GovComms: The Future of Government Communication

GovComms: The Future of Government Communication

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GovComms: The Future of Government Communication episodes

  • Humility and Partnerships
    "This story of Orange Sky really started a few years, before Orange Sky got kicked off in high school, my best mate, Nic and I went to school together and our school actually ran a food service for people doing it tough. So we had this opportunity when we were 15, to head out, cook breakfast for people, a kilometre from where we went to school who were sleeping in the park or sleeping, crisis accommodation centres around that centre." - Lucas Patchett 


    In the latest episode of the Collective Engagement for Social Purpose podcast series, we chat with Lucas Patchett whos is the co-founder of Orange Sky alongside his best mate Nic Marchesi. 


    Orange Sky is a platform that provides " for every day Australians to connect through a regular laundry and shower service. The focus is on creating a safe, positive and supportive environment for people who are too often ignored or who feel disconnected from the community. Our volunteers are not social workers or experts on homelessness - they are empathetic listeners and great conversationalists."


    Dr. Taylor Wilmott, a member of the University of Adelaide's research team for the Collective Engagement for Social Purpose research project, also joins us in this episode.


    "So we spoke about a different food van, we spoke about showers in the first instance to, but then we said, "Well, actually let's just do one thing, do it well, give it a go and then we can build on it from there." And that I think has been a really key foundation to what we do now. It's really simple. It's doing a couple of things really well and then plugging in and collaborating with other service providers to make the biggest impact possible." - Lucas Patchett


    Discussed in this episode: 

    • The importance of prioritising one thing at a time. 
    • How to overcome challenges and flip roadblocks into positive outcomes. 
    • Why you should have a clear and simple vision.


    To check out everything Orange sky does head to: https://orangesky.org.au/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    46 min
  • EP#147 Digital Government Festival

    In this latest episode of GovComms we revisit a conversation from the 2022 Digital Government Festival hosted by the University of Melbourne. 


    Robert Christie, Founder and Managing Director of Propel, Stephanie Speck, Chief Communications Officer at the Victoria Department of Education and Training, and David Pembroke, CEO of contentgroup, discuss the potentiality of active participation within the digital landscape for the public sector. 

    "If you're not active in managing what you look like, what you say, your reputation and voice online, then someone else will be using that as an opportunity." - Stephanie Speck.

    As Pembroke points out, the current challenge lies in maturing relationships between government agencies and departments, as well as political officers, to find a space in which the guardrails are respectful and understood so that the public is better informed about what the government is doing.


    Tune in for tips galore and to find out how you can improve your digital reputation. 


    Discussed in this episode:

    • Managing your online presence
    • Government and its digital reputation 
    • The importance of continuous, focused, content and communication 


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr 1 min
  • EP#146 Demonstrating Impact and Creating Value through Comms
    "Arm yourself with the evidence you need to make a case... We shouldn't sit there in our own little bubbles and focus on our communication skills only... At the end of the day, we are business people just like everybody else, and we need to act like business people." - Sia Papageorgiou.


    Host David Pembroke engages in a discussion with multi-award-winning strategic communications leader and Managing Partner at the Centre for Strategic Communication Excellence, Sia Papageorgiou.


    "Our job is to build relationships with people. That is the key component of our role." I mean obviously strategic planning is important and you can't be an effective communication professional if you don't plan strategically. "


    Tune in to discover how to make a "real impact from often simple ideas." - David Pembroke.


    Discussed in this episode:

    • How to demonstrate impact and create value through communications.
    • Making a "real impact from often simple ideas." - David Pembroke.
    • Building relationships with your audience


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    54 min
  • EP#145 Personalising Government Communications
    "Doing that allows us to be more personalised with our communications. And that's definitely the future for us in government communications, you know? Making it more personalised. To be honest, the less we communicate the better. Because people are so busy these days, they don't want to hear from you with emails every day, or how many emails do you get every day in your inbox? It's so frustrating and we understand that. We get that feedback from customers.." - Angela Kamper


    A new GovComms season begins with Angela Kamper. Angela is the Executive Director for Brand Digital and Communications at the New South Wales Department of Customer Service.

     

    Host, David Pembroke, chats with Angela about how her previous career in journalism has helped her in her role at the Department of Customer Service.


