Stakeholder Engagement: What You Need to Know to Improve the Success of Your Infrastructure Project

Amanda Bromley Technical Director, Stakeholder Engagement - GHD

We all know that infrastructure projects can have a big impact on communities. Over the next ten years, with an unprecedented amount of infrastructure spending earmarked for South Queensland, local communities will face a tsunami of information that they’ll need to process, understand and in some cases action.

Whilst this spending boom will create more opportunities to engage with communities and stakeholders, the competition will be fierce to get clear and concise messages across. In most communities, there will be multiple projects underway that will be targeting the same group of stakeholders – challenging to say the least.

Infrastructure projects need to be more than a successful ‘engineering solution’. They need to represent the immediate and long-term needs of users, the desires of project stakeholders and ultimately, deliver long-lasting and sustainable community and environmental benefits.

So how do we successfully engage the help shape and deliver infrastructure projects that will deliver these benefits? Stakeholder engagement can’t rely on using the same set of tools and processes that ‘worked last time we consulted’. There is a new paradigm shift that needs to be understood by all of those involved in the planning, design and delivery of infrastructure projects.

So let’s break down some of the challenges we’re facing and the key stakeholder engagement trends we’re seeing that can have a big impact on the success of infrastructure projects.

Challenges – it’s a turbulent and fast-changing world

COVID-19: The pandemic has resulted in a seismic shift in the way the world has operated over recent years and as we all know, it’s had devastating impacts on our local communities. It’s been a major contributor to the population growth and movement in populations that we’re seeing in South Queensland.

COVID has fundamentally changed the way we interact with each other - for those involved in infrastructure delivery, stakeholder engagement activities have either been delayed, radically transformed or in some cases shelved to a future project stage. Online and socially distanced communication and engagement methods have emerged and for a lot of these, they’re here to stay. Population growth: Closed international borders may have grounded Australia’s total population growth, but as we know too well, people have flocked to Queensland in droves. Over the last two years, Queensland has experienced the largest population growth of all States and Territories, and it’s important to note that regional Queensland has had the biggest net inflow.

The results of this growth are clearly evident. Younger people are making the move to Queensland, such as a family of five with school-aged kids, as opposed to the typical retirees of decades ago. The growth in this demographic cohort is having a real impact on community infrastructure - the size of schools, and particularly traffic congestion around drop off and pick up times, the ability to get into a doctor’s surgery, the demand on community services, the list goes on.

Environment: Queensland experiences the extremes of climatic events and we’re seeing individuals becoming much more educated about the short and long-term environmental impacts of infrastructure projects. A project’s environmental credentials and sustainable design principles are being challenged and you can’t blame the community for doing so.

Our communities pay the price for poor planning decisions. It’s now common to receive stakeholder requests for highly technical information, such as

flood and noise modelling data, environmental approval data, supporting material around sustainability credits and the like. The decision-making process around infrastructure is becoming a much bigger focus for our communities.

Technology: The advances in technology continue to move at lightning speed. This is having a real impact on how we’re communicating with people, how people are communicating with government, it’s impacting our relationships with stakeholders and can have instantaneous impacts on our reputation – it’s also changing the way projects are being delivered.

Project delivery: All of these factors are affecting the demand and the need and the way in which we’re planning and delivering infrastructure projects. Our communities are expecting us to be smarter and they’re asking if we’re looking at the bigger picture. Planning for ‘Liveable Cities’ has become a buzzword in recent times but it’s what we need right now.

Infrastructure Australia flagged in 2018, pre-COVID and the population boom, that there was a strong chance that essential infrastructure and services will fail to keep pace with Australia’s growth. To quote Peter Colacino, head of Policy and Research at Infrastructure Australia, “lags in infrastructure provision cost the economy, but they also affect people’s quality of life - If we don’t get the timing of new housing and infrastructure right, our growth centres risk being characterised by congested roads, overcrowded trains and buses, over-enrolment in schools, hospital bed shortages and constraints of community infrastructure.”

Stakeholder Engagement Trends Trend 1: Community buy-in is becoming essential

There is growing push from infrastructure funding bodies, led by Infrastructure Australia, to put the community at the centre of infrastructure decision-making.

