How can water utilities transition to a One Water approach? 5 practical steps

All that makes a collaborative, integrated approach more attractive. We’re all being asked to do more with less, right? One Water allows utilities to be more holistic, inclusive, and transparent. These overall benefits result in greater public trust in the local utility, increased financial stewardship of ratepayer dollars, more staff engagement and knowledge, and increased efficiencies in service response times.

Of course, the term One Water can be hard to define. Consider working with a consultant to find the right approach to meet your unique goals and challenges. In general, I’d define One Water this way: a collaborative, integrated approach to the planning, governance, and management of a community’s complete water system regardless of boundaries. It’s about making sure that you understand your community’s complete water story and resources. And then seeing how best to use those efficiently to deliver service for all.

Here's a brief, practical guide for utilities considering the One Water approach. Let’s dive into some of the key elements that you need to start your transition.

1.  Leadership support

Implementing and sustaining a One Water mindset must begin with leadership support at your utility. You may also have to earn leadership support from the city, depending on your scope. To achieve their support, you will need to demonstrate the value of adoption. What benefit will be realized for them and/or the organization if pursued? Some key leadership discussions should take place addressing the following questions.

• Is there a baseline understanding of what adopting a One Water mindset looks like?
• What are the key drivers and the why behind implementation?
• Will One Water move the needle towards achieving strategic and community outcomes and performance metrics?
• Do the organization’s mission, vision, and values align with the principles of a One Water approach?
• Is there strong top management sponsorship and support?
• What are the limiting factors? Regulatory, financial, workforce, etc.?

Once you earn that leadership support, you can launch a gap analysis to identify areas that are aligned with the One Water approach. The key is to find opportunities for early success and get internal champions. You can leverage both for strategic planning.

2. Break down silos

During my time as the One Water executive director in Fort Collins, I worked to break down and eliminate organizational structure-supported silos. Strategy-wise, we rebuilt the structure so that collaboration was needed to be successful. This was one of the strategies that helped make the One Water transformation a priority for the city council.  

It’s essential to look at the complexity of a water cycle. When doing so, you must notice the totality and connectedness of the current and future water challenges and opportunities.

Try to find multiple wins across your water system. Don’t just focus on one part of your watershed, water sector, or community. Work to be inclusive of all in your engagement, strategies, and water solutions. A good example of this is the adoption of dig-once strategy. This is where you plan so that you only dig up a road once instead of multiple times for separate repairs—including repairs not related to water, such as telecommunications. A dig-once strategy delivers economies of scale benefits across many areas such as labor costs, community impact, and material and supply costs.

3. Provide cross-training to your staff

When you build an organizational structure that puts a focus on collaboration, the staff will naturally develop skills that transfer horizontally as well as vertically. It also helps the staff become aware of potential career development opportunities. And that’s important because career development is a key factor in staff retention.

At Fort Collins, I saw all of this in action. Building these structures, procedures, and policies—such as job description updates—helped create a staff expectation of cross-training and succession planning. It improved morale and retention. The staff also gained an improved understanding of the full water cycle from an operational, infrastructure, regulatory, and process standpoint. This resulted in better engagement and shared ownership throughout the water utility.

4. Identify employees to champion the One Water approach

As discussed earlier, earning leadership support for your One Water approach is vital. But it’s also important to find people at all levels of the organization to champion it. A proven best practice is the early adoption of a cross-departmental One Water Leadership (OWL) team. This OWL team should include people from all levels of an organization and all sectors that either can or will be impacted by the adoption of a One Water approach.

This is one way to help your frontline employees understand and apply a One Water mindset. One they do, they can champion it and move it forward. You need to win people over and get buy-in at all levels of your organization. Many work teams are already demonstrating One Water qualities in their daily work. Help them recognize this, and then discuss the why they have chosen to adopt these practices in a certain area. Those conversations can lead them to consider other areas to champion the application of a One Water approach. Simple terminology changes from leadership can reinforce their commitment to One Water and build momentum simply in the messaging.

5. Build on your momentum

When utilities consider the One Water approach, they often have questions about capacity. How can they pay and adequately source it? There are normally two approaches. The first is to absorb the additional effort within existing workplans and staffing levels. The second is to seek outside support through funding and consultants.

It’s vital to understand a few things: what the drivers are for your One Water transformation, the why behind it, and what success looks like. Be realistic with the effort needed to achieve your vision. Apply a credible timeline and budget to the endeavor. You don’t eat the elephant all at once. The trick is to take small bites in pursuit of the end goal.

Again, a lot of utilities are already doing One Water processes. They already work in a collaborative way across the workgroup lines. They may not realize it. So, sometimes you just need to identify the One Water approach, cheerlead it, and market it within the organization. Then, you create momentum as staff build on their own success and recognition. This really helps with the buy-in that I referenced in my previous point.

Once you establish momentum within the utility, you can work outside. You can cheerlead the One Water approach with city leaders and the wider community. At Fort Collins, we were able to eventually embed One Water into functions for the city and the chamber of commerce.

I’m reminded of my new colleagues’ work with the Portland Water Bureau (PWB), where we provided them with a One Water assessment road map. Initially, Portland’s leaders were unsure of the One Water approach, but the team helped to define what it could look like for them. They began to identify possible gaps in the way PWB manages all aspects of its water portfolio and the way it sees its water system. Our team also noticed One Water-type things that PWB was already doing. So, moving to a One Water approach almost became a rebranding exercise. We could celebrate the parts of the organization that were already excelling at this holistic mindset, which created momentum and earned support from leadership across the organization.

The One Water approach takes time

It’s vital to recognize that a One Water transformation takes time—perhaps as much as three to five years.

Don’t forget the importance of the points we mentioned above: earn leadership support, break down organizational silos, deliver cross-training to your staff, find champions within your utility, and build on your established momentum. I wish you good luck on your One Water journey and am happy to assist.