by Debra | Feb 28, 2022 | Community engagement
A newsletter can be an effective, low-cost way for a council to keep in touch with a specific group of people. This could be: volunteers and community groups working with a council on water quality or pest control projects; orresidents living in an area where an...
by Debra | Feb 3, 2022 | Productivity
I have spent way too much time and energy worrying about how to meet my deadlines – so my goal for 2022 is to find a way to turn down the volume of that worry (and still get the work done). Here are three techniques I’ve been trialing over the past month, which have...
by Debra | Jan 10, 2022 | Council documents
The documents we write for councils may not be Moby Dick or The Bone People, but we still have to put in the hard yards to create something from nothing – and novelists can help us to do this. Australian author Charlotte Wood includes an essay about her doctorate...
by Debra | Dec 6, 2021 | Council documents
At a writing and editing workshop for council officers I learnt as much as I shared with the group. Here’s a summary of what we discussed. I introduced a framework to help us step into the shoes of the people we’re writing for. Empathy mapping involves imagining...
by Debra | Oct 29, 2021 | Reviews
The Local Government Review is underway, and could lead to significant changes to what councils do and how they are funded over the next 30 years. Ārewa ake te Kaupapa – Raising the Platform is the first report to be produced as part of this Review, and provides an...