    "Sometimes people are a bit skeptical of journalism, so when you first start in government, people have been burnt perhaps, in the past or story hasn't been told the way they want it wanted it to be told. So when you come in as a journalist, you need to kind of sell yourself a little bit in the beginning, and start really focusing on building those internal relationships and showing how your storytelling can help them to get the right message across in a better way, so people can listen and engage with content." - Angela Kamper


    The pair discuss how the view of Government communications has changed throughout the years.


    "In the past, people would often go to comms in a crisis. But now they've realised that, well, we actually have to engage the community before we make a decision. So we are playing a different role now, and we are really demonstrating that when you engage the community, you get a much better policy outcome, or programme outcome" - Angela Kamper


    Finally, David and Angela share some of the key aspects of the Department of Customer Service that make it a global leader in citizen-centric communications.


    Discussed in this episode:


    • Personalising Government Communications
    • The benefits of a Journalist background
    • The inner workings of the Department of Customer Service


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    33 min
  • EP#144 The Fundamentals of Communications

    In this episode, we give you a 2022 reality mega mix.


    We revisit some of the key conversations from 2022 with the likes of Melinda Maddock, Richard Morecroft, Tim Price, Evan Ekin-Smyth, Melanie Gibbons, Deborah Rice and Stephanie Speck.


    Join in one the conversation as we talk all about the fundamentals of communications.


    "I think we need to move away from BAU plus COVID. BAU is COVID now. There is no going back to normal. We are in the next normal and systemic complex risk that we have to deal with." - Stephanie Speck


    "I really feel like modern digital communication, it's still got the elements of storytelling which have existed for thousands of years. Humans want to connect with other humans and we connect through stories. ". - Tim Price


    Discussed In this episode:

    • The art of storytelling
    • Solutions to some of the key issues the communications field faces
    • How you can use social media and digital content to your advantage
    • Some key skills for any and all communicators


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    28 min
  • EP#143 The View of Communications from 30,000 Feet

    In this episode, we take to the air and view the state of government communication from 30,000 feet.


    With a little help from some of the guests we interviewed in 2022, we embark on a nostalgic trip down memory lane. 


    As part of our best bits episode, we bring back some of our key conversations with guests Carlotta Alfonsi, Sanjay Pradhan, Karine Badr, Jodie Conduit, Patrick Kidd and Sharyn Rundle-Thiele.


    "Citizens actually look at the government as unitary. They don't understand or necessarily care about the silos of the internal bureaucracy of government. When they see disjointed or not coordinated messages coming their way, it can create confusion and it can actually undermine the efficacy of each of the communication of different ministries that might on their own be quite well crafted and effective." - Carlotta Alfonsi


    "The fact that the nature of work is changing, technology is being used across all jobs. Nine out of 10 jobs will need people who are digitally literate in the next three years". - Patrick Kidd


    Discussed In this episode:

    • The importance of citizen centric government
    • Challenges of facing both misinformation and disinformation
    • Cohesive Communication
    • Why collective engagement is so important

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    21 min
  • EP#142 The 2023 Fast Forward

    Wanting to look at the crystal ball of communications?


    In this special episode we dive into the future of communications.


    David Pembroke, CEO and Founder of contentgroup, who hosts the podcast regularly, sits down with long-time friend Andrew Bell. As they fast forward to 2023, they discuss what may be next for government communications.


    "The ambition for communication inside government and the public sector should be to better explain and better listened to people such that there is a greater understanding because ultimately, if there is a better understanding, we can build trust because that is a challenge. The Edelman Trust Barometer in Australia this year showed that only 52% of Australians trust government institutions." - David Pembroke


    Discussed in this episode:

    • Recruitment
    • Why communications should be seen as a long-term career in the APS
    • Meeting the needs of citizens

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    37 min
  • EP#141 The 2022 Rewind

    As we come up to the end of the year, host of the GovComms podcast, David Pembroke, reflects on the year that was.


    Taking the guest chair for a change, David chats with old time friend Andrew Bell about all things 2022. With the help of some of the key interviews from the GovComms podcast, the pair discuss the highs and lows that the communications space has experienced this year.


