Читать книгу Integrating Sustainability Into Major Projects - Wayne McPhee - Страница 27

Discussing the concept of social capital with a traditional project team can be a challenge. The concept of social capital may seem vague or may be seen as irrelevant to the team members focused on design and construction activities.

One analogy we have found to be effective is the metaphor of a “Social Capital Bank Account,” which holds the project's trust and reputation with the local community. Maintaining a healthy bank account can help to avoid delays and secure approvals on time. When your bank account is full, local stakeholders will not stand in the way of permits/approvals and may even vouch for your project with the local government and regulators.

Every time the team does something positive for the local community, such as taking time to listen and treating people with respect, you are putting “money” into the bank. Every time you mismanage a spill or ignore a complaint, you are losing “money” from the bank. Lose enough and all the social capital is gone.

Each project department should understand that they have a role in filling the Social Capital Bank Account, whether it is engineering who must consider alternate roads to preserve a local sacred site, or construction who must reconsider shift schedules to accommodate local hunting seasons. Everyone on the team has the potential to help fill the bank or to break the bank. The collective objective of the team is to maintain a full Social Capital Bank Account over time so that the project can move ahead smoothly.

The terms “public support” and “community support” focus the idea of social capital on the local community rather than on the broader concepts of support from external stakeholders, including governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). With the growth of social media and shifting social expectations, the support of the local community is becoming more and more important for major projects. Traditionally, major projects could get built without community support as long as they had government approvals, but that is no longer possible in most places around the world. To reflect this change, we refer primarily to community support as the focus for building social capital.