LESSONS: REBUILDING A CITY - FOR THE PEOPLE - WITH THE PEOPLE Helen Fergusson, Senior Communication Advisor, SCIRT www.strongerchristchurch.govt.nz

Lesson: a city’s rebuild can create more stress than the disaster Post-disaster rebuild is often more stressful to the community than the disaster itself. The SCIRT five year programme can mean over 150 work sites are operating at any one time in a relatively small city – that’s a lot of disruption. That disruption is in addition to the physical, emotional, and financial trauma an overwhelmed and exhausted community is experiencing. Plus, most of our rebuild work is below ground: people can’t always see the damage to the pipes, or the progress we are making. Our rebuild work can sometimes mean: • Breaking up good quality roads to get to broken pipes underneath •

Blocking access to peoples’ homes and businesses – sometimes for many months

•

Detouring people for months – by closing roads and demolishing bridges

Overall we can create a lot of noise, dust, vibrations, detours and delays. This is what the city’s rebuild can feel like to its people.

Action: Put people at the heart of SCIRT’s rebuild Knowing the impact on the community, the SCIRT programme was established to be about people, not just about construction. • SCIRT made its rebuild for the people and most importantly, with the people. • Our noble purpose is: “Creating resilient infrastructure that gives people security and the confidence in the future”.

Creating resilient infrastructure that gives PEOPLE security and confidence in the future of Christchurch

• We research and measure community needs and satisfaction. Community feedback and satisfaction impacts on how work is allocated to the civil engineering companies completing the rebuild projects.

Action: Don’t leave success to chance – be intentional Success isn’t left to chance - SCIRT has a Peak Performance Plan for its team covering a number of key areas. Overall Objective of Plan: “create resilience and high performance in an environment of uncertainty that allows teams to achieve outstanding programme outcomes.” The Plan: •

Developed to make sure the whole SCIRT team could deliver on our promise to the community.

•

Provides a framework with activities and expectations across all levels of SCIRT.

In a post-disaster environment of uncertainty, you can’t leave it to those with a leadership role to make all the right decisions. Everyone has to be committed to a ‘best for communities’ way of thinking and working.

Operational Excellence

Wellness and Engagement

Intentional Transitions

Leveraging Industry Learning

Stronger Leadership

High Performing Teams

Developing our

People

Action: Research best practice communication

We also continually refer to international communication research such as: •

Australian Red Cross ‘communicating in recovery’ guide for people working in a post-disaster recovery.

•

Research into how Cantabrians are doing by the ‘All Right?’ Campaign from the Canterbury District Health Board and the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand.

Action: give the community a voice In a post-disaster environment the community’s ability to take in information and process it to understand can be severely impaired. SCIRT has a dedicated communication and community engagement team. The team works on a strategic level for policy and protocol, and at an operational level in the community for every rebuild project.

Working within a framework of empathy: •

Connect, listen, understand the perspectives of people, and respond.

•

Prioritise face-to-face communication – this shows we are real people who care and are listening.

•

Understand the community to communicate in a way that is relevant and meaningful.

This approach can lead to some wonderful shared solutions benefitting everyone.

Action: Research the community for every project Every community is different. To understand how best to work with our communities during a project to gain their support and tolerance, we need to really understand who is in each area where we work. For example, if this is a community where we are working, we would identify the different community stakeholders. This helps build an awareness of what each of their needs might be while are working in their community.

Church

School

Businesses and shops

Community hall and sports park

Action: Be ‘real’ and honest with people about the impact Our approach is to be ‘real’ and honest about the impact of our work. This helps to set the right expectations so people can prepare for the coming disruption. Where possible, we communicate with people face-to-face. As well as informing them about our works, we also get to know the community and understand their concerns. We want people to feel empowered and know this work is for them and with them, not despite them.

Action: Use many channels to communicate Community research tells us: Face-to- face contact with the community: • Knocking on doors to talk to people in their homes • Holding street meetings to show people in the community what we are doing • Holding community meetings to bring together the community and project team • School visits to share important safety messages in fun and engaging ways • Open site information days to get the ‘inside story’ on a project Other supporting communication channels: • Phone – free phone • Email response • E-newsletters • Work notices • Printed newsletters • Advertising • Signage

Action: Use many channels to communicate Summary of communication activities (April 2015) • Face to face meetings – 27,051 meetings • E-newsletters – 196 • School visits – 141

• Non-traffic related signage – 4,284 • Work notices about projects – 4,723 • Number of work notices delivered – 1,111,951

Action: Measure progress – seek feedback We complete regular independent market research to make sure we understand stakeholder needs, concerns, trends and issues. This helps us to determine what issues are current or emerging so we can address them. These research results also determine how we are tracking against requirements set to deliver on ‘Customer Satisfaction’. Research programme: • Face-to-face (quarterly) • Phone (six-monthly)

Results – what community research tells us

85% - satisfied with SCIRT communication 83% - believe SCIRT values the community 77% - say SCIRT is clear and honest about the impact of its work 90% - satisfaction with SCIRT’s approachability (November 2014, Independent Market Research)