    "I think with the benefit of hindsight, we are going to look back on this last 12-month period as a bit of a tipping point.... As a comms person, you should be nosy. You should be getting out there and talking to people, not sitting behind your desk. You need to discover and know what's going on, and be able to invite yourself to meetings that perhaps you're not being invited to at the moment. And when you are there, able to explain to your policy and programme colleagues about this wonderful capability that you are going to be able to have, and the benefit that it can bring to the people that you're seeking to serve.." - David Pembroke


    Discussed in this episode:

    • OECD Conference for Public Sector Communications
    • The emphasis on discoverable content
    • Impacts of the approval process

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    35 min
  • EP #140 The Making Of The World's Most Customer-Centric Government
    "In 2019, this department of customer service [was] created. And I think the mission at the time that we were set was to make New South Wales the world's most customer-centric government. And that's the mission that we're on." - William Murphy


    We are wrapping up our interviews on a high note with a jam-packed episode of inspiration featuring William Murphy, NSW Government's Deputy Secretary for Customer Delivery and Transformation.


    Host, David Pembroke, chats with William about some of the key changes that have occurred since switching to a customer service mindset.


    "Well, I speak to a lot of public servants to talk to them about this. And what we've got in New South Wales government, we've got a set of things we call the New South Wales customer commitments. These are things that we've pulled out of our research over years that are the things that customers expect from us. And they are things like they expect our services to be easy to access. They expect us to respect their time when dealing with us. They expect us to make clear to them what might be the outcome of their interaction with government." - William Murphy


    Mentioned at the most recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conference for Public sector communications, NSW Government has set a precedent for how Communications should be.


    "The story of New South Wales digital transformation is being shared with governments around the world. Because I think where you are at... I think you're leading the way and you've carved this path." - David Pembroke 


    In addition, the pair discuss the importance of having one touchpoint for critical life events like marriages, births, and deaths. 


    Discussed in this episode:


    • Becoming customer-centric
    • The importance of research and innovation
    • Why you should "just get started"


    "The only advice I'd have for people is really just get started. It's not rocket science and it's not huge stuff. Some of the things that we started in now, we have a programme of work called Government Made Easy. Sounds pretty simple. " - William Murphy



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    40 min
  • A Whole-Of-Systems Approach to Tackling Obesity

    "Our collective governance has evolved over time... based on what we've learned and what the opportunity is and who's involved. So, it's never a static thing... We're always open to going, "Oh, this is how we should pivot," or, "This is how we should reframe what we're about," ... we're looking at ... bringing new people to the table to help us think about how we can get more impact." - Tiffany Petre


    In the latest episode of the Collective Engagement for Social Purpose podcast series, we chat with Tiffany Petre, Director of The Obesity Collective as well as Dr.Taylor Willmott.


    The Obesity Collective is a national platform for committed individuals and organisations from across the community who are taking on the obesity challenge together from a whole-of-society and systems perspective. 


    "[People] don't understand the many environmental drivers [of obesity]...For example, many healthcare professionals or the everyday person in Australia wouldn't know that when you lose a lot of weight, your hunger hormones increase and your metabolism decreases, and that fights people's ability to maintain weight loss or lose weight." - Tiffany


    With host, CEO of contentgroup, David Pembroke, Jodie and Tiffany discuss how to impact change through shared purpose.


    "The complexity of some of the issues that are being faced, particularly in public health, are characteristic of problems that do not have one solution ... Everyone has their only invested interest in the problem, and that just makes solving a problem so much more difficult.... we've seen ... [that] understanding how you can bring diverse groups of people together to focus on a shared purpose and a common vision [is so important]. " - Dr. Taylor Willmott


    Important Links for this episode:


    • The Obesity Collective website: https://theobesitycollective.org.au/
    • The Weight Issues Network website: https://weightissuesnetwork.org/
    • The Obesity Evidence Hub: https://www.obesityevidencehub.org.au/
    • A Public Health Research and Practice series on obesity and the narrative: https://www.phrp.com.au/issues/october-2022-volume-32-issue-3/


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    40 min

About GovComms: The Future of Government Communication

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Through conversation with industry greats, experts and innovators from around the world, GovComms delivers the latest insights and best practice in government communication. We provide the…

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