ARTICLE: “Sustainable Service Delivery: Solutions to Complex Problems Require Deep Knowledge” (Asset Management BC Newsletter, Winter 2024)
NOTE TO READER:
The Winter 2024 issue of the Asset Management BC Newsletter includes an article co-written by Kim Stephens, Executive Director of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC, and Robert Hicks, a career engineer-planner in local government and an “Ambassador of the Partnership”.
This 3-part essay builds on one published in the Fall 2023 edition of the AMBC Newsletter. Titled Context and History Do Matter, the takeaway message was that “the asset management community has lost sight of Sustainable Service Delivery strategies because it is lost in the details of Asset Management.” The solution is to actively work to transfer knowledge through mentoring.
Solutions to Complex Problems Require Deep Knowledge
“The ramifications of amnesia are cause for concern in an era when systems of all kinds are being subjected to repeated shocks that test their resiliency. At the same time, councils and boards are grappling with top-down decisions or directives by senior governments,” stated Kim Stephens.
“But how effective can they be when knowledge transfer in local government is broken? The stakes for communities are high in 2024 because of pressures caused by inflation, population growth and unaffordable housing. Yet councils and boards will need to give equal weight to what those issues mean for the future resiliency of infrastructure and environment.”
TO LEARN MORE:
To read the complete article, download a copy of SUSTAINABLE SERVICE DELIVERY: Solutions to Complex Problems Require Deep Knowledge as published in the Winter 2024 issue of the Asset Management BC Newsletter.