Remember that teacher who used to revel in the power she had? Pass or fail. Stop or go. Control over your imminent future.

No one likes scrutiny. It makes you nervous. Especially when the balance of power is not in your favour.

The emerging use by government of websites that share performance data on publicly funded organisations represents both risk and opportunities. My School is a current example of an information portal that allows comparison of 10,000 Australian schools by pupil and financial performance. The Government’s recent release of the Living Longer Living Better Aged Care Reform Package 2012 includes a My Aged Care website (anticipated launch early next year) with a ratings system deployed in four to five years.

A poor score on these websites will have a material impact on an organisation’s reputation but it need not be the only source of information. You can limit the damage.

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Some aged care providers cringe at the thought of labelling residents and community aged care clients as ‘customers’. But the reality is that aged care providers exist to provide a service, which should meet the changing expectations of the community. People have a sense of entitlement to aged care and they expect value. This will be even more critical as consumer directed care is mainstreamed into aged care service delivery, as part of aged care reform.

The Living Longer Living Better reform package, released in May, states that “as part of the conversations on ageing held across Australia, consumers expressed a strong view that they should have a greater say in the services they receive” (2012, p41).

Not only do older people want to have a greater say in service offerings, some will have to pay to access the right support services, as a result of the government’s decision to strengthen means-testing. If this is case, like any customer, older people will want to spend their money with a provider that meets their needs and desires. They will be loyal to a provider that understands and responds to their changing needs.

As a result, providers are starting to shift their service delivery from a model of compliance to a system which embraces a customer service ethos.

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Sometimes you get the chance to work on a project from the intelligence gathering stage, right through to the realisation of communication strategy and a design outcome.

The work we’ve done with Emmy Monash has been on a project such as this. Through focus groups, surveys and stakeholder interviews we distilled the essence of the company brand at a pivotal time in its history. Emmy will soon build a new aged care home designed by Bates Smart, a first for the architects best known for Melbourne’s astounding Royal Children’s Hospital.

Yesterday the new website went live and, in structure and restrained design, it embodies the philosophies of freedom and quality Emmy espouses.

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Metal objects were introduced as money around 5000 B.C., by 700 BC the Lydians (now-Turks) became the first in the Western world to make coins and the Chinese introduced paper notes around AD 960. Whether communist or capitalist, cash has been at the centre of our lives for a long, long time.

It is just as intriguing then to witness people treat money as a dirty word as it is those who revere it.

I know some very liberated people for whom money means little, but they still know how much a kilo of tomatoes costs and, come the close of each year, they are ready to ask for higher wages.

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I’ve had the displeasure to attend the odd corporate love-in where a facilitator suggests fancy dress and coloured balls may help in the strategic planning process. Scarred for life, I generally experience reflux every time someone starts suggesting we ‘play a game to get things moving’.

However, of late I have dropped my guard and let others at the agency persuade me to ‘open my mind’. I am not quite ready to spend time with corporate ‘life coaches’ but invested 3 hours on a European train journey to the subject of games. Specifically, I reviewed a text called Gamestorming which, although veering into territory that threatens nausea, is mostly a good summary of well known and emerging techniques for getting results in diverse meeting environments.

In this post, I’ve pulled out the ones I think are most effective. Some I have used successfully before.

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And it does really. This clip comes with a strong language warning but I think it is fabulous and hope you enjoy it.

The video is a song written and performed by English comedian Isabel Fay,which features her delivering an ironically cheerful song-and-dance routine thanking those anonymous people (trolls) who have posted unsavoury content about her online.

It has been created as a fundraiser for Beatbullying an organisation which works with children and young people across the UK to stop bullying.

The release of the Labor Government’s Living Longer. Living Better plan will result in many aged care providers potentially reworking their existing care model plan, in an effort to become even more client driven.

Our response to the Productively Commission’s draft report outlined the challenges aged care providers would face if the proposed changes went ahead. This included the need to provide consumers with a clear pathway to accessing aged care support services.

Aged care provider, Benetas, has begun the shift. This provider recognises the impact ‘choice’ and ‘independence’ will have on the ageing community and they’ve also figured out the struggles consumers currently face when confronted with the inevitable and daunting prospect of needing aged care support.

Benetas has answered the question that many aged care providers struggle to answer…

“I need aged care support where do I go?”

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When General Motors decided to stop paid advertising on Facebook, advertisers, marketers and potential investors where left wondering what this meant for the future of the world’s largest social media network.

With an advertising spend of $1.08 billion in 2011, automotive manufacturer General Motors is the third largest advertiser in the United States. On the eve of Facebook’s IPO GM stated that it would cease advertising on Facebook as it ‘doesn’t sell cars or trucks’, leading many to question Facebook’s business model.

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In today’s society an employer cannot afford not to engage its ageing workforce, particularly when it comes to appreciating their specific needs and wants as an older employee. In fact, retaining ageing staff may be just as important as attracting ageing employees.

At the age of 54, Jane Fletcher* decided to enter retirement. In retrospect she felt she retired too young and a few years later, she was on a mission to invest her skills and knowledge in an area of interest. She wanted something to keep her occupied; volunteer work crossed her mind. Like a typical baby boomer, she was loyal to her employers, having spent a significant stint at a small not-for-profit for 17 years.

The second time around, Jane had her ideal employer tick box ready.

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Google AdWords is an online product by Google. Many millions of people use Google to search the internet everyday. The search results are displayed beneath ads which take up the top three positions of the page. Ads also appear along the right-hand side of the search list too. The top three ads and the ones you see on the right are all paid advertising, or AdWords. And AdWords is all about driving relevant web traffic to your website.

Here’s how it works.

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