Role of Agency Culture in Mainstreaming TSMO

5. Considerations for Leveraging Organizational Culture to Mainstream Transportation Systems Management and Operation

This chapter draws out themes and lessons learned across the span of organizational culture and mainstreaming TSMO. Although direct examples of structured organizational change for mainstreaming TSMO are limited, this chapter outlines ways in which mainstreaming TSMO may be helped or hindered by various approaches and topics mentioned in this White Paper. In addition, it draws connections to other similar areas where these applications have been used to further overall structural change and to increase operational efficiency.

Success Factors for Organizational Culture Change

Although there are numerous aspects to the complex task of culture change, reviews of case studies and previous research have yielded some common themes. For example, interviews and focus groups with staff at various levels of public and private organizations in the United Kingdom and document reviews conducted by Miller et al. (2011) and Gourlay et al. (2012) provide a list of factors associated with successful organizational culture change:

• Plan for change; there should be clear public action and transparency, and the organization attempting change needs to “own it.”
• Determine who needs to be involved in the change process and when those individuals should get involved
• Encourage leadership to create and communicate strategic narratives.
• Ensure management and staff maintain integrity in pursuing the vision of change.
• Engage managers, especially line managers who are key to communicating with frontline staff
• Give employees a voice in the process and encourage buy-in.
• Enable change through infrastructure (e.g., revamping information technology to align with the proposed changes)
• Develop new skills and capabilities through appropriate training and education
• Measure the impact of the change (i.e., proper internal and external metrics are necessary to truly measure change and adapt)

All of these factors can be directly relevant to a transportation agency that is contemplating or engaged in organizational change. Numerous agencies across the country have engaged in various aspects of transformation. Many of the factors mentioned above are similar, but there were also several additional points worth highlighting and that came directly from mainstreaming TSMO efforts:

• Leadership is key. Leaders should support change, both publicly and privately, and should facilitate the change and be involved with the process throughout.
• Follow the momentum. Latching onto something exciting (e.g., CAV) is a strategy that can have success in finding ways to incorporate TSMO. If divisions are already undergoing change and staff are excited, then connecting with that energy and momentum can make the process easier.
• Emphasize relevance and practical use. Transportation agency staff are extremely busy and becoming busier. Asking them to take on another task related to mainstreaming TSMO or collecting new data for a change effort may encounter resistance. Successful implementations often have a cornerstone strategy of finding the right “hook” to make TSMO relevant to each employee and every division across the agency. One should be mindful that staff may wonder if TSMO is just another term for the existing way of doing business, or a label for a fad that will quickly go away. “What can TSMO do for you?” is a question that should be at the forefront of engaging employees across the agency.
• Communicate. Many of the successful mainstreaming TSMO efforts had a central component of constant communication in every direction (up the leadership ladder, laterally, and with subordinates). Communicating the importance of TSMO, its uses and relevance, and the process of change were all considered vital to a successful change.
• Make the case. Through a combination of skillful communication, relevant data, and analysis, TSMO champions advanced the mainstreaming of TSMO in their organizations by making a persuasive business case. This included developing motivating case studies, compiling benefit-cost information on TSMO, and showing the system impacts of TSMO strategies.
• Build for the long term. It is important to develop organizational structures that will outlive the current administration, ingraining TSMO into numerous elements of the agency through integration or restructuring (such as embedding TMSO at various levels of committees, in the early stages of the planning process, and during project execution). Widespread staff training in TSMO regardless of functional role is critical for long-term success.
• Identify the right data. As the number of data sources and size of datasets grows, transportation agencies may find data management challenging. Agencies may benefit from being strategic in the type of data collected and its uses, especially with respect to organizational performance and change connected to TSMO. There is also the inundation of big data from ITS and connectivity throughout the system that may play a central part in TSMO evolution, but also has to be managed, with the right data for the right needs. Inward-facing data and useful methods of presentation to leadership are important in tracking, managing, and optimizing change.
• Organizations are people. Organizations are made up of people; therefore, it is important to account for natural human biases, tendencies, and desires when developing a strategy of successfully mainstreaming TSMO. As roles and emphasis areas change, and funding and staff resources may be shifted accordingly, there can be a tendency for leaders and staff to hold fast to the status quo and legacy approaches and systems. Prepare for the biases and connect with the strengths that can facilitate the mainstreaming processes.

Questions to Consider for a Culture of Mainstreaming Transportation Systems Management and Operations

The following questions are examples that can be used by transportation agencies to assess where they are and advance a culture that supports mainstreaming TSMO:

• Does your agency’s leadership understand and communicate to others in the agency about the value of and business case for TSMO?
• Do executive-level managers support the advancement and mainstreaming of TSMO activities?
• Is there regular cross-functional or inter-departmental collaboration focusing on TSMO?
• Have you identified key TSMO champions at every level of the agency?
• Is TSMO regularly considered as a strategy or solution for addressing transportation needs or issues?
• Are staff who are knowledgeable in TSMO integrated into the activities of other functions within the agency?
• Is TSMO integrated into staff training across the agency?
• Is TSMO part of job descriptions and staff performance goals?
• Does the organizational structure of your agency facilitate or hinder the integration of TSMO throughout other areas of the agency?
• Does your agency’s performance management system reward mainstreaming TSMO?
• Is there a plan for addressing resistance to mainstreaming TSMO?
• Are additional workforce capabilities needed to mainstream TSMO?
• Have successful TSMO efforts been leveraged to mainstream TSMO?
• Has your agency built the partnerships among other agencies and stakeholder groups necessary for effective TSMO?

Conclusion

Transportation agencies are undergoing rapid change, and various aspects of organizational and personnel topics are evolving. The previous sections review the cultural and organizational change aspects of mainstreaming TSMO to support agencies in making those changes. In the end, any approach to mainstreaming TSMO is based on groups of people working together toward an end goal. Changing organizational norms and increasing efficiency while incorporating TSMO throughout an agency still requires addressing the key building blocks of any transportation organization—understanding the biases and habits of the people who work there, effective communication, robust data, and leadership buy-in over the long term.