Category Archives: Leadership

The Mobility Ecosystem: the changing landscape and the need for fresh, new ideas (Part 8: Black Swans and Other Risks)

27 Saturday Feb 2021

Posted by in Black Swans, Climate, Construction, COVID-19, Economy, Environment, Funding, Infrastructure, Leadership, Mobility, Mobility Ecosystem, Pandemic, Planning, Resilience, Risks, Scope, Schedule, Budget, Social Justice and Equity, Society, Transportation, Utilities

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While the future can be exciting and an adventure, there are unanticipated events that occur that can disrupt normal flows and operations (Maritz, 2019). On the extreme, there have been catastrophes that seemed “acts of god”, events that are not contemplated in this series of blogs yet provide some context (Maritz, 2019; Gibbons, 2018). More predictable and relevant to our lifetimes, the Cascadia Fault off the coasts of Oregon and Washington is predicted to rupture in the next 50 years and could be the worst North American human disaster on record with significant costs in lives lost and property damage. The damage to roads, bridges, airports, transit, railroads, and navigable waterways will significantly reduce the ability to respond and recover. This event is being studied and planned for (Bauer, et al, 2018; Roth and Thompson, 2018; Sounds, 2019; Steele, 2020).

Risk management is the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of risks followed by methodologies to minimize, monitor, and control the probability or impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities. The U. S. transportation industry has enormous risk exposure and among the most risk-prone industries in the world. As such, the federal transportation act—Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act or MAP-21 and signed into law in 2012—established the requirement for states to develop a risk-based asset management plan. Risk management is a dynamic process and used routinely within the public and private sectors. Without such plans, organizations can be surprised by events that have negative financial impacts or missed positive opportunities with improved outcomes. The literature on risk management is rich and evolving. A Black Swan is an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected and has the potential for severe consequences. Risks must be identified at the beginning of a project or program, discussed, and updated regularly. Some typical risks might include scope, schedule, and budget issues; safety issues; liability issues; site condition issues; dispute issues; quality issues; workforce turnover or other staffing issues; weather or other delays; contract interpretation disputes; rework; prompt payment; opportunities for additional work; priorities; owner readiness; and so on. Regardless, it is critical to identify risks, actions to prevent or mitigate new risks, probability of occurrence, and a champion/responsible party to take the lead. Various means of identifying the probability of risks are also important such as Monte Carlo simulation.

The Covid-19 Pandemic is a glaring and recent example of positive and negative impacts and could be categorized as a Black Swan. It could not have been anticipated although pandemics are a certainty. As risks do, it is also having positive and negative impacts. For example, remote work and quarantining are reducing CO2 emissions (IEA, 2020;  Figure 9), online shopping continues to increase versus brick and mortar stores (Ali, 2021), costs associated with commuting and office space (Boland, et al, 2020; Ambrose, 2020), and reducing traffic congestion (Ronan, 2021). Some reports are that certain categories of online shopping and delivery increased 50-125 percent in 2020 compared to 2019.  However, already disadvantaged populations are disproportionately negatively affected and transit faces an existential threat in 2021 and beyond due to the reduction of ridership and associated revenues.

As many as 572 airports are also threatened by global warming and associated sea level rise by 2021 (Yesudian and Dawson, 2021). A record number of hurricanes, wildfires and floods cost the world $210 billion in damage in last year, much of it due to global warming. The six most expensive disasters of 2020 occurred in the U.S. (NOAA, 2021; Kann, 2021). There is also the threat of land subsidence that may affect 19 percent of the world population by 2040 (Herrera-Garcia, et al, 2021).

As of this writing, over 30 million U. S. citizens have tested positive for COVID-19 and over 500,000 deaths. That is more than 1 in 9 that have been diagnosed with the disease. Under more normal conditions before the pandemic, there was not a public transit system that was not subsidized. Even with vaccines being fielded, the future of transit ridership and revenues is far from certain. The course for the foreseeable future, without federal help, is to reduce services. Black Swans and other events may be giving us a “pause” to rethink transportation/mobility.

FIGURE 9. Estimated world CO2 reductions during pandemic in 2020. Reductions were 17 percent during the first peak in spring but have declined to 7 percent, the biggest drop ever, over the course of the year, with negligible long-term climate improvements (Sourced from: München, 2020).

