I was told I was brave. I was bold. What I felt was scared. Terrified. A little bit stupid. When I left my secure, well-paying public service job and started my own small business I am sure behind my back people were saying “is she crazy?”. I had left behind security, long-service leave (annual leave, personal leave, all of the leaves’), colleagues who supported me and a job I knew inside and out. And that was the problem. I wasn’t being challenged anymore, I found the meetings tedious, I loved my team but found my tolerance for drama was at…
Find what you love – lessons from someone who walked away from the APS
November 13, 2018
FAQs are so last year
This is a topic I am weirdly passionate about. FAQs (and factsheets for that matter) are dead people. It’s time to move on. There seems to be an enduring perception that publishing a factsheet or a set of FAQs on…
Why is self-doubt so prevalent in communications?
I have never met a group of professionals more riddled with self-doubt than communications practitioners. I admit it I am one of them. My name is Melanie, and I doubt myself. Often. I have a million examples of this. When…
I challenge you to be a great leader
A few weeks ago, I wrote about what makes an effective team, but let’s be honest a team is only as good as their leadership. Without a great leader a really motivated and effective team, can become disheartened and disengaged…
Digital inclusion – Are we leaving people behind?
The Australian Commonwealth government is progressively moving more and more services online. In a speech to the Australian Information Industry Association in June the Hon Michael Keenan MP, the Minister for Human Services and Digital Transformation said that by 2025…
What makes a great communications team?
When I worked in government I had a great team. I’m not shy about saying it. We worked well together, we achieved some amazing things and we were recognised as being pretty good at what we did. So I wanted…
Undertaking a content audit of your website or intranet
One of the hardest communications channels to manage is a website or intranet. They quickly become unwieldy beasts, that are the seen as the answer to many problems “just put it on the website!”. When we create a new system,…
Why I went back to uni
Today I graduated with a Master of Strategic Communications. It seemed like an appropriate time to share my story about why I went back to uni. A lot of people have asked me why?!? Why did I want to work…
How to recruit the right person for your communications team
One of the hardest things when managing a team is finding the right people. It is so hard when you have someone who just doesn’t seem to “fit”. This could be for a range of reasons, but it can create…
Can comms and data live in harmony?
How many times have you heard someone say jokingly, “don’t let her (or him) near a calculator, they’re in comms!” Or you have said, “I don’t do numbers, I do words”. As communications professionals, we don’t often align ourselves to…
Understanding your environment creates communications plans that work
I talked about the importance of environmental scanning in my post about developing communication strategies. I wanted to take some time to look at this area in a little more detail as it is often a piece that is overlooked.…