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we_magazine: At gathering11 we talked a lot about social change driven by new technologies. What are your best examples for this in Australia?
Donnie Maclurcan: I feel that the simplified and more integrated transport ticketing system in Sydney: MyZone – http://131500.com.au/tickets/fares/myzone – has done wonders for a public transport system that is otherwise struggling to keep up. I’m excited by the transformative power of the Sharehood – http://thesharehood.org, Rentoid – http:// rentoid.com, OzRecycle – http://www.ozrecycle.com, Landshare – http://landshareaustralia.com.au, the Garage Sale Trail – http://www.garagesaletrail.com.au and the Empty Spaces project – http://emptyspaces.culturemap.org.au – particularly their outcomes from a sustainability and community health perspective. I think CommunityNet – http://www.rocnet.org.au – has changed the way support is offered for community services in Western Sydney. And I like that anyone can access a generic list of Australian Media Databases here: http://www.our-community.com.au/marketing/marketing_article.jsp?articleId=1423. Thinking ahead, I think we’ve only just scatched the surface with the kind of focussed social change that can stem from the opening up of data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics – http://data.gov.au.
we_magazine: What does it take to engage people Donnie? What are your experiences?
Donnie Maclurcan: Within teams, I believe creative facilitation and bold leadership with an unflinching commitment to vision can be ingredients for engagement. More publicly, I see straight-talking and humour as extremely valuable for connecting with others. At Project Australia we try to take an asset-based approach to all we do. This translates into a small exercise at the beginning of each working day that seeks to engage team members by exposing passions, knowledge and skills that maybe participants didn't even know they had! Most recently we did an exercise in which people shared something about which they'd like to be passionate, something they'd like to have knowledge around, and something they'd like to be able to do in the future, except in sharing these in small groups, people were asked to frame it as if they already had these gifts! Along with other similar activities, this exercise seemed to engage participants; perhaps because you are starting from a position where everyone feels valued. On a different note, the Post Growth Institute is a team that works virtually, across five time zones. As we typically use silent Skype chats to run our meetings (i.e. typed) we decided to mix things up recently and have a virtual party! We fired up Skype video and were greeted by balloons, party food and lots of laughter.
... WE are all on the same wavelength ...
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