In a previous blog post we talked about co-innovation – what is what it is and when it’s most appropriate to use. Here are nine tips for making it work even better in your change project. So this is part two to help you more effectively use the principles behind the co-innovation approach. If you haven’t already read that post, then you should probably do so! We’ve also got an… Read More »Nine tips for making co-innovation work even better
Denise was recently the presenter in a webinar, and as usual it was a mix of interesting (in a flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of way) and fun. Reflecting on her experience (plus the recent COVID-19 pandemic) made us realise that we needed to share some tips for being a presenter in a webinar, as well as running webinars as enablers of change. So this episode is all about effective webinars. And it… Read More »Top tips for effective webinars
Today we’re going to explore one of the most effective ways of creating enduring change in farming communities: peer-to-peer learning! This is a way of working as enablers of change that can really build capacity and capability. Denise is currently involved in a large peer-to-peer project so she started thinking about this. It’s often hard to know where to start because peer-to-peer learning seems like it should be super-complicated and… Read More »Creating enduring change using peer-to-peer learning
In this blog post we will introduce you to a tool that is seriously cool and very useful if you’re working as an enabler of change – the sticky wall! These are amazing! The sticky wall means you can use A4 and A5 sized pages, without the need to use the expensive Post-it notes. Of course you still ask people to keep their ideas short and use markers so they’re… Read More »How to build a sticky wall
Today we’re going to explore the age old question of content versus process when you’re facilitating an event or a group of people. We’ve often heard debate around this as an enabler of change working in extension! Some people are adamant that you have to know the content, and others are equally adamant that it’s the process that helps enable change. But first of all, let’s make sure we know… Read More »Which is more important: content or process?
In this blog post we’ll give you a brief overview of the top five books that we think are useful to have on our bookshelf as enablers of change! John starts with the classic text, “Diffusion of innovations”, first published by Everett Rogers back in 1962. Rogers kept adding to it over the years, with the fifth and final edition being published in 2003. Sadly Rogers passed away the following… Read More »Top five books for enablers of change
Evaluation shouldn’t be just the add-on at the end of a project – it’s a core skill for enablers of change like ourselves! So let’s explore one framework for evaluation that’s been around for sometime – Bennett’s Hierarchy. In this blog post we’re going to explore what Bennett’s Hierarchy is and give you a few pointers for using it. To set the scene for this we head back to the… Read More »Bennett’s hierarchy: a simple yet powerful evaluation framework
In this post we’re talking all about time management and we’re going to share the top ten practical tips that actually work for us. There’s lots of other lists of time management practices, but many of those haven’t worked for us… perhaps they’re a bit too rigid or in some cases simplistic. So we’re going to share with you what works for us. Of course we acknowledge that time management… Read More »Top 10 tips for better time management
In this short blog post we’re doing our second mythbusters session! Let’s not just accept something because it’s been said so many times that most people believe it. We’re going to delve deeper and explore the facts. So, let’s explore the cone of learning and the suggestion that people only retain 20% of what they hear, compared with 90% of what they do! Most people have heard some kind of… Read More »Mythbuster… do people really only retain 20% of what they hear?
Today we’re going to explore a quick and simple way to have a structured conversation about something, or anything really! This is a very useful tool if you work in change and innovation, so if you aren’t sure what an ORID is, or if you do and want to know more, then this is for you! Firstly a bit of background on what on earth we are talking about when… Read More »Structured conversations using ORID
It’s almost embarrassing to write this blog post! Such a simple thing… but we’ve seen this done so badly over the years, we thought it was worth putting a short post together. What are we talking about? Name tags of course! We’ve all been to a workshop or conference, and had the dubious pleasure of not remembering the name of the person we’re chatting to and finding it almost impossible… Read More »Cheap but effective name tags
What if we could dramatically improve the adoption of innovations produced in our projects by one small design tweak? And especially those notoriously difficult and complex projects where there are no simple answers and multiple stakeholders involved. You might have heard about innovation, but in today’s blog we’re talking all about co-innovation: what it is and when it’s most appropriate to use. What is co-innovation? It is a systems-based approach… Read More »Enabling greater practice change using co-innovation
Agricultural extension has changed markedly during the last 50 years. In this article we’ll give a brief overview of the modern evolution of extension and we’ll hopefully illustrate that we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is no one approach that works – so understanding some of the different approaches, and incorporating them into our work when appropriate, can be really useful when working as enablers of change.… Read More »The modern evolution of agricultural extension
In this blog post we’re going to give you a brief overview of flipped learning, showing you how it might be an effective approach to use as enablers of change! Flipped learning, or the flipped classroom as it’s known in education circles, has only been around for a few years, but is getting a lot of traction. In fact the University of Adelaide has announced it is phasing out traditional… Read More »Flip your learning and achieve greater impact
Today we’re doing our first mythbusters session! Let’s not just accept something because it’s been said so many times before that most people just believe it. We’re going to delve deeper and explore the facts, taking an evidence-based approach. So, let’s explore brainstorming, and see if it is indeed the best way to generate ideas! We’ve run the odd brainstorming session and have sat through many sessions as a participant… Read More »Mythbuster… is brainstorming really the best way to generate ideas?
Did you know that 70% of projects fail, as they don’t produce the planned deliverables on time or within budget. Yet a simple question at the start of a project can dramatically improve its success. Today we’re going to explore… the pre-mortem. We’ve all heard about a post-mortem, where a physician examines a corpse to discover the likely cause of death. But what on earth is a pre-mortem? Well let’s… Read More »Save your project from failing by using a pre-mortem
The definition of extension that was agreed upon by all the Australian state and territory governments back in 2006 was “Extension is the process of enabling change in individuals, communities and industries involved with primary industries and natural resource management.” In today’s blog post we’re going to explore what agricultural extension is, as we think this is one of those frequently asked questions that people working in extension get asked… Read More »What is agricultural extension?
We have officially launched Enablers of Change! We had our “world premiere” at the APEN conference in Darwin (on 13 September 2019) where we had the chance to introduce ourselves and what we were trying to do with this enablers of change idea. Essentially, this is a place where we’ll share our thoughts and ideas about enabling change! But first, let’s introduce ourselves. We have John James, who lives in… Read More »Welcome to Enablers of Change…