Welcome to the Narrative North Star — stories and signals for the future we are shaping. 
Each edition is a small invitation to pause, notice what is emerging, and turn insight into meaningful story.
In this edition, I’m sharing a thought, a shift, or a tool to help you navigate storytelling, AI and human imagination with more clarity and heart.

Stories from the Australian Progress Conference
On connection, humanity, and the deeper work of change

Change asks for many things: courage, strategy, persistence, vision.

And over two days at the Australian Progress Conference in Naarm / Melbourne, I was reminded again and again that lasting change also asks for something deeply human: connection.

More than 1,600 thought leaders, organisers, advocates, and change-makers came together in person and online to share ideas, build relationships, and shape a better future. It was full, generous, and alive with energy. So many sessions unfolded at once that it was rather impossible to take everything in. And yet, as always, certain moments stayed.

There were many stories across these two days, far more than I could ever capture here. But I want to share three that continue to echo for me.

The first came from Mohamed Alharbi  from the New York City Mayor’s Office of Public Engagement. What stayed with me was the reminder that meaningful engagement begins where people actually are. Sometimes that starting point is surprisingly practical, even something as concrete as the rat problem in New York City. Yet beneath that example was a deeper truth: keep the human being at the centre, stay relevant, work with momentum, and make goals tangible.

One line stayed with me in particular: "Mamdani comes across as a human being because he is a human being."

There is wisdom in that simplicity. In leadership, public life, and collective action, people respond to what feels real. Truth, presence, and genuine humanity are at the heart of real connection.

The second moment came through Andrew Hudson’s 3C approach: create, connect, convince. Andrew is the CEO of the Centre for Policy Development.

I loved the clarity of that sequence. Not because it reduces social change to a formula, but because it names something essential. We create. We connect. We convince. And within that middle space of connection lives one of the most important capacities of all: listening.

Listening is often the quiet force inside meaningful leadership. It makes room for other people. It builds trust. It turns strategy into relationship. It helps ideas travel further because they are rooted in attention and respect.

The third moment came from Noorulain Masood, who brought the focus to heart, head, and hand.

It is such a powerful way of thinking about engagement. Does something reach the heart? Does it speak to the head? Does it move the hand toward action?

Heart, Head, and Hand.

Feeling, understanding, and doing. Not in isolation, but in relationship.

As I moved through the conference, these three moments began to speak to each other. Together, they formed a kind of quiet constellation.

Put people at the centre.
Create, connect, convince.
Engage heart, head, and hand.

Taken together, they reminded me that progress is never only about systems, policies, or plans. It is also about how people meet each other within those systems. How trust is built. How meaning is made. How a shared sense of direction begins to emerge.

That may be one of the deeper truths underneath social change: people move when they feel seen, when they understand what matters, and when they can recognise themselves in what comes next.

I left the conference with gratitude for all those doing this work every day, often with courage, patience, and care far beyond what is visible on the surface. And I left with a renewed sense that the future is shaped not only by the ideas we hold, but by the quality of connection we bring to them, and the stories as glue between all of us.

In other News this Week:

An MIT-led team is designing artificial intelligence systems for medical diagnosis that are more collaborative and forthcoming about uncertainty. It is titeld "How to create 'humble' AI".

Image: MIT News; iStock

"We are trying to include humans in these human-AI systems, so that we are facilitating humans to collectively reflect and reimagine, instead of having isolated AI agents that do everything. We want humans to become more creative through the usage of AI,” Sebastián Andrés Cajas Ordoñez says. 

Thank you for reading "The Narrative Northstar". Until next time, may these stories and signals support you in seeing more clearly, creating more consciously and shaping the future with intention.

With Warmth,
Bettina, Digital Dolphins 🐬