Executive Decision Making for Transportation Capacity: The Multiagency Context (2014)

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1Executive Summary The second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Capacity area is working toward designing a transportation planning and project development decision-making framework that better integrates transportation decisions with social, economic, and environmental consider- ations. Transportation for Communities—Advancing Projects through Partnership (TCAPP) is the cornerstone of the SHRP 2 Capacity program area. TCAPP delineates a systematic process for interest-based problem solving and collaborative decision making. The final product, found on the website www.transportationforcommunities.com, provides agencies and practitioners with guidance on reaching collaborative decisions as they work through the traditional trans- portation planning, programming, and permitting processes. TCAPP and its Decision Guide are supported by a series of related research projects that cover topics such as performance measures, greenhouse gas emissions, community visioning, economic impacts, and others. TCAPP was originally developed with practitioners as the main audience; however, to succeed in practice, TCAPP will need support from and understanding of the executives of transporta- tion agencies and environmental resource agencies. These leaders will need to be the champions for collaborative decision making in a multi-agency context. The objective of SHRP 2 C22, Exec- utive Decision Making for Transportation Capacity: The Multiagency Context, is to ascertain what benefits of TCAPP resonate with leaders of transportation and resource agencies, and to inquire about what messages are appropriate for and make a compelling case for the TCAPP approach to collaborative decision making. The final product of this effort is the identification of marketing principles, potential marketing strategies, messages, and media that can serve as foundational research for subsequent marketing, outreach, and implementation efforts. The principles, potential strategies, messages, and media approaches were developed on the basis of aggregate findings from conversations and interviews with past and current leaders of transpor- tation and environmental resource agencies. The interviews sought to gather data about the attributes of these individuals, their experiences and perspectives on collaboration, and their understanding of TCAPP. These findings translate into considerations for future marketing plan actions, including SHRP 2 C37, Develop a Marketing and Communications Plan for TCAPP, and implementation planning activities under way by others, and suggest specific messages and methods that could be effective when marketing TCAPP to executive leaders. The Audience The audience for TCAPP includes any agency that has involvement in a transportation capacity project, on any level. One of the inherent issues with project delivery is the fact that the partner agencies on a particular project may potentially come to the table with misaligned goals and dis- similar desired outcomes for a proposed project. This misalignment is rooted in the fact that the agencies are driven by different missions and is then magnified by the varied cultures and structures

2of these agencies. In addition, the agency’s leaders are likely to be quite different, both in career experience and background and in the way they hold their position (e.g., appointed, career). This section explores the attributes of the agencies and the characteristics of their leadership positions, and includes federal agencies, Native American tribes, state governments, metropolitan govern- ments, and nongovernmental organizations. Research Findings Qualitative data were gathered for this effort through structured interviews and conversations with a range of current and past transportation and resource agency leaders. These leaders had a variety of relationships with TCAPP and collaboration, ranging from the strong supporters of the concepts contained in TCAPP to those who had very little familiarity with the SHRP Capacity research. While a range of messages was heard throughout the interviews, leaders in all types of agencies agreed that there are some collective issues and challenges facing everyone today. These include • A shift in thinking about highway capacity; • A focus on performance management; • Valuation of strategic planning; and • A reliance on partnerships. Indeed, all interviewees recognized that collaboration and effective partnering are necessary parts of getting transportation projects built. Though the method and the relationship with TCAPP might vary some, there are three key ingredients for success in highway capacity projects that leaders from all agency types agreed on: 1. Relationships matter, and although they take time, they are worth building; 2. Goals must be aligned, or the partnership will inevitably break down; and 3. Without funding and other resources, no project (collaborative or not) will ever be successful. The interviews revealed a number of ways that leaders and their agencies differ in their per- spectives on, and relationships with, collaboration. These distinctions are important to note, as the messages for marketing TCAPP need to be crafted to reach the range of agencies that should be involved in the process. The messages that will resonate most easily across all agency types are those that specifically define and quantify benefits of collaborative processes (e.g., cost savings or time savings), as well as the outcome. The interviews also revealed that peer agencies and those professional associations such as the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and Transpor- tation Research Board (TRB) are the ones that agency leaders looked to for guidance and com- munication about new research. The most effective method of transmitting the information was face-to-face meetings with peers. Marketing Principles, Strategies, Messages, and Media The marketing principles were derived directly from the findings aggregated from the interviews. One theme heard during interviews revolved around the finding that there exists a range of (and sometimes negative) connotations of the word “collaboration.” While it is viewed as inevitable, integral, and critical in today’s environment, it also can be understood as bogging down the process or used by those who are not strong enough to carry a process through on their own. At the same time, executive leaders understand that successfully managing complex transportation capacity projects requires working together with partner agencies. It may be prudent to consider using a new term to invoke a partnership that is based upon a common desire to solve problems.

3The marketing principles identified in this work are as follows: • Peer-to-peer marketing is central to success. Executive leaders need to hear about collaborative practices from their peers and partner agencies in the same geographic area. • Messengers are as important as the message. Slogans without the right speaker are hollow. Messages need to be tiered and tailored to meet the geographic and organizational contexts of each agency audience. • Geographic and organizational structures dictate a need for flexible marketing approaches. These factors are different for each agency and also vary among state departments of trans- portation (DOTs). It is very important to structure marketing approaches with this diversity as a starting point. Decision makers are found in different positions and different geographies, depending on the agency in question. A series of potential marketing strategies also arose for consideration. For example, one poten- tial approach to ensure that TCAPP is fully adopted by an organization is to market TCAPP’s concepts from both the top down and the bottom up. This will result in leaders who are familiar with the process and its possible benefits, and also a cadre of young staff who can bring the culture of interest-based problem solving into the organization. While transportation and environmental resource agencies may differ on the key elements of a successful collaborative process, the agencies are relatively unified on the messages that they need to hear in order to adopt a particular process, and how they prefer to hear them. Potential mes- sages include pointing out that this collaborative or interest-based problem-solving process will • Save you time; • Save you money; • Lead to a better outcome; and • Lead to better, easier decisions. When one is ascertaining the most effective ways to reach executive leaders, it is important to recognize that decision makers are notoriously busy, preoccupied with urgent matters and impor- tant initiatives. Peer-to-peer exchange and authoritative information from trusted sources were often cited as preferred ways to receive information. The outcomes of this research, including the marketing principles, potential strategies, mes- sages, and media, are directly relevant to the work currently under way on SHRP 2 C37 and other related work on implementation of the program. Coordination with SHRP 2 staff and the principal investigator of SHRP 2 C37 has been an important element of SHRP 2 C22.