Case studies
Nicole Hunter
CASE STUDY: AUSGRID VOICE OF COMMUNITY PANEL

As part of the development of Ausgrid's 2024-2029 regulatory submission, two randomly selected customer panels deliberated over a collective 10 full days. The panels, facilitated by MosaicLab and Gauge Consulting, considered how Ausgrid should look to the future while remaining fair to customers today. Ausgrid's three-year engagement process allowed customers to influence what Ausgrid spends customers money on, giving them a rare insight and influence over the cost of electricity, an issue that directly impacts the lives of everyday people.

CASE STUDY: AUSGRID VOICE OF COMMUNITY PANEL
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
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6 Industry Interviews: The year that was and what might be

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6 Industry Interviews: The year that was and what might be

As 2017 draws to a close, we've rounded up some interesting people who work in the world of public participation, community engagement and deliberative democracy.   Our interviewees, who hail from as far as the UK and New Zealand, have shared their reflections on the year that was 2017, and their hopes and predictions for what might be in 2018. 

From a researcher to facilitator and digital engagement expert to local government employee - these interviews offer a diverse collection of perspectives and ideas.  

Thank you to the six individuals who have taken the time to share their candid, insightful and inspiring thoughts.  Here's to a 2018 that shines bright for the engagement and deliberative democracy space. 

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#MonthlyMyth: Glossy, simple content = informed participants

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#MonthlyMyth: Glossy, simple content = informed participants

When you’re preparing information inputs for a community engagement process, organisations can spend a lot of time producing glossy brochures and simplified, summarised content.  It’s easy to get lost in all the posters and paragraphs and lose sight of what’s important - what you’re really saying about the issue or decision at hand.

Getting the balance right can be challenging.  So, in this post we’ll not only address this months myth, we’ll also give you 6 simple tips for providing the right information at the right level of detail.

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DILEMMA DISCUSSED: MIXED LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE

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DILEMMA DISCUSSED: MIXED LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE

We’re committed to sharing our learnings, contributing to the practice of quality engagement and supporting others to improve their engagement skills wherever we can. 

As part of this commitment, today we’re responding to an engagement challenge put forward by one of the subscribers to our e-newsletter The Discussion. The issue this subscriber is facing is: 'Engaging with people when there is a mixed level of knowledge about a subject. ‘

What works? Democracy in Australia and beyond

What works? Democracy in Australia and beyond

MosaicLab's co-founder Nicole Hunter recently took part on a panel of esteemed guests  discussing potential futures for democracy across Australia and the World.  The panel formed part of the University of Canberra Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis (IGPA) Smart Governance Conversation on Desirable Futures series. 

The evening saw a very interesting conversation take place around democracy in Australia and beyond and ideas for doing it differently in the future.   If you weren't lucky enough to make it on the evening, today we're sharing the official video of the panel discussion. 

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#MonthlyMyth: Firm positioning required before engaging

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#MonthlyMyth: Firm positioning required before engaging

It’s an easy trap to fall into, and an approach that’s often taken as a matter of course – solidify your organisation’s position before you engage with any external community or stakeholders.  While this may appear (in the short term) to make your organisation feel more ready to engage, it actually undermines many of the objectives of a robust engagement process. 

New free resource: Biases that mess up your decision making

New free resource: Biases that mess up your decision making

There are many ways our brains actively work to bias our thinking and, therefore, our decision making. Each of these different sorts of biases can stop us from seeing an issue from a different perspective.

This tendency can limit our understanding of new and different evidence and therefore restrict our ability to make the best overall decision/s. By understanding these biases and using different tools to help question others and ourselves we can access more information and weigh up data more thoroughly.

So, to help you out, we’ve provided a new, free download highlighting six of the most common brain biases that affect our everyday decision making – because identifying them is the hardest part!   

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Enhancing participants' critical thinking capacity - study outcomes

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Enhancing participants' critical thinking capacity - study outcomes

A Research and Development Note detailing the process and outcomes of a recent study we worked on with Lyn Carson of Active Democracy and the newDemocracy Foundation has been published. 

The study considers the question - How can we enhance the ability of randomly-selected citizens in mini-publics (such as citizens’’ juries) to understand and evaluate expert evidence?

#MonthlyMyth: Warm up activities have no purpose

#MonthlyMyth: Warm up activities have no purpose

Now and then we hear people say that what you might loosely categorise as ‘warm up’ or ‘introductory’ or ‘getting to know you’ activities are pointless exercises with no real purpose.   It is assumed (perhaps?) that they are something facilitators do just because that’s what facilitators do and they like to ‘play games, not because they have any bearing on the issue at hand or any tangible benefit to the group.

We can’t speak on behalf of all these types of activities (perhaps there are some out there that really are annoying, pointless and fluffy!); however, today, with the kind of activities that an effective, experienced facilitator might use in mind, we’re debunking this myth.