More than $300 billion of projects will be delivered in the next 10 years bringing many benefits for individuals, communities and the planet. With this the influx of infrastructure and development, there is more opportunity for public engagement but also more competition to be the ones that are seen and heard. However, if not done correct it can to contribute to the noise and disinformation as projects increase in scale and complexity.
Libby Mitchell, WSP’s National Director for Communications & Engagement explains, “Communities and residents are being engaged more often and, in more ways, and are increasingly inundated with information – particularly during COVID times. To cut through the noise, we must respond with a Future ReadyTM approach – one that’s anchored in humane innovation, fresh thinking, new mitigation tools, optimised procurement, and new incentives for reducing impacts and friction. More importantly, we need to change the way projects are planned and designed – we need to involve communities at much earlier stages in the development process. This was echoed in joint research we undertook with UTS in 2020, which revealed early community engagement was key to setting up projects for success.
“For example, over $20 billion has been invested by all levels of government into the future of Western Sydney, with the development of major infrastructure projects including the Western Sydney International Airport, Sydney Metro line, and M12 motorway. This immense growth provides major opportunities for the local community to be involved in shaping the growth of their region.”
“As there are multiple projects being delivered simultaneously, it is inevitable that there will be overlap in areas where the community and stakeholders are being engaged with. This presents us the challenge of needing to cut through the noise instead of contributing to it and ensuring we avoid causing consultation fatigue and confusion amongst stakeholders and the community.”
Building trust and social cohesion
The complexity and number of projects is not the only reason innovation is needed in stakeholder engagement. The pandemic and the threat of climate change has caused a sense of shared uncertainty and anxiousness as well as an overall heightened sense of polarisation.
“If there is scepticism about what people are being told in terms of benefits and impacts, it’s more likely there will be opposition and project delays. Infrastructure Australia estimates it could amount to $40 billion over the next decade,” Libby explains.
“We need to do things different to help us respond to these challenges such as innovating intentionally, anticipating the impacts of emerging technologies, demonstrate our intention consistently and being a leader in our industry for net zero.”
How we optimise communications and engagement
Challenge the status-quo
Libby believes we need to be more future-focused and challenge the status-quo.
“We need to open up the conversation about innovation in infrastructure design and push for innovation in infrastructure development, design and delivery that reduces disruption, distress and friction and increases the community benefits,” she says.
“Digital tools are part of the solution but not the entire solution. We need to look at solving problems.
Anticipate emerging technologies
Whilst ubiquitous technology is all around us, the big, transformative impacts of digital transformation are still coming. We need to look at the fit of these emerging digital tools and channels within communities.
Research into civic engagement by the World Bank predicts:
- Automation will reduce certain kinds of citizen feedback, especially for those who are already marginalised.
- Blockchain’ will increasingly be used as a tool to raise trust in participative exercises.
- Different statutory regulations for social media will lead to increasingly different spaces for public debate that we may or may not be able to access.
- The ‘fake news’ arms race will shift the focus of public debates and drive more people away from participative processes.
Champion interventions
Interventions are catalysts that break old patterns and put us on a new trajectory. For example, WSP has recently pledged to achieve net zero emissions across its value chain.
As a socially responsible global business, we are leading the way in helping our clients with this transition – especially now that Australia has a target of net zero by 2030. Cumulatively the actions of companies and organisations are investing in interventions that help make the difference.
Prepare at the outset for scale
Engagement is dominated by methods and tools that were developed in another era for a different purpose. Even the move to digital engagement has been focused on replicating what we do in person, online. This is not a revolution, it’s an evolution.
“When we talk about $300 billion worth of infrastructure we are in a new paradigm of scale and complexity for engagement,” adds Libby. “The challenge here is about engaging with tens or hundreds of thousands of citizens over years, so we need to consider what we can learn from other industries and sectors.
“For example, the world of consumer products and retail has been transformed by data analytics and users can, as a result of completely new methods, access personalised experiences while being one of thousands if not millions of customers.
“In engagement, we have often been wedded to data that doesn’t track actual behaviours. Today, data analytics helps us to work at scale – we can understand not just tell what people think (opinions, values and attitudes), what they think they do (memory), what they say they do and what they actually do (their behaviours) – often very different things.
Use the numbers to drive legitimacy and support
Looking at the scale and complexity of infrastructure developments currently on the table and leading up to the Brisbane Olympics in 2032, there are some big numbers with dollar signs in front of them. “We can and should talk about risk and cost and opportunity,” adds Libby. “Those numbers are increasing, so let’s use them to drive legitimacy and supporting terms of the numbers of stakeholders, numbers of dollars lost by delays, numbers of supporters and detractors.
“We have at our fingertips very compelling ways to pitch the need for better, more human-centric design that disrupts less, so let’s advocate for it now.”
Future readiness is critical
As we look to a future we can’t control or anticipate, we need to be looking at projects with a Future ReadyTM lens – one that considers the trends that will impact climate, technology, resources and society 20 to 50 years from now.
“Our purpose is to bring people together and not push them apart,” adds Libby. “If we put social cohesion at the centre of infrastructure development, we can innovate intentionally, and we can consider those trends that will make or break communities.”
“As the scale and complexity of the infrastructure transformation ahead increases, the challenge to do that becomes more significant, as does the opportunity.”
“Our challenge is that innovation demands its own kind of disruption and this is the time for us to demand more from our own disciplines as well and from the infrastructure industry as a whole,” concludes Libby.
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