Dear friends, here is a miscellany of inspiring and practical\u00a0things I heard about in workshops over the last few months. Hope you find some of them useful. – Les
\nShani Graham\u2019s marvellous TEDx talk about saving the world, one street at a time, starting with Hulbert Street, Newcastle<\/strong>
\n
\nThis one is an inspiration. Shani\u2019s first courageous step was to hold a street party. One thing led to another, and this suburban street gradually became a community\u2026with landscaped verges, a book exchange, community garden, a mobile pizza oven, and eventually, a community fiesta with 7,500 guests!
\nhttp:\/\/sustainingcommunity.wordpress.com\/2014\/03\/01\/tedx-hulbert-st\/<\/a>
\nThe secret life of a community change agent<\/strong>
\nI want to introduce Adam Hammes. He lives in Des Moines, Iowa, and lectures in sustainability.
\nHe recently started a personal project to tackle hunger. His blog about this is one of the neatest descriptions of good project design I\u2019ve ever read. If you design change projects, read it (it\u2019s just one page).
\nHe gets that making change is all about process (and that process is applied common sense).
\nIn post #1 he tackles focus and scale. I\u2019ve trained a few tranches of sustainability leaders in NSW and Victoria, and their most common mistake is wanting to solve some MASSIVE problem without seeing that your SCALE has to be within one’s\u00a0resources. Adam explains this beautifully. Sure, start with a massive problem, but LOCALISE it and then drill down, drill down, drill down and don\u2019t stop until you have a compact do-able project that matches your time and energy.
\nIn post #2 two he shows how good project design comes down to humble, easily understood, activities… like sitting down with some people who’ve already done it and asking “What did you do first? Then what happened?”
\nPost #1 http:\/\/eco-fluence.com\/part-1-the-secret-life-of-a-community-change-agent-11643<\/a>
\nIdea Bombing Sydney. <\/strong>Really, it\u2019s a community brainstorm\u2026but I love how a new title can make a familiar activity cool, buzzworthy, \u201cOMG I wish I was there\u201d. How things appear<\/em> to people can make a huge difference to their take up. http:\/\/www.ideabombingsydney.com\/<\/a>
\nDoing emergency education? Here\u2019s a neat idea: Dropbox photos for important records <\/strong>(thanks to Tom in Perth)
\nA 2Gb DropBox account is free, and (especially, if you have a smartphone) a simple tool for flood and fire preparation. When you open DropBox on your smart phone, it asks if you want to enable photo upload. Just click \u201cEnable\u201d and every photo you subsequently take will automatically upload (until you tell it to stop).
\nWhat to do:
\n1) Photograph all your important documents, and upload the photos to DropBox.
\n2) Go around your house and photograph your possessions in situ, with closeups of make and model details. Making an insurance claim just got a whole lot easier.
\nLittle known cycling fact: it\u2019s illegal to ride without a bell<\/strong>
\nDid you know riding a bike without a bell fitted is ILLEGAL in NSW? The maximum fine is $2,200. It\u2019s amazing that many cyclists don’t know this. It\u2019s NSW Road Rule No 258. An identical rule applies in Victoria.
\nhttp:\/\/www.legislation.nsw.gov.au\/maintop\/view\/inforce\/subordleg+179+2008+cd+0+N<\/a><\/p>\n

