see as critical going forward.
Have you heard about standing panels? They’re a form of deliberative engagement that can be super effective, particularly if you have a lot of different issues and topics you need to engage your community around. They’re also a really cool way of embedding deliberative practice in decision-making. Plus, they’re already happening in Australia. We’ve got the lowdown on what they are, the key considerations in planning for them and some snapshots of the two ongoing standing panels we’re facilitating in the local government realm.
Conflict - generally feared and constantly mismanaged, it’s one of the biggest challenges you will face in engagement. It’s also the most common challenge our subscribers submit to us. If you anticipate conflict, outrage or emotion ahead, this article is for you. Inside - how to avoid the three biggest errors we see made (and they are made a lot) and some simple, yet effective things you can do instead to navigate the situation instead of making it worse.
Ready to put your best engagement foot forward in 2024? We have the free resources for you! Whether you’re prepping an important engagement project, have a tricky engagement problem to wrangle or just wanting to upskill, we’re here to help. We have so many free resources, it can be hard to know where to begin, so we’re sharing what our top 7 resources were in 2023 so you can see what others are reading and learning about. Jump in and let this be your most effective year of engaging yet!
Our free Lunch and Learn webinar in June just got a lot more enticing. Register and attend the online event as it’s happening for a chance to win a digital copy of the big MosaicLab Book, Facilitating Deliberation – A Practical Guide. Plus, all attendees receive a free PDF resource with insights and tips to be shared after the event. Be in it to win it!
Have a big issue that’s just right for deliberation, or a project that’s crying out for genuine engagement? Struggling to get it over the line with decision-makers? We know how hard it can be to get the buy-in you need. But it doesn’t have to be a battle. Learn how to engage your decision-makers effectively and convert them into champions for your process. Come and join us for a free one-hour webinar in April to receive insider tips on how to gain greater support from this important group of stakeholders.
We are thrilled to feature on a recent episode of the Engaging Local Government Leaders podcast called GovLove. Our Directors Nicole Hunter and Keith Greaves had a transcontinental chat with USA-based host Kirsten Wyatt to talk about the book we released last year: Facilitating Deliberation – A Practical Guide. Listen here!
Turns out there IS such a thing as a free lunch. Our monthly Lunch and Learn community engagement webinar series resumes in February. These free sessions run online for just one hour and are presented by MosaicLab engagement experts. Learn, upskill and connect. Open to engagement and facilitation professionals of any level.
2022 was the year of the big MosaicLab book. Copies of 'Facilitating Deliberation – A Practical Guide' have sold around the world and the positive feedback has us feeling equal parts humbled and ecstatic! Stuck for a gift for that hard-to-buy-for person in your life? Digital and print copies are available now.
New year, new skills, fresh insights from the experts: and it won’t cost you a cent. Get ready to be rewarded and inspired in 2023, with free monthly learning and connection opportunities for engagement and facilitation professionals. MosaicLab’s Lunch and Learn webinar series goes to the next level in 2023.
