Meet MosaicLab
Nicole Hunter
JUMP ON BOARD! THE NEXT ENGAGEMENT ERA AWAITS

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?

JUMP ON BOARD! THE NEXT ENGAGEMENT ERA AWAITS
Meet MosaicLab
Nicole Hunter
THAT'S A WRAP 2023! GRATITUDE, HIGHLIGHTS & ...

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.

THAT'S A WRAP 2023! GRATITUDE, HIGHLIGHTS & HOPE FOR WHAT'S AHEAD
Meet MosaicLab
Nicole Hunter
TEAM SPOTLIGHT: BELINDA AND FOX

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!

TEAM SPOTLIGHT: BELINDA AND FOX
Meet MosaicLab
Nicole Hunter
TEAM SPOTLIGHT: JODY AND AARON

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... 

TEAM SPOTLIGHT: JODY AND AARON
Case studies
Nicole Hunter
CASE STUDY: TACKLING TOBACCO HARM IN PUBLIC ...

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.

CASE STUDY: TACKLING TOBACCO HARM IN PUBLIC HOUSING

Free resources

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STANDING PANELS: A DIFFERENT FORM OF DELIBERATION

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STANDING PANELS: A DIFFERENT FORM OF DELIBERATION

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.

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WHEN DELIBERATION GOES WRONG: COMMUNICATION

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WHEN DELIBERATION GOES WRONG: COMMUNICATION

Deliberative engagement aims to build trusted decisions. That’s only achievable if the people impacted by the outcome have access to information about the process. This isn’t as easy as telling your communication team to send out a media release or publishing a few social posts telling your community the panel or jury is happening. Your communication approach needs to be thoughtfully planned, aligning communication and engagement efforts and ensuring deliberative principles aren’t compromised.

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WHEN DELIBERATION GOES WRONG: POOR TOPIC CHOICE

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WHEN DELIBERATION GOES WRONG: POOR TOPIC CHOICE

What are you asking your participants to help you with? Topic choice and how you craft the question, challenge or remit you put to your community is critical to a successful process. In this deliberation disaster, we explore the most common mistake we see made. Plus, there are free tips for selecting and communicating a topic that will result in better response rates, a more meaningful experience for participants and more useful outputs for decision makers.

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UPSKILL FOR FREE WITH OUR TOP 7 RESOURCES OF 2023

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UPSKILL FOR FREE WITH OUR TOP 7 RESOURCES OF 2023

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!

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TONY'S ACCESSIBILITY ADVICE + CARNIVAL WINNER REVEALED!

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TONY'S ACCESSIBILITY ADVICE + CARNIVAL WINNER REVEALED!

Did you visit our carnival stand at the recent IAP2 Conference? If so, you might feature in this post! And if not, here’s your chance to fight the FOMO and have an insight into the bean bag toss fun (and really cool dancing) that happened. We also have some super tips for you from IAP2A Chair Tony Clark around increasing accessibility and inclusion in engagement (spoiler - it’s not always easy, but progress is better than perfection).  And we share our program highlights. Let’s dive in!

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WORKING WITH INTERPRETERS

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WORKING WITH INTERPRETERS

Engagement processes must be accessible if diverse voices are going to be included. One of the many ways we can achieve this is through the use of interpreters (both for online and face-to-face engagement). If you’re working with interpreters it’s essential to collaborate with them and think carefully about how the session will be facilitated. We spoke to Bruce Song, a Mandarin interpreter whose worked with us previously.

COUNCILS, ARE YOU READY FOR DELIBERATION ROUND #2?

COUNCILS, ARE YOU READY FOR DELIBERATION ROUND #2?

There’s a new round of engagement on the way for local government in Victoria. You need to start now if you want to achieve a process that meets the requirements of the Local Government Act 2020, works around key dates and council elections, incorporates a wider engagement process and delivers useful outputs for their council and community. This isn’t easy. So, to help, we’ve created a short, free guide that you can download today. This free ebook includes a roadmap outlining timelines and phasing, biggest lessons learned from 11 local government deliberations in round one, advice from council leaders and decision makers, a guide to scaling your deliberation based on budget and more.

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IT'S INTERNATIONAL FACILITATION WEEK! HERE'S 4 FACILITATION SKILLS YOU CAN TRY TODAY

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IT'S INTERNATIONAL FACILITATION WEEK! HERE'S 4 FACILITATION SKILLS YOU CAN TRY TODAY

Facilitation is a practice, and that means facilitators never stop learning, no matter how experienced they are. We’re constantly working to refine our skills, and we’re committed to sharing our knowledge with others. To honour International Facilitation Week, four of our facilitators are sharing techniques anyone can try out. Give them a go next time you’re involved in an interaction or group conversation, even if you don’t normally think of yourself as a facilitator.

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WHEN DELIBERATION GOES WRONG: INFORMATION INPUTS

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WHEN DELIBERATION GOES WRONG: INFORMATION INPUTS

Deliberation – what can go wrong? The short answer is lots! In our second article in this new series, we tackle ‘information inputs’. We’re talking about information you feed into a deliberative process to support the deliberating group’s discussion. It’s super important to get this right and the quality of what you put in will affect the quality of what you get out. So, we’re helping you avoid potential pitfalls and learn from the mistakes of those who have gone before you. Learn what to do (and what not to) inside …  

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WHEN DELIBERATION GOES WRONG: RECRUITMENT

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WHEN DELIBERATION GOES WRONG: RECRUITMENT

Deliberation – what can go wrong? The short answer is lots! A new series to help your organisation avoid possible future pain and learn from the mistakes of those who have deliberated before you. In our first article, we’re exploring the complex, specialised world of recruitment. It’s a critical part of the deliberation puzzle and one of the biggest tripping hazards organisations face. Get it wrong, and it can undo everything you’re trying to achieve. Discover how to avoid disaster inside …