This article is written by Simone Costa Rodrigues Da Silva, Mobility Advisor of Civil House of the City of Rio de Janeiro

The City of Rio de Janeiro experienced a period of great urban development and the expansion of infrastructure due to RIO2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

It was great for me to be a public manager and part of the team during this cycle.

Working on a high visibility world project such as the Olympics is something few public sector employees in the world get the opportunity to work on.

The job means dealing with internal and external pressures unlike anything you're used to in daily city projects. The main issue for us was to manage doubts over whether we could actually deliver these projects properly and on time.

Postponing the delivery of infrastructure or a public venue is an option in normal circumstances, albeit one we try hard to avoid. In preparation for the Games however, postponement was simply not possible.

The whole project involved 8 years of expanding city services and infrastructure for an extra 1.2 million tourists for the 29 days that the event would last. Engagement was crucial. Those who worked directly with me made the journey smoother and more pleasant.

A few lessons have stayed with me from this experience.

First, promote your connections

Introduce them to people from different institutions, supervise and allow them to do a good job. Transfer their tasks. Make them aware of the whole process and encourage participation in meetings. When working on the Olympic Games, there was no time for explaining tasks at a later stage.

In my case, delegating to and connecting my team actually saved my life.

Three months before the opening ceremony, I was hospitalised for 15 days, 5 of which were spent in an intensive care unit. My immune system was so weak that I developed tuberculosis.

I was super committed to the project and worried about being away. My team worked well, and I recovered and returned safely to work. When I returned, a lot of people remarked on how well the team had managed in my absence.

Second, respect days off

The Olympic Operation is 21 continuous days without a break. It is physically exhausting.

During the Games itself, I was in charge of the operations of the BRT Terminal in the main olympic complex. We decided that each team member could have 2 days off, during this period.

We didn’t have any absences, either due to sickness or any discernible lack of commitment. Although tired, the majority of them used their days off to go with their families to the Games.

Some years later, a junior female colleague left on vacation during the preparation of the II Challenge COR. It was 30 days without any contact from my part. When she returned, she called me sounding worried, because she had not had any news from me, thought that she might no longer be in the project.

I had actually been counting down the days to her return, with a full list of tasks. Now I know that I should have said at least a “Hello”, during her holidays.

Third, every detail matters

If you don’t plan ahead, it is unlikely you'll be able to address the missing details at the end of the project.

Just before the opening ceremony, we realised we would need more bike racks around venues. By then however, we didn’t have enough energy or resources to resolve this problem.

The cyclists spectators turned up in some venues and we had hundreds of bikes leant up against post lamps, barricades — almost everywhere you’d expect. This taught me a lot.

Fourth, build a network of partners

Make allies inside and outside the organisation. We did just that in the development of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan of the City of Rio de Janeiro (PMUS-Rio).

The technical mobility team worked together with a team of young social media experts and civil societies as ITDP and Casa Fluminense. We had hundreds of citizens contributing to the plan using different tools.

When we had a change in public administration, it was the NGO organisations that guaranteed that the plan would continue ahead as it was studied before.

Communication is key to the success of a project. It also takes time and a lot of preparation.

A good example of this issue is in regard to the II Challenge COR, a hackathon for the City Operation Center, which aimed to select start-ups to develop tools that could tackle the impact of climate change from the bus system of Rio de Janeiro.

Over the course of 6 months, based on weekly meetings, we prepared the rules, instructions, and problems to solve. With 1 week to launch the enrollment, we started to prepare the communication plan. It was exhausting.

We had to concentrate our efforts to attract the start-ups using our personal connections, visits to universities, and social media outreach. In the end, the effort was a success: 26 teams enrolled.

Overall however, it is the engagement of your team that is crucial. Only this way is it possible to overcome the difficulties that lay ahead. — Simone Costa Rodrigues Da Silva

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