How to use Whole Brain Thinking to be successful at work
Whole Brain Thinking is a great tool which you can use when: preparing a community engagement plan writing a strategy, plan or report planning a meeting making a presentation figuring out why you’re annoyed with someone! Whole Brain Thinking was developed by Ned...
How to write a policy advice paper
I recently completed a series of three policy papers, and noted down the process while it was still fresh in my mind. Please feel free to try this process if you need to write a policy paper (any long-form report with recommendations) for your council. Why a process...
How to write excellent emails, submission summaries, and executive summaries
As a council staff member, you know a lot about your subject matter. However, most of the time people only want the summary! That means you need to be able to quickly zero in on the main points. We all need to summarise complex information Sharing information in a way...
Struggling with a council document?
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...
Notes from a writing workshop
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...