Regional Development Australia: hit the ground running with us

By Chia Moan on November 10, 2009 – 5:51 am
Filed under Innovate, Collaborate

The creation of Regional Development Australia has led to the establish of a streamlined structure replacing the former ACCs and regional development boards.   Across the country, these new committees are now coming to grips with a reconfigured geographic area,  diverse and newly acquainted committee members, and uncertainty about professional staff to support this transition.  Besides, getting on their feet, there are high expectations to deliver results in the form of a business plan and a strategy for a regional plan: all with Christmas coming up.

The Make Stuff Happen team is already working with one of these boards to make sure they come up shining by helping with the business planning process for this year including elements of the design of the regional planning process.
One of the key requirements of the new RDAs is to come to grips with all the overlapping plans in existence that affect their region.  This is not an academic exercise, although there is certainly a research and analysis component, but an activity that must also embrace and manage the needs and expectations of stakeholders. One intention of this requirement is to improve coordination across three tiers of government and maximize resources to address the complex challenges and opportunities facing regional Australia.  These include issues such as: regional growth, housing, transport, climate change, changing demographics, opportunities for youth, health, agriculture, broadband, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability.

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Kitchen table technology

By Ian Colley on October 13, 2009 – 5:10 am
Filed under Innovate, Collaborate

Kitchen table technology

Kitchen table technology

I enjoy new technology, but am not an early adopter. I get excited looking at new netbooks, then always feel disappointed once I buy something. The dream outpaces the reality.

Yet Web 2.0 applications have turned out more valuable than I had imagined. Many are practical, simple and cheap (or free).

The two I use most are wikis and online surveys.

Online surveys give you a quick and accurate access to people’s opinions on all sorts of topics. They can be used to measure satisfaction, gather perspectives and views on issues, even to follow up on workshops and training. They are a great marketing tool, getting people involved in your activities and proposals.

We recently used an online survey to track feedback from 14 participants on a six-month leadership course. We were able to revise and change the workshops from month to month on the basis of the survey responses. At the end we used the results to identify valuable quotes and testimonials from each of the participants and quickly insert these into a brochure to promote the program to sponsors.

It was so much easier than taking notes along the way, and it was all in the words of the participants themselves.

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Duck River Revival

By Annie Talve on August 30, 2009 – 4:42 am
Filed under Community consultation, Learning and Development

The name suggests a place of natural beauty, but these days the Duck River is better known for other things…

The Duck River is a tributary of the Parramatta River. A century of heavy industrial activity, often unregulated, has left its mark. Soil contamination, toxic waste, sediment build-up, storm-water sewerage and habitat destruction, have combined to put an intolerable pressure on river health in the past and have produced complex challenges to be solved in the present and future.

A number of projects are underway to restore life to the Duck River

A number of projects are underway to restore life to the Duck River

Parramatta and Auburn City Councils received a NSW Environmental Trust – Urban Sustainability Program grant in 2006. Called A Model for Industrial Sustainability in the Duck River Catchment, the grant has enabled the two councils to undertake a long-term sustainability program to improve the environmental, social and financial viability of the industrial precincts adjacent to the Duck River.

make stuff happen has recently won the job of working with a pilot group of up to 25 businesses to design and implement better ways of managing environmental practices and impacts. The project will start in September and we’ll be adding regular updates to the web site.
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Be Human

By Chia Moan on August 5, 2009 – 9:39 am
Filed under Facilitating groups, Managing change
chia

Chia Moan

Organisations are made up of people. Human, embodied, physical, spirited, flawed beings, who are often exhorted to be efficient (machines), professional (unfeeling), endorse corporate standards (don’t think for yourself) AND be innovative, responsive and forward looking.

When you bring people fully into the workplace with all their passion you start to build the balance sheet on the innovation side. The way people work becomes more energetic and collaborative.
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Catalysts for Capital

By Annie Talve on June 30, 2009 – 12:28 am
Filed under Innovate, Collaborate, Leadership, Learning and Development, Managing change, Urban and Regional Revitalisation
Annie Talvé, Ian Colley and Chia Moan at the graduation ceremony

Annie Talvé, Ian Colley and Chia Moan at the graduation ceremony

They came from Bega, Bombala, Pambula, Tathra, Cooma, Queanbeyan and Canberra. Eight workshops over eight months in six regional locations. Fourteen business and community leaders throughout the Capital Region of NSW and the ACT, celebrated the end of the Leaders 4 Capital regional development program in Canberra on Saturday 27 June. Sponsored by the Capital Regional Development Board and a range of local shires, the program aimed to build a network of confident, collaborative and forward-thinking leaders who could help their local towns and communities thrive into the future.