Community buy-in is fundamental to infrastructure delivery

Meaningful stakeholder engagement is no longer being considered as a simple tick in the box – it’s being expected at every stage in the project development process. Infrastructure Australia flagged just over 10 years ago that they were increasing their focus on prioritizing outcomes for infrastructure users – that is, looking at the real benefits a project would deliver for a commuter waiting for a bus, the travel time savings for a motorist on a daily commute, the increase in cyclists on a new active transport network or the social benefits delivered through the removal of a rail level crossing. Infrastructure Australia has reinforced and elevated this community-driven approach in its latest plan, the 2021 Infrastructure Plan.

Demonstrating community need, short and long-term benefits and how infrastructure supports liveable cities, is an essential component in the project’s business case phase. Project funding is being tied to community benefits. Funding bodies are demanding project proponents take the time to identify community need and explore opportunities as to how to meet those needs through infrastructure delivery. Conversations with stakeholders need to start at the early project planning phase – otherwise a community’s aspirations and needs is just a guess.

A ‘place-based approach’ to infrastructure planning is fast gaining traction. This involves a greater focus on the holistic needs of communities and places, instead of focussing solely on one major infrastructure upgrade which sometimes can deliver unintended consequences in local communities.

A place-based approach requires broad engagement at the strategic planning stage, with a view to enabling communities to contribute to developing a vision for a local area. It’s going to put pressure on organisations to collaborate with communities to develop the strategic direction for the area and generating trust and support early.

Trend 2: Building trust – it’s a journey

This is a big one and has major implications for us all if we can’t gain the trust of the communities in which we’re working. With all the change going on in the world, it’s not surprising that communities are a little uncertain and anxious. This quote by Infrastructure Australia sums it up well…… “If there is scepticism in what people are being told in terms of benefits and impacts, it’s more likely there will be opposition and project delays”. In a world of those eager to call out “fake news” building trust has never been so important.

This diagram shows that historically in the infrastructure project space, communication and some form of consultation with communities starts just

before construction kicks in. Usually as early works are about to start and we issue Notice of Entries, the early works contractor has mobilized and the major construction contractor is briefed – we find that the community and more importantly, those directly affected don’t know what we’re doing. The effects of this can be significant – such as objections to property entry, re-designs, construction delays, negative press, visits to the job site by the local MP…. The list goes on – not a good outcome.

Where we need to start engaging is way earlier in the initial planning or business case phase. This is being driven by communities demanding more say in projects that affect them, and it’s also becoming increasingly important to demonstrate community needs, benefits and project support to meet project funding criteria. In addition, sustainable project outcomes are becoming a big priority for communities, for those delivering projects, and those assessing them including funding bodies and ISC.

Just as important, communicating with communities as to what is being planned, and indicating when they’ll have opportunities to collaborate, is fundamental to developing good relationships.

Early engagement is really the key for harnessing so many benefits in the stakeholder engagement space. Infrastructure projects don’t happen overnight, in most cases, they’re a long journey and taking your communities along for the ride helps build longlasting relationships and helps build trust. Now, it may be that you’re not in a position to roll out an engagement program in the very early project planning stage, but make it known WHEN you will be engaging with the community. Open the door to communication but set clear boundaries and expectations so the community don’t feel as though they’re being ignored.

Trend 3: Cut through the noise with the right message

Engagement and infrastructure delivery project phase

Communities, business owners, residents and the like are being engaged more often and are increasingly becoming inundated with information. The last two years has seen a barrage of information being fired at us – and there’s been a lot of pressure on everyone to understand and act on it quickly – there’s a real sense of people feeling overwhelmed and in a lot of cases just switching off.

As we see multiple projects being delivered simultaneously, it is inevitable that there will be some overlap in the community and stakeholders being engaged with. The challenge for us is to cut through the noise. We need to avoid causing confusion and consultation fatigue. To do this, we need succinct messages and clear communication. If we need the community to provide us feedback, then we need to step out a clear and easy plan for them to do so.

Make it clear who owns the project – the confusion sometimes between state and local initiatives can drive people bananas – it causes community frustration, it doesn’t reflect well on the project, and can even cause project delays if the community feel as though they weren’t communicated clearly on what was expected of them.

Trend 4: The technology explosion

The world is a very different place to what it was 10 or even 5 years ago. Social media has fundamentally changed the way we seek, share and comment on information – there’s certainly positives to be gained such as connecting like-minded people to share stories and engage in conversations. For those of us in communications, social media delivers real economies of scale – we have the ability to extend the reach of our communication effort like never before. But – as we all know, it has its downsides. Misinformation can run like wildfire and take on a life of its own. There’s also an expectation that responses to communication will be instantaneous and that is challenging, if not impossible for many organisations to deliver.

