Accelerating Implementation of Transportation Research Results (2014)

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50 CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSIONS AND OBSERVATIONS FOR GOING FORWARD This chapter provides a summary of the key findings of the synthesis project, including considerations for how the mate- rial in the report can be used to accelerate implementation of research results within the transportation community. SUMMARY OF CURRENT STATE OF PRACTICE In general, those outside the transportation domain, such as federal government agencies—for example, U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service—are further advanced in the process of implementing research results than is the transportation community. In addition, the private sector and academic commercialization offices are aggressively seeking improvements in implementation strategies to meet market challenges. These for-profit organizations are using the adoption of innovation as a primary tool for competitive advantage. However, many in these contexts, whether public or private, domestic or international, regularly confess that their organization is not performing well enough in this area and that more must be done. The overarching perspective is one of striving for greater effectiveness and efficiencies to yield greater benefits from implementation of the results of research. Although more could be done, even by those organiza- tions experiencing success in this area, there are practices identified in this study that could be transferred to the high- way transportation community, especially for those in the public sector. The strategies and practices discussed in this synthesis for the most part can be applied effectively to trans- portation settings. As discussed in chapter four, however, the application of those strategies and methods may pres- ent challenges to some in the public-sector transportation community, because of the extent of change required, the leadership necessary to promote change, and the resources to accomplish those changes. It is certainly more difficult to change an organization’s strategic approach and its priori- ties for resource utilization and to incorporate these changes into the operations, than it is to institute tactical changes to existing operations. The literature and interviews revealed that organiza- tions outside the transportation sector apply many of the same tactics for applying research results to practice as do those working to implement transportation research results and innovations. There is a significant difference between other organizations studied and the transportation context when examining the strategic perspectives, expertise and financial resources committed, and the willingness of the organization to create a structure to accommodate imple- mentation activities. The extent and maturity of the infrastructure supporting implementation is a significant factor in realizing benefits of research by these organizations and their partners. Many organizations reviewed for this synthesis have well-defined and documented processes and have solid longer-term approaches such as partnership intermediaries, transition teams, and other strategies that add people-intensive exper- tise to the structure to close the gap that slows or prevents implementation success. All have defined and provided financial support to carry out implementation work and accomplish this through organizational structures to accom- modate the work necessary to remove or lessen the gap between research results and their use. The organizations also have created a culture of pushing forward the innova- tion to the marketplace or to the user and consider the appli- cation of the innovation an integrated element of the research activities. Clear Trade-Off There is a very clear trade-off. To achieve greater and faster change in practice resulting from implementing research results and other innovations requires commitment to change and the ability to adequately support and resource that change. The transportation community is experiencing ad hoc commitment to implementation and is receiving vary- ing degrees of success. Some programs are making prog- ress in accelerating or sustaining implementation success. The Strategic Highway Research Program 2 is building a foundation for strong and faster implementation to practice. The FHWA Highways for Life program is achieving accel- eration of implementation, compared with traditional pro- cesses, through its strong priority for and its commitment to resourcing implementation. The Local/Tribal Techni-

51 cal Assistance Program continues also to foster transfer of technology to transportation practitioners. Yet many other programs are still struggling to increase the rate at which their organization applies research results and innovations. As with organizations examined in this synthesis, there are strategies that can be used to increase the likelihood of real- izing the benefits and speeding the practical application of research results and innovations. KEY FACTORS THAT CAN ACCELERATE THE TIMING OR EASE IMPLEMENTATION OF SUCCESS Key factors affect implementation of research results within an organization. Each of these factors has a role for advanc- ing implementation and accelerating the implementation of research results. They are all applicable in the transportation context. The factors identified and discussed are as follows. No one activity in the examined broad array of imple- mentation processes stands out as being the ultimate solu- tion—the must-do action—to accelerate implementation of research results. Rather it is generally a combination of approaches and strategies that foster success and speed the implementing organization’s realization of benefits. Using more strategies to produce greater acceptance and using innovations are considered more beneficial than using only a few strategies. Additionally, few, if any, organizations experiencing success in speeding research results to practice can definitively identify what specific strategy or process is attributable to that success, or the amount of acceleration experienced. Furthermore, many organizations, while suc- cessful at increasing implementation over time, consider any added strategies as beneficial to increasing the rate of implementation. Contexts vary for accelerating the application of research results. Public-sector, academic, and private-sector orga- nizations are different frameworks in which application to practice is generated or occurs. Timing, resources, and