EP#138 How to Train your Political Animal

"When you're in a meeting... you've got the opportunity to observe, [so] take the minutes of the unspoken. The unspoken in where people sit, what the body language is like, who's talking the most, who's chairing and why, who are they listening to? There are power dynamics in every relationship, especially where we come together as strangers to get things done." - Melinda Maddock

In this episodes of GovComms we are lucky to be joined by the author of the book How to Train Your Political Animal; A Power Handbook for Changing Yourself and Your World.

Melinda Maddock is a Tasmanian based Author and Strategist whos involvement in political discussions and social justice cases stem from her primary school days where she first organised a sit - in on the playground.

Following the bombing of Libya by the US, Melinda generated a petition that garnered more than 75,000 signatures and presented it to former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke.

"when I was in year nine, it was international year of peace, and I was watching the news and the US bombed Libya. I was pretty horrified at the time and anxious as kids were in the '80s. Also, you know, afraid of the cold war that was going on.

So, I was just sitting there getting upset about it. I remember my mom was ironing at the time and she said, "Well, what, what do you wanna do about it? What can you do about it?". And then, we talked about it and came up with the idea of having a petition which started off being with Tasmanian school students, a petition for nuclear disarmament."

In the photo are: Prime Minister Bob Hawke, Melinda Maddock, Senator Michael Tate, Joanne Fleming, Minister for Foreign Affairs Bill Hayden (1986)

Within this episode, David also discusses with Melinda her newly released novel "How to Train Your Political Animal; A power handbook for changing yourself and your world". The pair break down what motivated Melinda to write the book as well as some of the books key takeaways:

• "Politics is not a dirty word. Some people are afraid of it. They think other people are better at it than they are. They think they don't wanna be involved in it. So, the message is when you don't participate, you're leaving the decisions to people who may be more self-interested than you. "
• "The best way to influence change is to listen."
• "The other lesson is don't sleep walk. So, stay awake, pay attention, especially to the power dynamics that are going on around you"
• Practise curiosity over judgement