As weather patterns change, commodities and other flows are interrupted and delayed. The recent Texas utility debacle from unusual winter weather is yet another risk that could have been precluded and mitigated. People and companies lost heat, potable water and waste water services, and have and are experiencing injuries, death, and economic hardships—a series of cascading failures (Northey, 2021). During the crisis, unregulated utilities charged a market cap price of $9,000 per mega-watt hour  (McGinty and Patterson, 2021). The lack of preparation was made worse by delaying commodities including food and Covid-19 vaccinations. Moreover, Texas utilities were warned 10 years earlier of the preparation needed but they ignored the risks (Blunt and Gold, 2021). This is a failure of leadership.

In addition to individual risks typically identified in risk assessments, there can also be risk correlations between work breakdown structure (WBS) elements, events, risks of projects, across projects, and programs. Some of these might include (modified from Prieto, 2020):

  • “Money Allocated Is Money Spent”
  • Parkinson’s Law – work expands to fill the time allotted
  •  Overconfidence in assessing uncertainties
  • Complexity with hidden coupling – risk events are likely to affect multiple cost elements with the potential for cascading impacts
  • State of technology – common new technologies/materials
  • Common management, staff and work processes
  • Optimism bias and other biases consistently applied
  • Overly simplistic probabilistic cost analysis (PCA)
  • Wages, benefits, payroll taxes Productivity
  • Raw material costs
  • Design development
  • Means & methods
  • Uncertainty factors/known unknowns
  • Budgeting and contingency management strategy and approach
  • Packaging and contracting strategy
  • Schedule precedences
  • Shared/common assumptions
  • Failures/delays at interfaces
  • Location factors
  • Trade actions
  • Regulatory changes/actions
  • Low frequency high impact events of scale
  • Archaeology finds

So risks, associations of risks, and Black Swans can be complicated and reflect the nature of the mobility ecosystem, systems, and systems of systems, in general. Megaprograms and projects (over $1 billion) are particularly prone (Denicol, et al, 2020; Vartabedian, 2021; Garmo, et al, 2015; Irimia-Diéguez, et al, 2014; Zidane, et al, 2013; Flyvbjerg and Bruzelius, 2014).

Dr. “Kevin” Bao also provides an interesting perspective on how leaders should respond to crises and opportunities (Steele, 2021).

Citations

Ali, F. (2021, January 29). US ecommerce grows 44.0% in 2020. Digital Commerce 360. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/us-ecommerce-sales/

Ambrose, J. (2020, August 12). BP mulls radical reduction of office space in move to flexible working. The Guardian. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/12/bp-mulls-radical-reduction-of-office-space-in-move-to-flexible-working

Bauer, J. M., W. U. Burns, I. P. Madin. (2018). Earthquake regional impact analysis for Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties, Oregon. Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.oregongeology.org/pubs/ofr/O-18-02/O-18-02_report.pdf

Blunt, K. and R. Gold. (2021, February 19). The Texas freeze: why the power grid failed. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/texas-freeze-power-grid-failure-electricity-market-incentives-11613777856

Boland, B., A. D. Smet, R. Palter, A. Sanghvi. (2020, June 8). Reimagining the office and work life after COVID-19. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/reimagining-the-office-and-work-life-after-covid-19

Denicol, J., A. Davies, I. Krystallis. (2020, February 13). What are the causes and cures of poor megaproject performance? A systematic literature review and research agenda. Project Management Journal. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/8756972819896113

Flyvbjerg, B., N. Bruzelius, W. Rothengatter. (2014, July). Megaprojects and risk: an anatomy of ambition. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/megaprojects-and-risk/78B4E0A8FDBEC72919B832D33BECF083

Garemo, N., S Matzinger, R. Palter. (2015, July 1). Megaprojects: the good, the bad, and the better. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/megaprojects-the-good-the-bad-and-the-better

Gibbons, A. (2018, November 15). Why 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive.’ Science. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/why-536-was-worst-year-be-alive

Herrera-Garcia, G., P. Ezquerro, R. Tomás, M. Béjar-Pizarro, J. López-Vinielles, M. Rossi, R. M. Mateos, D. Carreón-Freyre, J. Lambert, P. Teatini, E. Cabral-Cano, G. Erkens, D. Galloway, W. Hung, N. Kakar, M. Sneed, L. Tosi, H. Wang, S. Ye. (2021, January 1). Mapping the global threat of land subsidence. Science. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6524/34

IEA. (2020, April). Global energy review 2020: the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis on global energy demand and CO2 emissions. Institute of Economic Affairs. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-review-2020/global-energy-and-co2-emissions-in-2020

Irimia-Diéguez, A. I., A. Sanchez-Cazorla, R. Alfall-Luque. (2014, March 19). Risk management in megaprojects. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences. 119:407-416. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814021375#!