other external factors vary, yet many of the processes used are applicable across the various contexts. Resource availability and implementation infrastructure maturity are critical factors that foster and speed imple- mentation success. Organizational resources of adequate funding, expertise—both technical and of implementation professionals—and time to accomplish the implementation are essential. Furthermore, organizations that have mature infrastructures—processes, organizational structure, and cultures that create acceptance of change in practice—con- tinue to show success in being able to effectively and effi- ciently apply research results. Incentives to do a more effective job of implementation often work to foster and speed application of research results. Recognition of the results and benefits of change in practice are useful means to bring attention to the process of imple- mentation and to encourage more implementation activity. Although many processes benefit from using well-crafted effectiveness measures, few, if any, measurement systems for speeding implementation were found in the literature. All of the implementation strategies examined in this syn- thesis point toward accelerating implementation of research findings in one way or another. As a given, the goal of any implementation action is to get the research into practice— always pushing time constraints. Because of the variability of each implementation effort and the complex processes used for implementation of research results, there was no attempt made to rank the efficacy of individual strategies. Across all contexts or industries it was not possible to deter- mine which strategies used had the highest impact on imple- mentation success, but it was possible to identify practices that might be of benefit to the transportation community. SUMMARY OF CASE EXAMPLES AND PRACTICE DESCRIPTIONS Implementation case examples and practice descriptions included in this chapter are: • Network of Implementation Experts—National Implementation Research Network (NIRN)—An example of the types of resources available for imple- mentation assistance within the medical clinical community. The mission of NIRN is to close the gap between science and service by improving the science and practice of implementation in relation to evidence- based programs and practices. • Global Implementation Conference—Hosting such a conference shows the value of creating a unique venue to encourage advancement of the science and prac- tice of implementation. Such venues promote sharing of best practices, provide education and training for the implementation sciences, and foster research to advance practice. • Manufacturing Extension Partnerships (MEP), National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST)—MEP shows a significant commitment by the federal government to nurture and foster innova- tion, and particularly to accelerate the application of technology in manufacturing through strong partner- ship activity. This example shows a structure that creates partnerships that foster the development of products available to private-sector business through technology acceleration support, and examples of a framework to provide technical support to organiza- tions seeking to accelerate the use of technology to advance practice.

52 • Research Project Synopses, Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP)—This discussion shows the benefit JFSP received as it created and now uses research project synopses and manager opinion articles to convey criti- cal research findings to busy program and senior man- agers within the forest fire safety community. • Partnership Intermediaries—Resources Committed to Implementation Processes—Partnership Intermediary Agreements (PIAs) allow research programs to add targeted expertise to the job of implementation through specific partnership arrangements. PIAs were created through legislation for use by federal laboratories and can serve as a model for agreements by others not in the federal laboratory community. • Well-Defined and Documented Implementation Processes—Manager’s Guide, Desk Reference, Policies and Procedures, and Implementation Guide— Various agencies are excellent examples of how imple- mentation processes can be documented in a practical and rational fashion. • Research, Document, and Share Successful Implementation Strategies—Accelerating Innovation at Hewlett-Packard—This discussion shows the pro- cess used by a private-sector organization to speed its products to market. It shows the importance of con- sidering the technology characteristics, the newness of the market, the degree of innovation represented, as well as the necessity to benefit from lessons learned and the importance of directly addressing innovation barriers and enablers. • Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs)—TRLs are a standard readiness scale used to determine the matu- rity of a technology or innovation. This scale helps an organization consider innovations and research results application through a systematic process that advances with the level of readiness. The process fosters accel- eration of implementation by addressing problems and finding solutions to prevent downstream delays. • Entrepreneur-in-Residence Programs—The Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program is an initiative that aims to commercialize viable technologies by placing venture capital firms or those with funding in a position to work directly with academic partners or others developing innovations. This program mod- els how the addition of entrepreneurial talent, with the purpose of creating a market or using a research finding, can make a significant impact on the speed of application to practice. • Innovation Inducement Prizes—These are designed to attain scientific and technical goals not yet reached, to encourage fostering of innovation, and particularly to create motivation to excel in imple- mentation best practices. • Evidence-Based Practice Scholars Program—This program is an example of how the medical clinical community highlighted the importance of develop- ing expertise in implementation science to increase the likelihood and speed of the application of proven research results to practice. • Training for Implementation—Coupled with other strategies such as a strong implementation infrastruc- ture, this discussion shows the advantages of building capacity in the organization to sufficiently address the tasks of implementation. • Organizational Implementation Policy—This prac- tice description discusses