Case Study: Review of a Communications Plan
AI tools, Community engagement Pauline Webby is a Senior Water & Wastewater Planning Advisor who used the Community Engagement Planning tools to review her...
debraNovember 4, 2025
Create Better Consultation Documents by Starting with the Options
One way to build a consultation document is from the ground up – reviewing the source documents, thinking about the topic and drafting the...
debraNovember 4, 2025
Create Community Engagement Plans That Work With Your Natural Strengths
Community engagement Does the term ‘community engagement’ make you want to run for the hills or dive right in? Your reaction is likely...
debraOctober 7, 2025
How to use AI at your council – without getting into trouble
Who doesn't want faster analysis, sharper insights, and better use of your time? But many council staff, and consultants who deliver projects for...
debraApril 21, 2025
Fresh thinking for 2025: Seven ways to have more ideas
'The Imagination Muscle' by Albert Read discusses where good ideas come from, and how to have more of them. Here are my key...
debraJanuary 13, 2025
Editing quiz
This quiz covers some of the less obvious ways we can improve our writing at the editing stage, as outlined in ‘Editing Made...
debraJune 9, 2024
Editing quiz – answers
Check your answers to the editing quiz. (The correct answers are shown in bold.) Use verbs instead of nouns, where possible. 1A Using...
debraJune 9, 2024
Stumbling blocks for report writers
Your particular pathway to working in local government may present some specific challenges when you start writing council reports. Here are some examples...
debraMay 1, 2024
How to develop a corporate policy
I hope you find this step-by-step process useful if you need to develop a corporate policy. I developed this process for an internal...
debraMay 1, 2024
Workshop notes
In this article I share a trick to help you with presentations, list some resources to help staff write quality reports, reflect on...
debraApril 16, 2024
