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.
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?
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!
THAT'S A WRAP 2023! GRATITUDE, HIGHLIGHTS & HOPE FOR WHAT'S AHEAD
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.
WHAT IF WE COULD ANSWER THESE TOUGH QUESTIONS?
We need to find a way forward. We’re seeing increasing trust divides between government and their citizens. You only have to see or hear a few news headlines to know that humans are facing really big problems that decision-makers are getting stuck on. From housing affordability and gender equality through to water security, climate change and the energy transition, there are tough issues before us that we simply have to solve. What if there was a way to tackle these ‘wicked problems’, answer the big questions and collectively agree on a way forward that was in the best interest of the many not the few? Here’s an insight into what that might look like - some inspiration, possibility and hope amongst the despair.
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!
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!
DRD 2024
Deliberative democracy experts and practitioners from across the globe recently descended on Copenhagen for the 6th annual Democracy R&D Conference, ready to explore this years theme ‘Let’s Give Democracy An Overhaul.’ Our directors and co-founders Nicole and Keith were there to soak up new ideas, share learnings from our delivery of more than 40 deliberations in Australia, connect with like-minded people from around the world and deliver a facilitating deliberation masterclass. Couldn’t be there? Never fear. They’ve shared their insights and top takeaways from an event they’re calling a “supernova of deliberative democracy”.
PRINCIPALS WITH PRINCIPLES! MEET OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM
Lyndal and Jane are experienced, senior facilitators that have recently stepped into strategic, leadership roles at MosaicLab. They’re each responsible for overseeing a key area within MosaicLab - Lyndal with a focus on training and Jane on quality and communication. Both of them are committed to advancing our facilitation and engagement practice, continually strengthening the impact our processes have on organisations, decision-makers and communities. While many of you will have met them before, and they are not new to the MosaicLab family, we’re taking this opportunity to put a spotlight on them so you can learn a little more about who they are and what they’re here to offer.
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.