Chia Moan and Ian Colley from make stuff happen designed and facilitated a program that inspired participants to harness the skills and confidence needed to make tangible things happen in their home patch. Karen Lott from Nethercote said:

“I have felt an increased level of confidence in speaking and presenting, which developed through knowing other participants, and through gentle encouragement and support from both participants and facilitators.”

“The whole journey has been enlightening,” said Paul Pincini from Pambula. Greater confidence has helped Emma Pieper from Theordore, ACT,  “to take more risks and to put myself out there a little more.”

Millingandi resident, Ivan McKay, summed up the mood of the  group: “I can make a difference in my local community whether employed for that purpose or not.”

And all 14 regional leaders have done just that. Things like community co-operatives, growers’ markets, improved community facilities, re-vegetation and environmental initiatives, women of vision leadership awards and a youth cafe and meeting place, are just some of the projects that have come to fruition over the eight month program.

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Learning to lead

By Annie Talve on June 29, 2009 – 12:17 am
Filed under Innovate, Collaborate, Urban and Regional Revitalisation

When Tony Burke became the new Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in 2007,  he was in for a surprise.  Sitting down with his Department Heads to review selection committee recommendations for the next round of appointments to advisory boards, he was shocked to discover that 90 per cent of nominees were male.

“How one earth can this be merit?” he said. “How on earth, if we’re basing decisions on merit, can we have committees that keep recommending that merit somehow uniquely resides in blokes?” He didn’t introduce quotas to increase the number of women. He didn’t make a fuss. He changed one thing: he took away previous board experience from the selection criteria. In 18 months the representation of women on these boards and committees has risen from 20 per cent to 43 per cent.

Structural barriers like this are rife, particularly in the corporate sector. But so are internal psychological and skill related barriers.

Tony Burke removed a barrier that had become invisible and taken for granted. Just like the internal constraints that influence the way we think and act.

Learning in action

Learning in action

Two recent leadership programs designed and run by make stuff happen have helped senior librarians in Australia and New Zealand, and regional leaders from  NSW and the ACT, to learn more about themselves by learning together.

Amazing stuff can happen when smart people come together to change things in their profession, region or community. When they help each other learn to lead.

CAVAL Horizon Executive Library Leadership

Leaders 4 Capital

Reference: Tony Burke: Address to the Australian RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2009: Monday, 25 May 2009

Windows on pain

By Annie Talve on May 29, 2009 – 2:18 am
Filed under Community consultation
Shrinking World

Shrinking World

Windows on Pain is an art exhibition like no other. Sponsored by the Pain Management Research Institute, it features the work of 30 emerging and established artists, who have used different media -  painting, sculpture and installation -  to depict the stories they each heard from people living with chronic pain.

make stuff happen director, Chia Moan, not only designed the exhibition but is a contributing artist. Chia’s arresting portrait called  Shrinking World, depicts an Alice in Wonderland figure curled up in a confined space with a mask in her hand. The painting alludes to a story Chia heard from one pain sufferer who said she felt like Alice disappearing down the rabbit hole, with the opening at the top growing smaller and smaller.

A recent review of the exhibition in the Sydney Morning Herald featured Chia’s Shrinking World as its accompanying image and quoted her saying:

“People who live with chronic pain deal very literally with shrinking options in their lives. If and how they can work, exercise, socialise and travel. Usual activities are affected, all subjected to scrutiny: what is possible, what is not? They also speak frequently about not being able to communicate their pain, wearing a mask.”

Chia’s multiple skills as an artist, designer, facilitator and journalist, have helped ensure that the Windows on Pain traveling exhibition receives a receptive audience. Creative responses to difficult or complex phenomena, like pain, are what make stuff happen is committed to exploring and we’re thrilled that Chia has applied her creativity and compassion to this valuable community project.

Links:

Sydney Morning Herald article.

Windows on Pain web site