Resilience Primer for Transportation Executives (2021)

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28 Mutual Resilience Roles Within the Agency A P P E N D I X C Major Realm What Your Employees Need and Expect from You What You Need and Expect from Your Employees Your employees • Make it a priority and talk about it often. • Secure resources and ensure worker safety. Ask what they need for successful implementation. • Communicate that resilience is everyone’s job, how it makes jobs easier in the long run and makes the system better. • Support the crosscutting efforts, training and time required to implement best practices that also develop resilience. • Encourage innovation and risk- taking to provide new and improved policies, procedures, and practices. • Secure commitment from supervisors and managers to “bring it up the line”—to recognize and reward actions and advice, wherever the source, that lessen impacts, lessen long-term costs, and increase resilience. Operations and maintenance and asset management • Include O&M representatives in new project and reconstruction planning, design, and construction. • Actively solicit and use information and insights—hazards, materials, procedures—to update risks and procedures. • Cut a ribbon on preventive maintenance projects. • Actively observe and report emerging threats and hazards. • Identify and advocate for materials and procedures that extend asset life and save money. • Develop and update operating protocols to reduce hazards and impacts. • Participate in cross-disciplinary teams; speak up. Planning, design, engineering, construction • Require design standard updates to reflect forward-looking risks for asset life cycles: 5 years? 20 years? 50 years? 100 years? • Include resilience among prioritization factors; don’t “value engineer” it out. • Encourage build-back strategies and “what if” options. • Require planning and design teams for new projects and major reconstruction to include O&M representatives on teams. • Encourage planning for scenarios outside of design range and adaptations to meet changing environments. • Participate in cross-disciplinary teams to identify emerging threats and anticipate and solve future problems. • Participate in regional workshops and planning efforts to identify regional risks and hazards and work toward mutually beneficial solutions where feasible. • Continue to learn and research.

Mutual Resilience Roles Within the Agency 29   Major Realm What Your Employees Need and Expect from You What You Need and Expect from Your Employees Administration/ policy, including finance, procurement, and communications • Include resilience (preparedness— whatever term fits best) in vision and mission. Operationalize in all divisions and employee and stakeholder communications. • Use best-value contracting strategies to ensure projects are designed, constructed, and maintained for the long run rather than for short-term savings. • Communications: research and express the value of resilience to multiple audiences. • Procurement: evaluate and purchase for full life-cycle value; monitor. Emergency preparedness and response • Be personally involved in training and exercises to ensure emergency preparedness receives appropriately high priority in organization and employee work plans. • Ensure that resilience is part of emergency preparedness and response. • Be inclusive and cross-disciplinary in training and exercises. • Include engineering and design teams as well as operations teams in after-action assessments.