Approaches for Communicating Third Performance Management Rule Measures, Metrics, and Targets

Chapter 3. Principles of Good Communication

Communicating complex messages or information can be difficult. A number of National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) reports—including 20–24 (124),¹⁹ NCHRP 226 (Vizguide),²⁰ and 20–24 (93),²¹—provide insights into how a practitioner could communicate effectively:

• Identify a nugget of truth that it is crucial to communicate.
• Identify the audience.
• Identify a messenger with credibility for the audience.
• Develop a message that efficiently conveys both the nugget of truth and why this audience should care about it.
• Communicate the message clearly and memorably, whether in writing, verbally, or visually.
• Repeat the message as necessary to ensure that it sticks.

State DOTs and MPOs may find themselves communicating about PM3 measures, metrics, and targets to three key audiences:

• Technical Advisers and Colleagues. Those with working knowledge of data and trends in reliability and delay, including other measures and metrics based on these datasets, may question the utility of statewide metrics. Alternatively, they may be excited by the potential of the underlying data to provide insight on network performance and demand; and data from the NPMRDS can be used to develop corridor-level metrics, assess peaking, or identify key bottlenecks on a relatively brief time delay.

  Practitioners can connect with these advisers and colleagues about these measures by visualizing the data in ways that do not perfectly align with PM3 reporting (e.g., by corridor, by time of day, or in key bottlenecks) and placing the reported measure in the context of the greater business intelligence provided by the data. State DOTs can collaborate with MPOs and other regional stakeholders to share NPMRDS data and their visualizations. Both State DOTs and MPOs can use this data to demonstrate the value-add of investments or to prioritize projects and size capital programs.

  This audience may ask, “What do we need to know about these numbers?”

• Executives and Knowledgeable Decisionmakers. Reporting targets and measure results is part of the Federal requirements (See 23 U.S.C. 150). Reporting targets, annual metrics andmeasure results can lead to questions. For example, MDOT reported a common question from people who look at annual metric trends: “Why did this number change?” Practitioners should be prepared to explain year-over-year changes in the metrics with expertise; the cause could be real or artificial (e.g., improvement in the collection of underlying data).

  The data underlying the PM3 measures can be a valuable communication tool with legislators, stakeholders, and the public when used in a variety of ways. The same data used to compute statewide reliability can be visualized on corridors. The same data used to compute statewide freight reliability can be used to map key freight corridors, nodes, and bottlenecks, thereby making the case for investments.

  This audience may ask, “How will I be held responsible for these numbers?”

• Lay Decisionmakers and the Public, for whom it is important to personalize the measures. Practitioners can explain the measures to them in terms of the day-to-day experience of the audience.

  This audience may ask, “What do these numbers mean to me?”