Participation Tools for Better Community Planning
Resilience Roadmap Intergovernmental Preparation and Coordination—Understand Section
Inputs Needed
- Contact information for relevant stakeholders
- Purview and areas of expertise of relevant stakeholders
Outputs
- Established resilience planning team with leaders
- Contact list of stakeholders that will need to be engaged and informed
- Documented roles and responsibilities of resilience planning team and stakeholders
- Meeting schedule for the resilience planning team
Overview
This action focuses on organizing the team that will execute the resilience planning effort and identifying stakeholders whose input is required in the process. Resilience planning for energy and water disruptions requires input and expertise from both internal and external stakeholders. Forming a core resilience planning team to direct efforts, coordinate stakeholders, and track progress contributes consistency and efficiency to the complex task of resilience planning. Leadership should designate a resilience planning team leader to direct the TRN process and regularly communicate progress. Engaging leadership in the TRN process and providing regular updates helps ensure that planning efforts align with other site initiatives. Leadership support is also essential for securing funding and approval to implement solutions identified through the TRN.
Identifying and engaging a range of stakeholders facilitates a more robust understanding of site-level conditions, potential risks, and possible solution sets. Stakeholder engagement throughout the process can also help ensure that departments or offices across a site are coordinated and moving in a streamlined fashion toward common resilience objectives. Since different stakeholders, both internal and external to a site, will have different purviews and areas of expertise, defining roles and responsibilities as they relate to the resilience planning effort—and identifying where in the TRN process different stakeholders might need to be engaged—is an initial step in building a realistic trajectory for carrying out the TRN effort.
Participation Tools for Better Community Planning
Resilience Roadmap Intergovernmental Preparation and Coordination—Understand Section
In-Depth
The TRN relies on a team approach to resilience planning to take advantage of diversity in members’ skills and knowledge about the organization. The team will bring different perspectives to the resilience planning process, distribute the workload, promote broad brainstorming of solutions, and generate wide site awareness of resilience objectives. Leveraging a variety of perspectives can yield a more complete picture of the site’s resilience posture and aid in identifying and implementing solutions. A dedicated resilience planning team leader will have the primary responsibility for coordinating the implementation of the TRN process, as well as communicating with site leadership.
Engaging Leadership
The resilience planning team will need continued leadership support throughout the TRN process. The origin of resilience planning—for example, whether it is prompted by organization mandate, a priority handed down from site-level leadership, or initiated at the staff level—can influence its direction and level of institutional support. Both the planning process itself and implementing solutions identified will require human and capital resources, so engaging leadership throughout the TRN process is essential.
Establish the Resilience Planning Team
Resilience planning is a wide-ranging and iterative effort, necessitating a dedicated group of individuals at a site to coordinate and carry out the process. As the starting point of assembling the resilience planning team, leadership need to designate a team leader. This may be the site energy or water manager, a facilities or operations manager, or someone experienced with resilience planning and the critical functions at the site. The resilience planning team takes ownership of the TRN process, works with all levels of staff to integrate additional expertise, as needed, and reports on progress regularly. The duties of the core team include:
- Identifying and engaging stakeholders
- Defining the scope and boundaries of the TRN effort
- Identifying relevant information and collecting and reviewing data
- Implementing TRN activities and exercises
- Seeking input and subject matter expertise where needed
- Tracking and reporting on TRN progress.
When creating a resilience planning team, consider both required time commitments and relevant skill sets in areas like energy and water management, master planning, and continuity of operations. The Site-Level Planning Action 1 worksheet helps users identify and document who will be included on the core resilience planning team, as well as their respective responsibilities, TRN tasks, and anticipated time commitments. Depending on the size and complexity of the site, and the amount of time allocated to conduct resilience planning, the size of the team could vary between a few to more than 10 members. Successful teams have members from areas ranging from engineering, facilities management, and risk management, to continuity of operations and others.
Engaging Leadership
The resilience planning team will need continued leadership support throughout the TRN process. The origin of resilience planning—for example, whether it is prompted by organization mandate, a priority handed down from site-level leadership, or initiated at the staff level—can influence its direction and level of institutional support. Both the planning process itself and implementing solutions identified will require human and capital resources, so engaging leadership throughout the TRN process is essential.
Stakeholder Workshops and Facilitation
Stakeholders will need to be brought together when necessary to contribute to the TRN process. The resilience planning team will meet with the larger stakeholder group to introduce the TRN, build an operational profile of the site’s priorities and energy and water requirements, identify resilience gaps, and determine next steps. It is often helpful for the resilience planning team to conduct these exercises first, to see how much information can be collected easily, then engage stakeholders as necessary to gain other perspectives and additional information.
A stakeholder ‘kickoff’ meeting can be a helpful way to get all parties aligned on the intent and scope of the resilience planning effort. It is strongly recommended that site leadership representatives participate in these initial discussions to signal support for the effort and provide a clear mandate for the resilience planning team. The resilience planning team will need to meet frequently early on to define the site’s resilience priorities, determine the scope and boundaries of the effort, discuss information collected, and identify the site’s critical functions and resilience gaps. As the TRN process continues, meetings may become less frequent; however, continuing regular meetings will ensure progress continues.
Identify and Engage Stakeholders
The core resilience planning team will need to identify and engage key internal and external stakeholders to ensure that planning activities are coordinated across multiple functions and areas of responsibility. Consider what kinds of information are needed to implement each TRN module, and who holds that information. Not all stakeholders will necessarily have the same level of engagement throughout the TRN process; some stakeholders may need to be briefed and kept up to date on progress, while others will be directly responsible for collecting data and analyzing gaps and opportunities. Types of stakeholders may include:
- Critical mission or function owners
- Facility operators
- Energy and water managers
- Community engagement experts
- Continuity of operations planning (COOP) officers or emergency responders
- Tenant organizations
- External owners and operators if energy and water utility systems that may impact a site’s ability to operate during disruptions.
Before initiating TRN activities, the core resilience planning team should consider the purview of different stakeholders and what roles different stakeholders might anticipate playing in the TRN process. The Site-Level Planning Action 1 worksheet helps the resilience planning team organize stakeholder contact information and document stakeholder roles and responsibilities. The worksheet serves as a quick reference throughout the TRN process. The TRN Resource: TRN Module/Action List can also be used to understand upcoming actions in the TRN process and the type of stakeholders that may be needed provide input.
Stakeholder Workshops and Facilitation
Stakeholders will need to be brought together when necessary to contribute to the TRN process. The resilience planning team will meet with the larger stakeholder group to introduce the TRN, build an operational profile of the site’s priorities and energy and water requirements, identify resilience gaps, and determine next steps. It is often helpful for the resilience planning team to conduct these exercises first, to see how much information can be collected easily, then engage stakeholders as necessary to gain other perspectives and additional information.
A stakeholder ‘kickoff’ meeting can be a helpful way to get all parties aligned on the intent and scope of the resilience planning effort. It is strongly recommended that site leadership representatives participate in these initial discussions to signal support for the effort and provide a clear mandate for the resilience planning team. The resilience planning team will need to meet frequently early on to define the site’s resilience priorities, determine the scope and boundaries of the effort, discuss information collected, and identify the site’s critical functions and resilience gaps. As the TRN process continues, meetings may become less frequent; however, continuing regular meetings will ensure progress continues.