the need for and benefits of developing a workable organizational policy that clearly articulates the vision and goals for implementa- tion of research results to benefit operational practice. The discussion provides an example policy created by the National Weather Service. • Research Transition Teams (RTTs)—RTTs are formal- ized teams created to facilitate rapid transition from research to application of results in the operational set- ting. The teams are comprised of research and tech- nical experts as well as implementation experts and address technical, organizational, administrative, and other barriers or enablers that may affect the ability to implement the project’s research results. OBSERVATIONS FOR GOING FORWARD Based on the work of organizations examined in the course of this study, there are a number of observations that may apply to transportation contexts. The transportation community will benefit through build- ing an implementation infrastructure for transportation. For significant progress in accelerating the implementation of research findings, state department of transportation (DOT) programs and other public-sector research efforts will be able to move from ad hoc implementation activities to a systematic approach. With a systematic approach, there is greater likelihood of creating value through streamlining and expediting future implementation efforts. In building the implementation infrastructure for transportation, it will be necessary for the transportation community to get experienced talent to perform the imple- mentation. This may be accomplished by bringing such expertise into transportation, and by building capacity within organizations. Organizations studied in this project added implementation expertise to the ranks of assigned scientists and project administrators to accomplish effec- tive and expeditious implementation. One area that has not been investigated is which organizational structure is most effective or which elements of the infrastructure would produce the most positive result to spur use of research results. Further work in this area could produce guidance for research sponsors such as DOTs to better accomplish implementation tasks.

53 A significant aspect of other domains is the amount of research being done on the science and practice of imple- mentation. The literature has many accounts of successful implementation experiences in, for example, the medical, defense, and agriculture fields. Even in the private sector, where detailed implementation strategies are not publicly available, stories of success abound and analysis of the suc- cess is often the subject of business school case studies and research management journal articles. There is not a criti- cal mass of such implementation success stories available to the broad transportation community. It will be beneficial for the transportation community to have research findings and best implementation practice materials available as do these other domains. Furthermore, many of the success stories are written in language that will not intimidate decision makers. In business applications for adopting change, Kanter (2006) writes, “To establish the foundation for successful reception of an innovation, groups must be able to present the radical so it can be understood in familiar terms and to cushion dis- ruptive innovations with assurances that the disruption will be manageable.” Many of the strategies and practices described as accelera- tors of implementation in other domains require development of tactical tools to be effective for implementation of transpor- tation research results and innovations. Some of these tactical tools are model policies, contracts and agreements, boundary- spanning activity guidance, reference guides, and evaluation procedures. If such tools were made available, the strategies for speeding innovations to practice could be implemented with greater confidence and more quickly. Similar to developing tactical tools for administrative pro- cesses is the need for development of comprehensive and in- depth training programs and curricula to better equip those responsible for implementing research results and innova- tions. A variety of levels and types of training can be useful, from gaining general knowledge regarding implementation practices to hands-on project-oriented implementation pilots that show the potential for and begin organizational change. In addition to training and educational opportunities to build capacity for implementation practice, there is no defin- itive resource for the practice of transportation implementa- tion. Creating a transportation center of excellence, having associated with it the best expertise, best practice guidance for the conduct of implementation, and an existing knowl- edge base, would be useful to promote more effective use of research results. Investigating risk associated with the implementation of transportation research results is a topic that could produce valuable findings for the transportation community. There is little in the literature that provides guidance to sponsors of transportation research on assessing the legal and financial exposure of implementing an innovation, comparative costs of various solutions, or future threats and impacts. A question that has yet to be given a definitive answer for the transportation research community is, “How is research implementation success measured?” Considerable work has been done to equip research managers with guidance to develop research performance measures. Certainly a mea- sure of research performance is the effectiveness or success of the implementation effort. More work in this area that would produce qualitative and particularly quantitative mea- surement for implementation success would be welcome. In summary, there are effective strategies being used by other domains that can increase the potential for accelerat- ing the adoption of research results in transportation. Many of the tactics being used by other domains are also used, to some degree, within the transportation community. How- ever, the overall strategy of developing a systematic approach to implementation that includes a sustainable infrastructure of experienced talent and sufficient resources operating in an organizational setting that places a priority on implementa- tion will be the approach that can make a significant impact. Such an integrated approach will enable greater opportunity to realize benefits from research and to accelerate the use of research results and innovations in transportation practice.