FAN GIRL FRIDAYS: Vivien Twyford, PII

In Part 1 of our conversation with Vivien Twyford, she talked to us about breaking the mould as an ambitious, adventurous woman starting her own business. In Part 2, Viven talks to us about navigating engagement with upset and angry communities, the rise of IAP2 in Australia, and how the internet and digital technologies have shaped engagement – for better or worse.

We continue the conversation with Vivien as part of our new “Fan Girl Fridays” feature where we zero in on those impressive humans who just make our collective jaws drop!

Community unrest down the south coast

In the 90s, I worked with Coffs Harbour City Council on the north coast of NSW. The north coast was developing into a holiday hotspot with new developments including luxury resorts making the most of the magnificent surfing beaches along the coast. Housing developments in the local villages to provide homes for incoming hospitality staff were booming and the infrastructure couldn’t keep up. Water and wastewater services provided by the Council were over capacity, causing significant issues.

When plans emerged for an ocean outfall for treated sewage at Emerald Beach just north of the city of Coffs Harbour, many groups opposed it. Tensions escalated to the point of clashes with police.

Twyfords joined a team of water engineers, urban planners, council and state government agency staff. Our job was to engage with the very angry, and sometimes damaged, local residents and understand the communities’ issues and expectations. It was challenging. At this time, people didn’t know what the term community consultation meant. It had sprung from the public relations sector and there was no legislation or regulation to guide either project managers or different levels of government what it meant and how to do it.

I remember reading Hugh MacKay’s book, ‘Why don’t People Listen’. Hugh is a social researcher who has been listening to Australia for many years. His work talked in a language I felt useful to this project, and I recommend it to any engagement practitioner.

For the Emerald Beach and Coffs Harbour communities, we launched an information campaign about the water cycle, different levels of water treatment and how reclaimed water can be used for irrigation.

Lessons learned by fire:
Engaging with an inflamed community

The project hit another nerve with a local community when government proposed piping reclaimed water onto agricultural land on the other side of the hills behind Coffs Harbour. Locals were worried about their pristine farming environment being negatively affected by water that came from Coffs Harbour sewage.

I naively organised a community chat, which did not turn out well due to the heat the community was feeling. This was not a fun event for me or my team.

Now, my advice for any practitioner engaging with an upset community is:

Research: Do a lot of research before engaging to understand the issues you will be confronted with.
Visit: Go walkabout in the area. Get a feel for what people are doing. Visit all the public halls and potential gathering places and document their possibilities.
Start with one-to-one conversations: Engage on a personal level with your stakeholders when they’re heated or upset. Document your conversations and check your notes with each person so they can correct any assumptions you have made.
Be transparent: Admit you’re representing people who have a put together a proposal on the outcome. Be clear what the roles of communities are in the decisions yet to be made.
Build your stakeholder list: Use every conversation as an opportunity to build your list by asking ‘Who else should we talk to?’

When you’ve exhausted your list of people with whom to have one-on-one conversations, you may consider widening your conversations to small groups with a common interest in your project.

Rise of the Australasian IAP2 chapter

Bringing IAP2 to Australia was a project started by Jill Hannaford, who now serves as Technical Services Executive General Manager for GHD.

Jill had won an internal award at GHD and her prize was a trip to a conference of her choice. She picked the IAP2 conference in 1997 in Toronto, Canada. I read about her attending in a GHD newsletter and thought, “Hey, I would like to go to this too”.

At this time, we were doing engagement work with no clear theory or processes, just common sense and gut instinct. I was really excited after attending that IAP2 conference and spending time among peers who understood what we were doing, and why, and who were enthusiastic to share their experiences. I learned so much.

Jill and I talked about how to bring IAP2 back to Australia. Our chats expanded to a group of nine, who met in GHD’s Sydney offices. We decided we would ask IAP2 if we could start an Australasian chapter, and they were happy to agree.

Twyfords took on a role in setting the chapter up, I was voted our inaugural chairperson, and I’ve been deeply involved with the organisation ever since.

Engaging across different cultures

In talking about Australasia, I need to give special mention to New Zealand. Since 1972, New Zealand has had legislation about public consultation for major infrastructure and urban planning projects. There is a legal definition of the term.

When the full 5-day IAP2 Certification program had been developed, I was the first licensed trainer to bring it to Australia, closely followed by my Twyfords colleague Max Hardy. From 2003 we delivered the training in all capital cities around Australia and New Zealand. We discovered that our work as both IAP2 trainers and community engagement consultants created a ‘virtuous circle’ in which our training conversations with groups around both countries had a positive impact on our practice, and stories of our practice informed our training. This led to demand for our consulting work growing and us spending quite a lot of time on both sides of the Tasman.

I worked with New Zealand’s Waikato Regional Council for two years on a project to improve the health of the Waikato River, a key water resource in the North Island. This kept me busy and very interested in how different communities in New Zealand work together. I have found Kiwis very open to engagement, recognising the value it adds to relationships with their communities and better outcomes for their projects. I observe genuine respect and dedication to quality engagement with their indigenous Iwi as well Pacifica and other immigrant communities.

Slowly, I believe that things are changing for the better in Australia. I’m so very sorry that 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum didn’t get up. But as the wonderful Linda Burney said recently, 6 million Australian voted ‘yes’, and that in itself is an achievement.

The internet, social media & a waning trust in government

One of the biggest changes in the engagement and communications space that I’ve seen during my career is the diminished trust and respect for government.

When I started out in my Australian career, being a public servant was a recognised and respected job. Public servants and politicians had authority because the public gave it to them. And generally, people expected and trusted the government to look after them and have their best interests at heart.

People knew their politicians, but they weren’t personalities, like they are now. The internet and a 24-hour news cycle have played a part in this shift.

Social media is brilliant in many ways, but the negative side is so destructive. There is a huge amount of deliberate disinformation. I believe we have a right to hear from all sides of the political spectrum. However, if you’re resorting to persuading people with lies and distortions the democratic process is failing.

Engaging digitally with communities

We now have more ways and channels to reach people. I played a part in developing the IAP2’s training on digital engagement. That being said, I caution using online tools alone for difficult engagements.

In my opinion, most projects will benefit from some face-to-face conversations, some online information that is backed up with written materials all supported through social media activities..

Ultimately, we need to decide what level of the engagement spectrum we’re using for our project. The greater the influence the community can have on decisions yet to be made, the more important it is to use the whole range of engagement activities.

Tools like Zoom calls and Teams go some way toward replicating the in-person engagement experience, but relationships are harder to build and harder to sustain.

Advice to her engagement colleagues

My advice for anyone in the profession? Listen when you’re engaging. I know there is a compulsion to reassure and respond to the people you’re talking to. But focus instead on asking, “Is there anything else you want to tell me”.

Engage earnestly, don’t try and guide your stakeholders towards a decision. Instead, guide them to the information they need to participate in an informed way.

Communication involves relationship building and trust. Trust others and give them confidence that they can trust you.

And lastly, keep focused on the basics – we are communicators. We must communicate with our stakeholders in a way they understand and continue to check to ensure that the message they have received is the one we intended.