GovComms: The Future of Government Communication

In this episode of Govcomms ‘From the Vault’, we revisit our insightful conversation with Shannah Hayley, which took place at the Content Marketing World 2016 conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Shannah is the Director of Communications and Community Outreach for the city of Plano, Texas, with responsibilities in strategic planning for all aspects of the city’s communications, marketing and community outreach.Along with David Pembroke, she discusses how local governments can capitalise on unfavorable incidents and utilise content marketing to enhance social awareness for their communities. Shannah shares her successful strategy which turned a disparaging comment from the reality TV show "Real Housewives of Dallas" into a powerful marketing tool.When a cast member compared Plano to an uncomfortable conversation, Shannah seized the opportunity to transform it into a clever marketing campaign. She embraced the phrase "It's a little Plano in here" and turned it into a meme of civic pride, effectively raising awareness for the city through content marketing. “It started a whole campaign of ‘It's a little Plano in here,’ and that was a saying that popped up in our community…” - Shannah Hayley.By capitalising on unfavorable incidents and utilising content marketing, Shannah demonstrated how local governments can increase social awareness and turn challenging situations into positive exposure. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Govcomms ‘From the Vault’, we revisit our insightful conversation with Nicole Thomson-Pride. Nicole is a professional speechwriter and communication coach with experience working across the Australian government, private sector and not-for-profit organisations. Her previous workplaces include the New South Wales Government, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and Department of Defence.Nicole's passion for communication emerged at a young age, when she had a work experience placement at CLEO magazine at just 13 years old. This passion led her to successfully complete an undergraduate and postgraduate qualification in the field. Today, Nicole excels as a professional speechwriter, with keen interest in understanding human cognition to write speeches that can better influence and persuade.In today's ever-evolving landscape, characterised by increasingly complex issues, Nicole stresses the importance of having some of the smartest people in the country working in communication, because good communication can help shape and change the world.Discussed in this episode:JFK and using cognitive understanding to underpin his greatest speechesEmotional decision-making at the crux of human beingsPlacing audiences in a threat or reward state, using the the NeuroLeadership Institute's SCARF (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness) Model®Finding the balance of art and science in communicationsThe current opportunity for communicators to be creative Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the Collective Engagement for Social Purpose podcast series, we are in conversation once again with the University of Adelaide’s Dr. Taylor Willmott and Professor Jodie Conduit for the sixth and final instalment of the series. Jodie is the lead investigator on the Australian Research Council (ARC) funded ‘Collective Engagement Towards Social Purpose’ project, and has been working closely with Taylor on the analysis of qualitative data from interviews with community engagement managers and leaders of social purpose organisations. She stresses the importance of storytelling as a tool for leaders to connect with people. It's only with that really deep understanding and almost feeling the emotional connection as well, that for someone having gone through it, that we can start to have a common understanding of where we want to go and really connect with those people. – Professor Jodie Conduit Also joining us in this episode is Dr. Taylor Wilmott, a member of the University of Adelaide's research team for the Collective Engagement for Social Purpose research project. She emphasises the importance of the leader being a participant in workshops to ensure everyone feels like their voices will be heard. The leader has to be there as a participant and someone who is managing their power dynamics in the room and is able to step back, and recognise that everyone has unique strengths and weaknesses including themselves, and how best can we leverage them and make sure that everyone feels like their voice will be heard in the room. – Dr. Taylor WillmottThe conversation focuses on 7 tips for effective leadership in collective engagement:People-first.Make it tangible.Create access points.Get the right people in the room.Create a safe space.Empower people.Celebrate success. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of GovComms' 'From the Vault,' we revisit our insightful conversation with Ian Andersen, who dedicated 35 years to improving communication for Europeans at the European Commission. As a passionate Participatory Innovation Adviser, Ian strived to foster genuine engagement and co-creation with stakeholders, even in the midst of the challenges posed by online discussions during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the interview, we delve into Ian's remarkable journey as an Interpreter. He shares valuable insights, highlighting the crucial factors that contribute to an interpreter's success. Ian also emphasises the crucial role of active listening in achieving sustainable outcomes, and the importance of involving everyone in policy-making discussions.“Generating solutions start with the conversation. By focusing on actually listening, we can get to results that are sustainable, that people will actually happily engage in rather than try to flee from it.”Furthermore, Ian states that adopting a participatory policy-making framework reduces the influence of lobbyists and is the most productive way of involving stakeholders. As the interview concludes, effective strategies for harvesting and hosting productive conversations are explored, providing valuable insights for successful communication endeavors.Discussed in this episode:Why communication is leadership made fleshHow to develop your listening skillsHosting and harvesting conversations Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on GovComms ‘From the Vault’, we dip into the archives to a conversation between contentgroup CEO David Pembroke, and Head of ‘City Communications’ for the City of Vienna’s Press and Information Services, Martin Schipany.They reflect upon how the City of Vienna has developed their communications approach across Martin’s career. The city is now working across multiple media projects and using content communications to create a strong relationship with their citizens."We created the so-called 'citizen journey'. Citizen journey is comparable to the customer journey as we know it from marketing, or also content marketing, so you know in which situation your customer needs which kind of information." - Martin SchipanyDiscussed in this episode:How do you get the attention of the political media officersWhy all government departments need to discover their citizen’s journeyWhere Europe is in their adoption of content marketingWhy communications team should be close to the leadershipHow do you convince government to adopt digital? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the first episode of a new season of the Govcomms podcast, "From the Vault." In these episodes, we travel back in time to the best conversations we had on the podcast with leaders, experts, and innovators in communications from around the world.This time, we will be revisiting our conversation from 2015 with Alex Aiken, the Executive Director of Communications for the United Kingdom (UK) Government.In this interview, Alex explains to host David Pembroke his approach to modernising government communications in the UK, the changing expectations of citizens, and the need to move from analogue to digital communication. They also delve into how digital communication has improved the delivery of government services, the challenges of government communicators and much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the Collective Engagement for Social Purpose podcast series, we chat with Prof Ingo Karpen who is a Professor of Business and Design at the University of Adelaide and Karlstad University in Sweden. Ingo is also a Chief Investigator on the Collective Engagement for Social Purpose project, with a strong interest in improving lives and systems, and a desire to work with researchers and entrepreneurs to effect positive social change in various contexts.In conversation with our host David Pembroke, Ingo explores the role of human connections and relationships in collective engagement, with a particular focus on the importance of compassion.When it comes to social change, there is far less talk of compassion. Often, we look at charts, figures. We're interested in performance indicators. We try to assess the way we have performed in various ways, but often we don't put enough primacy on the on the human beings involved. It's a really fundamental phenomenon in society that can make a difference on a on a daily basis. – Prof Ingo KarpenAlso joining us in this episode is Dr. Taylor Wilmott, a member of the University of Adelaide's research team for the Collective Engagement for Social Purpose research project. She provides further insights into building compassionate communities.I think in terms of creating compassionate communities, there's two sides. There's the bottom up side to creating a compassionate community where it's really community members that are driving the collective and the change. The other side is the top-down model where policy changes in government or health systems are what further change and potentially what enable community members to feel empowered. – Dr Taylor WillmottDiscussed in this episode:The importance of human connections and relationships in collective engagementMechanisms for transitioning from individual engagement to collective engagement to achieve changeUnderstanding and practicing compassion in engaging othersPromoting positivity, purpose, and avoiding blame and judgment in collective engagement. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Govcomms, we are joined by the Deputy Secretary of Revenue NSW, Scott Johnston. Scott is an internationally recognised statistician specialising in economic analysis, with a history of working as a senior leader across the Australian and United Kingdom public sectors.With our host David Pembroke, Scott discusses why Revenue NSW started to focus on a more customer-centred approach.“The tension of an organization that's primary purpose through history has been about collecting revenue - 40% of NSW budget comes from us - to stepping back and thinking, ‘Well, if we can provide an exceptional service to three and a half million people, the revenue will take care of itself’. But actually the relationship we have with people, which is an ongoing one, can thrive. That's made us fundamentally look at things differently.” – Scott JohnstonFurther, Scott discusses his views on integrating automation technology and artificial intelligence to improve customer experience.Tune in to the episode to learn how Scott’s leadership in digital transformation and focus on providing high quality customer service is creating impact at Revenue NSW.Discussed in this episode:Leading digital transformation and customer-centric designMitigating risks when integrating automation and AI technologyBeing a humble leader and driving effective collaboration Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"This story of Orange Sky really started a few years, before Orange Sky got kicked off in high school, my best mate, Nic and I went to school together and our school actually ran a food service for people doing it tough. So we had this opportunity when we were 15, to head out, cook breakfast for people, a kilometre from where we went to school who were sleeping in the park or sleeping, crisis accommodation centres around that centre." - Lucas Patchett In the latest episode of the Collective Engagement for Social Purpose podcast series, we chat with Lucas Patchett whos is the co-founder of Orange Sky alongside his best mate Nic Marchesi. Orange Sky is a platform that provides " for every day Australians to connect through a regular laundry and shower service. The focus is on creating a safe, positive and supportive environment for people who are too often ignored or who feel disconnected from the community. Our volunteers are not social workers or experts on homelessness - they are empathetic listeners and great conversationalists."Dr. Taylor Wilmott, a member of the University of Adelaide's research team for the Collective Engagement for Social Purpose research project, also joins us in this episode."So we spoke about a different food van, we spoke about showers in the first instance to, but then we said, "Well, actually let's just do one thing, do it well, give it a go and then we can build on it from there." And that I think has been a really key foundation to what we do now. It's really simple. It's doing a couple of things really well and then plugging in and collaborating with other service providers to make the biggest impact possible." - Lucas PatchettDiscussed in this episode: The importance of prioritising one thing at a time. How to overcome challenges and flip roadblocks into positive outcomes. Why you should have a clear and simple vision.To check out everything Orange sky does head to: https://orangesky.org.au/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this latest episode of GovComms we revisit a conversation from the 2022 Digital Government Festival hosted by the University of Melbourne. Robert Christie, Founder and Managing Director of Propel, Stephanie Speck, Chief Communications Officer at the Victoria Department of Education and Training, and David Pembroke, CEO of contentgroup, discuss the potentiality of active participation within the digital landscape for the public sector. "If you're not active in managing what you look like, what you say, your reputation and voice online, then someone else will be using that as an opportunity." - Stephanie Speck.As Pembroke points out, the current challenge lies in maturing relationships between government agencies and departments, as well as political officers, to find a space in which the guardrails are respectful and understood so that the public is better informed about what the government is doing.Tune in for tips galore and to find out how you can improve your digital reputation. Discussed in this episode:Managing your online presenceGovernment and its digital reputation The importance of continuous, focused, content and communication  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.