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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BRAVE NEW COMMS: INSPIRATIONAL CASE STUDIES

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BRAVE NEW COMMS: INSPIRATIONAL CASE STUDIES

The rise of social media has transformed how we communicate with each other and how organisations communicate with their customers and communities. This rapidly changing landscape can be unforgiving to those who play it safe, and, often, government is seen to be lagging behind the private sector.

Effective communication is a key component of every engagement process.  So, today we’re providing some communication inspiration - exploring some examples of bold, creative public sector campaigns that cut through the clutter.

REAL INFLUENCE VIDEO: GLOBAL COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT DAY

REAL INFLUENCE VIDEO: GLOBAL COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT DAY

Recently, Engage 2 Act announced a Global Community Engagement Day Blogging Challenge.  The task?  To write a short blog or a vlog on the topic of INFLUENCE.   

We were sold at 'challenge'.   In honour of the first ever Global Communitiy Engagement Day on January 28, we've created a short animation that outlines what influence means to MosaicLab and why we think its key to quality engagement. 

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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. ‘

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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?

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Participatory democracy & THE PUBLIC SECTOR: IDEAS AND Q&A

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Participatory democracy & THE PUBLIC SECTOR: IDEAS AND Q&A

The 'Participatory Democracy - Exploring Experiences' session at the IPAA Public Sector Week 2017 featured active, experiential learning and an interactive discussion with a group of diverse panellists. 

Attendees experienced a mini, deliberative discussion, answering the question: 'what are the biggest challenges facing the public sector when it comes to gaining trust in the community?'.   The group then engaged in an energetic Q&A with the panel which included specialist consultants and public sector representatives with extensive experience in using deliberative engagement to help tackle major public policy challenges.

Facilitated by MosaicLab, the workshop saw great ideas generated and invaluable knowledge shared.  The discussion was relevant to anyone working in the public sector (and beyond), so, today we're sharing a snapshot of the ideas generated and a summary of the Q&A discussion - a fabulous, free resource for anyone interested in quality engagement or participatory processes.