John James

Use prequestions and boost the learning from your videos

What’s one thing you could do to boost the learning from your short videos? Seriously, stop for a moment and think about it. What could you do if you wanted the viewers of your videos to better remember your content? There’s been a huge increase in the use of short videos for getting our extension messages across to our target audiences. Most people prefer to watch short videos, especially… Read more »Use prequestions and boost the learning from your videos

Welcome to 2021!

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  • General

Welcome folks to a new year, and congratulations on surviving 2020… what a rollercoaster year that was!  While the effects of COVID-19 have certainly been disruptive here in Australia and New Zealand, we feel for the other countries where it has been absolutely devastating. Our hearts go out to all those who have lost loved ones as a result, or whose employment has suffered. We also recognise that we… Read more »Welcome to 2021!

Top five podcasts for enablers of change

While there are many podcasts for farmers, such as those from the Grains Research and Development Corporation, Meat & Livestock Australia, and Beef + Lamb New Zealand, there are not many about the practice of extension for enablers of change. In today’s post we’re going to explore the top five podcasts we reckon are worth listening to! Sadly there were a few podcasts for extension practitioners, but they seem… Read more »Top five podcasts for enablers of change

Use checklists and sleep better at night!

Are you busy running so many activities that when you try to go to sleep at night, you get a nagging feeling that maybe you forgot to do something really important for tomorrow’s big event? In today’s post we’re going to explore checklists and how they can benefit us as enablers of change. John loves checklists! He finds them incredibly useful and, better still, they really do help him… Read more »Use checklists and sleep better at night!

Ouch, do you need to find a new job?

Ouch, you’ve just realised you need to look for a new job. Where do you start and what should you  make sure you do? Unfortunately as a result of COVID-19, many people are finding themselves without a job. This is often a really horrible situation, so let’s dive in and share some ideas with you. Some say the only certainties in life are death, taxes and change! That may… Read more »Ouch, do you need to find a new job?

How to manage engagement in large groups

The work Denise is currently involved with in New Zealand is centred on small group based extension. Small groups are those around the 10 to 20 people mark. Definitely no more, because then it is not a small group and people have the chance to hide and not engage! But what do you do, if your enabling change activities typically involve large groups? That’s more like 100 people, plus… Read more »How to manage engagement in large groups

Let’s mind our language!

The words we use are important. Sometimes the words we choose can do us a disservice and not communicate the message we intended. Can you think of some words and phrases you use that might be giving an unintended meaning?  Here’s a good one to start with. Let’s meet ‘face-to-face’, as we all know that’s often the most effective way to build trust and rapport. Thanks to the recent… Read more »Let’s mind our language!

A simple but effective evaluation tool… the dartboard!

Have you ever almost finished running an event, and as people are heading out the door to go home, thought to yourself—I should have checked how that session went? What one simple tool can you use to do this?  In today’s episode we’re going to explore a simple but effective evaluation tool for the enablers of change toolbox—the dartboard. As the name suggests the evaluation dartboard uses the picture… Read more »A simple but effective evaluation tool… the dartboard!

How to easily use online polls and surveys

When you’ve been invited to give a presentation and you walk out on the stage—or step up onto a wooden box at the front of a farmer’s shed—and you look into the eyes of the audience, wouldn’t it be great if you could read their minds to know just what they wanted to hear from you? No, we don’t mean some kind of science fiction mind control, but close to… Read more »How to easily use online polls and surveys

Happy 1st anniversary! The story behind this adventure story…

We launched the Enablers of Change concept at the APEN conference in Darwin on the 13th of  September 2019, so we’re celebrating our first anniversary! We know many of you are wondering what the story is behind this adventure story, and how we got here today. So happy first anniversary to us – we’ve made it through a whole year! And this is our 36th episode. That’s three dozen… Read more »Happy 1st anniversary! The story behind this adventure story…