Kann, D. (2021, February 22). Flood risk is growing for US homeowners due to climate change. Current insurance rates greatly underestimate the threat, a new report finds. CNN Business. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/22/business/flood-insurance-climate-change-risk-first-street-foundation/index.html

Maritz, W. (2019, July 22). Critical risk areas for public infrastructure projects – Part 1. Oracle Construction and Engineering Blog. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://blogs.oracle.com/construction-engineering/critical-risk-areas-for-public-infrastructure-projects?source=:ad:ba:::RC_BUMK200210P00079:SmartBrief_FY20Q4&pcode=BUMK200210P00079&SC=ADV

McGinty, T. and S. Patterson. (2021, February 24). Texas electric bills were $28 billion higher under deregulation. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/texas-electric-bills-were-28-billion-higher-under-deregulation-11614162780

München, L. (2020, November 12). Pandemic leads to decrease in global CO2 emissions. ETH Zürich. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://usys.ethz.ch/en/news-events/news/archive/2020/12/rekord-rueckgang-der-globalen-CO2-Emissionen-wegen-Corona.html

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. (2021). Billion-dollar weather and climate disasters: overview. NOAA. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/

Northey, H. (2021, February 24). ‘Cascading failures’ fueled Texas water disaster. E&E News. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063725903

Prieto, B. (2020, December 3). The impact of correlation on risks in programs and projects. PM World Journal. Vol. IX(XII)):1-11. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://pmworldjournal.com/article/the-impact-of-correlation-on-risks-in-programs-and-projects

Ronan, D. (2021, February 24). Top bottlenecks less congested last year, but infrastructure needs persist, ATRI finds. Transport Topics. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.ttnews.com/articles/top-bottlenecks-less-congested-last-year-infrastructure-needs-persist-atri-finds

Roth, S. and J. Thompson. (2018, March 15). Study projects damage from rare Portland Hills quake, Cascadia earthquake. KGW8. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.kgw.com/article/weather/earthquakes/study-projects-damage-from-rare-portland-hills-quake-cascadia-earthquake/283-528827359

Sounds, S. (2019, September 8). The mega Cascadia earthquake is overdue and could strike the US West coast at any moment, creating huge 30 meter-high tsunami waves within seconds – please prepare for this apocalyptic event. Strange Sounds. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://strangesounds.org/2019/09/the-mega-cascadia-earthquake-is-overdue-and-could-strike-the-west-coast-of-the-us-at-any-moment-creating-huge-30-metre-high-tsunami-waves-within-seconds-prepare-for-this-apocalyptic-event.html

Steele, B. (2020, January 27). Getting ready for the next Great Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://pnsn.org/blog/2020/01/27/getting-ready-for-the-next-great-cascadia-subduction-zone-earthquake

Steele, J. (2021, February 22). CEOs should develop an ambivalent mindset in crises, says UAH professor’s research. University of Alabama in Huntsville. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.uah.edu/news/items/ceos-should-develop-an-ambivalent-mindset-in-crises-says-uah-professor-s-research

Vartabedian, R. (2021, February 22). A ‘low-cost’ plan for California bullet train brings $800 million in overruns, big delays. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-02-22/california-bullet-train-dragados-design-changes

Yesudian, A. N. and R. J. Dawson (2021). Global analysis of sea level rise risk to airports. Climate Risk Management 31, 2021, 100266:1-12. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212096320300565

Zidane, Y. J. T., A. Johansen, A. Ekambaram. (2013, March). Megaprojects-challenges and lessons learned. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences. 74:349-357. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257718827_Megaprojects-Challenges_and_Lessons_Learned

One Seamless Transportation System 3.0: 7 Tenants for the Future

19 Sunday May 2019

Posted by in Collaboration, Future, Leadership, Management, Strategic Planning, Sustainability, Transportation

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The future of transportation/mobility is about leadership. Seven tenants to improve this include:

  1. Safety: reduce crashes, fatalities, injuries, and property damage

At its base, every department of transportation, their partners, and stakeholders hold their first priority as safety. This is the value we put on life. As the future of transportation and mobility evolve, driven by demand for technology and collaboration, a safe system can be achieved with zero crashes, fatalities, injuries, and property damage. However, human nature cannot be controlled and periodic mishaps are bound to occur. Nonetheless, the future is bright for a safer transportation/mobility system.

