Properly ‘engaged’ takes more than a ring
Elizabeth Hughes discusses the question around elected members making the right collective commitment required to get engagement right, or even half right. “We didn’t...
Category : Communication
Feeling it in your waters
By Elizabeth Hughes. Some would say councils are wastefully spending rates on nice-to-have pet projects instead of the basics. While councils invested $7 billion in...
Winning the war with words
Local government – you’re losing. And for those who know me, you know how much it pains me to say this. Elizabeth Hughes. Let’s face...
Challenging behaviours in community meetings
If your role requires you to facilitate community meetings or workshops, at some point you will come face-to-face with challenging behaviours and difficult group...
Communication unleashed
Elizabeth Hughes says she was told off by a colleague recently for saying “communicating is not rocket science” because she was “undermining the profession”. However,...
The holy grail of ‘trust and confidence’
‘Communication’: Every council wants it; every council measures it; and every council is disappointed by it. By Elizabeth Hughes. Every elected member and chief executive...
Our basic right to express a view
By Peter Dunne During the first Covid lockdown the Government cleverly and skilfully used the tactic of ‘inclusion’ to build support for its initiatives and...
Protests – you reap what we sow
Picture: Dawn protest around Dunedin Downhill at a mineral conference in June 2019. By Gavin Evans, group editor, Freeman Media. Comment (originally published in Inside...