Councils\u00a0catching up<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bunbury, WA:<\/strong> Social media terrifies so many councils, but not the City of Bunbury. Check out this sign on the edge of town.
\n<\/a>
\nManly Council, Sydney: <\/strong>a sweet little YouTube advert uses disgust and social proof to remind litterbugs that No one likes a litter bug<\/em>.
\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LExwzEa7Mvc<\/a>
\nCity of Salisbury, SA: <\/strong>a YouTube advert that reminds residents where their rates go: their lifestyle (though the language is still in local-governmentese)
\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nGqA3_NPFTw&feature=share<\/a>
\nCity of Greater Geraldton, WA.<\/strong> Like most councils, has a budget squeeze, so decided to create two panels of 35 to 40 residents to help them make budget decisions using Participatory Budgeting.
\nhttp:\/\/cgg.wa.gov.au\/major-projects\/citys-approach<\/a>
\nVillage of Pemberton, California:<\/strong> Forget all the community engagement paraphernalia, just have coffee with a councillor.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Power to us<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Neighboor.ly:<\/strong> Back in 1945 my community (Thirroul) voted itself a voluntary rate increase to build the local Olympic pool I still swim in. Here\u2019s an online platform that enables a modern community to do a similar\u00a0thing. Essentially, crowd-funding for local projects.
\nhttp:\/\/popupcity.net\/neighborly-a-new-way-to-let-you-pay\/<\/a>
\nLoomio: <\/strong>a free, open platform to let communities and networks make decisions together. Looks ideal for volunteer groups, and anyone wanting to do community consultations at the INVOLVE level.
\nhttps:\/\/www.loomio.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

A little bit of theory<\/strong><\/h2>\n

What\u2019s the difference between a message, a slogan and a narrative?<\/strong>
\nThis eloquent article<\/a> by Annabelle Lukin, linguistics lecturer at Macquarie University, explains things we should all know about messages, by reference to Joe Hockey’s budget speech.
\nA quote: “[a political slogan]\u00a0needs to be the distillation of a broader story about where you\u2019re taking the country, and why. If you vacate this space, even briefly, some other narrative will colonise it.”
\nAnd how a persuasive narrative needs to have:
\n– ethos (moral character,\u00a0guided by high ideals or virtues – to look at this more deeply you can’t do better than Simon Sinek’s marvellous TED talk<\/a> about communicating the “Why”);
\n– pathos (emotional impact); and
\n– logos (reasoned argument).
\nHeard of the Dunning-Kruger effect? <\/strong>It explains how unknowledgeable and incompetent people so often overrate their knowledge and skills. Why? Because they also don\u2019t know how ignorant they are!
\nDunning and Kruger proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will:
\n1) tend to overestimate their own level of skill;
\n2) fail to recognise genuine skill in others;
\n3) fail to recognise the extremity of their inadequacy;
\n4) recognise and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill, if<\/em> [ie. AFTER] they are exposed to training for that skill.
\nHelping explain\u00a0why it is so important to\u00a0let people learn by DOING, rather than arguing a case at them.
\nhttp:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dunning\u2013Kruger_effect<\/a><\/p>\n

Expanding your powers (items from me)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Seriously, friends, we need to get surprised more often<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Been thinking a lot about the PROCESSES WE USE TO GENERATE STRATEGIES AND IDEAS. I do think we can do it so much better, and have more fun at the same time. Here\u2019s an alternative to the common garden variety brainstorm. I\u2019ve used it a lot lately. It\u2019s fantastic. http:\/\/changeologyblog.wordpress.com\/2014\/05\/16\/why-surprise-yourself-is-the-missing-magic-in-change-projects\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Change maker workshops in September<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Change<\/strong>ology: Create projects that change behaviour<\/strong><\/span><\/span>
\nFor those wanting\u00a0to tackle complex social, environmental or health challenges, this enjoyable 2 day workshop gives you the ideas, skills and tools to proceed with confidence.
\nSydney:<\/span> 9-10 September
\nMelbourne: <\/span>16-17 September
\nFacilitation <\/strong>Skills<\/strong>: Facilitate any gathering with confidence<\/strong><\/span>
\nFacilitation is a change maker’s core skill. Les shares the skills and tools to positively facilitate almost any group in almost any situation.
\nSydney:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>11 September
\nMelbourne:\u00a0<\/span>18 September
\nFull details and booking<\/a>: http:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au<\/a>
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear friends, here is a miscellany of inspiring and practical\u00a0things I heard about in workshops over the last few months. Hope you find some of them useful. – Les Shani Graham\u2019s marvellous TEDx talk about saving the world, one street at a time, starting with Hulbert Street, Newcastle This one is an inspiration. Shani\u2019s first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","has-post-thumbnail","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pac6ss-c9","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}