  1. Mobility: reduce congestion, increase the capacity of existing infrastructure; connected and intermodal=one seamless transportation system

Every transportation department, their partners, and stakeholders were formed to improve mobility, whether that was getting out of the mud or the interstate highway system. Earlier, these departments were focused on engineering and construction using concrete, asphalt, and steel to predominately build a network of roads and bridges. The complexity for these departments has long since become increasingly multi-faceted, demanding additional disciplines, skill sets, and more understanding. The future of transportation and mobility, again driven by increasing demand for digital technology and collaboration, portends the opportunity for one connected, intermodal, seamless transportation system. The parts to this system are fast emerging in autonomous vehicles, one shop stop apps for routing, transfers and payments, and increasing demands from the public to make it so. This latter is driven largely by demand for access, social justice, greater diversity and other social values for fairness.

  1. Economy: improve access to jobs, products and services, origin, destination, and transport

There is a strong argument that transportation and mobility have been a primary driver of economic growth. This is an especially strong argument in valuing the interstate highway system. Other countries recognize that, too. That is why China is building the “One Belt, One Road” which will result in the largest road network in the world and India’s National Highways Development Project which will result in a road network of over 30,000 miles as an element of their industrial revolution. Our entire society depends on transportation and mobility for access to jobs, public safety, health care, food, recreation, and many others. This access can be as large as the interstate highway system or as small as handicap ramps at intersections and curbs. Transportation and mobility are important at every level of our society although many take it for granted. Increasingly and rightly so, departments of transportation are using various and emerging systems to more directly value the impact of transportation and mobility in the economy. In fact, many have this reflected in their mission statements.

As the future emerges and more efficient, environmentally friending fuels come into the market, the future transportation and mobility system may include a newer user-based system such as a vehicle miles traveled tax or VMT, emerging from the fuel tax invented by the State of Oregon in 1919. This has been demonstrated as feasible for over 10 years by Oregon and other states. As such, the transportation and mobility system may operate more like a utility than it does now.

As the demand for digital technology and collaboration has increased, it requires a workforce that knows and understands how to use them. The rate of change is so rapid that the entire transportation and mobility industry, educators, and job seekers are challenged to keep up.

  1. Environment: improve air, land, and water

As the social consciousness of environmental pollution, impacts, and climate change has increased, the efforts to control, mitigate and cleanup those impacts have correspondingly risen. While the environment and the impacts put upon it are often complex, the ownership is often ambiguous. Although many businesses are leaders in improving the environment, governments at all levels are frequently the leaders in regulating, mitigating and cleaning up impacts. As such, it is increasingly common for departments of transportation to be looked to lead in the environmental arena and mitigate the impacts on air, land, or water. My own sense is that these departments are generally very sophisticated and are up to the task.

  1. Costs: reduce overall costs

Most people, governments, and businesses look closely at the costs in dollars since that is a primary measurement of value in our society. We view our savings, reduced costs, or costs avoided to a lesser degree. These can be significant, especially when viewed broadly such as the time-value to the driver either sitting in traffic, not being able to get to work or appointments on time, emergency responders including ambulances being slowed or stuck in traffic, and the increased opportunity for secondary collisions. Still, other impacts on the environment may be affected and add to global warming. What are the impacts on plants and animals which share our planet and sometimes may represent the “canary in the coal mine”. While direct costs in dollars serve an important purpose, viewing the wider range of costs, including those that are difficult or may not lend themselves to being valued in dollars, can be a challenge. In fact, progress in some areas such as environmental impacts and climate change may not be adequately valued in dollars, in spite of the fact that there are real financial impacts. Taking the “big picture” of the real or estimated costs in dollars or other value systems is difficult. Still, this must be done to more fairly assess the impacts to and within the built and natural environments. Otherwise, decision-making, which always has inherent flaws or risks, will not result in optimal judgments. Our ability to make more informed decisions on the total costs is evolving and improving in many parts of our society, including in transportation and mobility. Some of the systems enabling decision-making are well founded and continue to be well used, such as engineering economics. Others such as balancing the built and natural environments are more challenging but are improving within the emerging discipline of sustainability.