For those of us in infrastructure delivery, we do need to stay across the conversations and issues emerging in social media – it enables us to have our finger on the pulse, read the room, be prepared with our communication and engagement effort.

It’s important not to rely on the same kitbag of tools that you’ve been rolling out for years to engage with stakeholders and the community – explore some of the emerging technologies that are being used quite frequently now – I mean technologies that elicit feedback online, interactive artist impressions, animations, before/after slider images – they do deliver so many benefits. These are becoming common place and are more affordable for smaller projects particularly – focussing on high impact project elements, and those we know are going to be contentious for local communities, enables us to

create educational digital tools that help inform the true scale and impact of the project, and quite often take the heat out of the argument.

And I’d also suggest openly ask your communities how they’d like to engage with you – there is certainly a role for public displays and community information sessions, but I think we can expect that now we’ve been operating in this online engagement world for some time now, there’s a lot of people that prefer it. Best way is to ask.

Trend 5: Managing instant gratification

This is a work in progress for many of us. There’s two components of this worth mentioning: 1) As mentioned before, social media has driven the expectation for an instant response to communication 2) this trend of instant gratification has become the norm and is something now the community can expect

As we know, stakeholder engagement can take a long time and particularly in our space, the timeframes from the start of infrastructure project planning through to construction completion can take 5 or 10 years and sometimes much, much longer.

In managing instant gratification – we need to set boundaries, convey clear messages, set the right expectation, respond to people promptly and close out enquiries – if they’re not going to hear from the project team for some time then tell them and tell them why. Convey next steps.

Setting the right expectations is really important – you need to be clear about when the community is going to be consulted, for what purpose, clearly tell them what elements of the project they’ll have input into – some elements, such as location of transport corridors, sometimes can’t be changed – this is often the result of years of early planning and land acquisition that may have occurred decades earlier.

Trend 6: Everyone is a protester

The abundance of ways in which people can protest, complain, grandstand, provide feedback, heckle; the list goes on, means that everyone is now a protestor. And in the current climate where the community is anxious, exhausted, perplexed and lacking trust –it’s no wonder that we’re seeing increasing numbers of protests, complaints, approaches to the local politicians, and blatant arguments and bullying in online forums.

We can’t ignore it – we need to tackle it head on and get to the point where they feel like their opinions and concerns are being heard and that they are acknowledged – they might not always like the outcome – but we need to demonstrate a process of listening and relationship building.

Trend 7: The community is smarter than we think

We can turn up to stakeholder and community meetings armed with project facts, layouts, posters and slideshows – but, it’s important to remember why we’re talking to stakeholders in the first place – they’re experts in their own lives. They don’t need technical gurus to tell them how a project is going to benefit or affect them.

We need to take the approach of “this is what we’re trying to do and this is what we know so far……. Now tell us what you think – what don’t we know” – this change in mindset changes the entire dynamic.

Communities know when they’re not really being consulted – they can smell it a mile away. If you’re not actually consulting – then tell them. You’re better off explaining difficult policy and spending trade-offs that are inevitable in infrastructure decisions – if there are very few negotiable aspects of the project then explain why. Talk though why some design elements can’t be changed – that they’re based on intense technical rigour. Talk through the thought process that led to the decision – communities may not appreciate tough answers but they are more likely to accept them when they afforded the time and consideration to understand them. Don’t shy away for sharing technical data and show courtesy but explaining it carefully.

Technology has delivered a raft of information to people from numerous sources, in different formats. If stakeholders are requesting detailed information, then provide it.

Conclusion

Remember, we need to take our community on the project journey. Gaining and keeping their support for the ‘end game’ outcome is, in the long run, a much better outcome than arguing, protesting and disillusion. We are all here to grow, develop and enable our communities, not just build roads and infrastructure.

References

Queensland Government Statistician’s Office (March 2022), Population Growth, Queensland – September Quarter 2021: Source: ABS 3101.0, Queensland Government

Infrastructure Australia (December 2018), Planning Liveable Cities: A place-based approach to sequencing infrastructure and growth, (www. infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/ publications)

Amanda Bromley is GHD’s Transport Infrastructure Stakeholder Engagement Lead for South-East Queensland. For the past 15 years, Amanda has worked extensively on major transport infrastructure projects in the business case, design and construction phases. Her transport project experience spans major highway, road and interchange upgrades, and a range of public and active transport initiatives. Amanda is an industry leader, delivering best practice engagement, consultation programs for high-profile, challenging and contentious transport upgrades in both urban and regional environments.