  1. Time: reduce travel time

There is only so much time. Most of us are very protective of it. If we cherish our time, then it makes sense to place a value on it. Increasingly this is done. For example, placing a dollar value on a driver’s time and doing a calculation for a construction contractor’s incentive if work is completed early, or conversely charging a disincentive if work is completed late. Driven by increasing demand for digital technology and collaboration, the transportation/mobility system future promises a transition from a fragmented multimodal system to one connected, seamless, intermodal system that will optimize travel time for each of us.

  1. Support: leverage emerging, business intelligence/analysis, data, and decision-making systems

The six previous tenants are ideas that cannot be achieved without an underlying support system. While these are based on education and research and development, emerging technologies are building tools for creating better built and natural environments. The rapidly evolving arena of the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, business intelligence, and analytics, augmented and virtual reality and others are great, especially when considering the Apple iPhone was only released in 2007. Digital technology is a significant driver in this brave new world of transportation and mobility. Another significant driver is our human ability to collaborate for the greater societal good. Using these emerging tools to create a better transportation and mobility system will be a significant step.

The above seven tenants do not supplant the process of planning, design, construction, operations, and maintenance. At least until there is a better way, these do not supplant many other important elements such as a strong safety culture and program, annual needs assessments and their costs or savings, preserving the existing system, utilization of asset management tools, assessing and documenting infrastructure condition, and monitoring and managing traffic speed and volume.

It is the utility of all tools that will optimize outcomes in creating a better world for us and our posterity.

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

– Socrates

Transportation and Infrastructure Executive Daily Operations: a Generic Outline and Primer

28 Friday Dec 2018

Posted by in Collaboration, Leadership, Learning and Success, Management, Results, Team-Building, Transportation, Trust

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Executive leadership requires a complete and evolving set of tools, including maintaining a big picture perspective and delving into details as necessary. This spectrum of leadership, management, and oversight manifests itself in daily activities. As such, I have borrowed from my own experience in developing the generic outline below for conducting daily activities. Every person develops their own unique daily routines. Thus, I emphasize that this is simply a generic outline and primer based on my own experience.

Leadership Style

People-Based, Results-Driven

A basic premise

Opportunity + Preparation = Success

Personnel Management

People-based: You lead people and manage things, but it is all about people: first who, then what (Good to Great).

  • “feedback loops” and continuous improvement
  • trust
  • relationships
  • collaboration
  • alignment
  • humility
  • listening
  • common courtesy
  • consistent communication

What’s most important? Employees. Select the right people, set the right expectations, provide the right tools and training, provide opportunities, help them succeed and develop leaders. They will take care of the clients. “We listen, we solve.”

Overall, set the vision, values, direction, culture, priorities, and coach within a framework where people can flourish.

Results-driven

  • “feedback loops” and continuous improvement
  • strategic plan: goals and performance measures
  • the future of transportation is at a “tipping point”
    • public-private partnerships (ramped up collaboration)
    • digital technology revolution

Daily Operations

  • “feedback loops” and continuous improvement
  • outreach to employees, clients, client’s clients, stakeholders and partners
  • ensure trust/relationships
  • ensure collaboration
  • leverage emerging technologies
  • ensure alignment
  • identify issues, problems, obstacles and fix them: continuous improvement

Goals

  • routine goals:
    • ensure linkage to strategic/long-term and near-term goals
    • balance everything against risks
    • do an assessment of employees, new and existing clients, stakeholders and partners
  • new goals to consider:
    • expand market share with existing clients…understand client interests and issues, win work, exceed expectations, repeat clients
    • develop new clients and expand transportation (roads, bridges, rail, transit, aviation, ports etc), through planning, design, construction management, CEI, program and project management, and other services as the preferred provider, including through staff augmentation
    • be a tier 1 provider of planning, design, construction, operations, maintenance, and support services
    • build image-increase visibility with various interests, including existing and new clients-legislatures, city councils, county commissions, transportation commissions, dots, aeronautics/airports, economic developers and departments, emergency management, AGC/contractors, ACEC/consultants, ASCE, AASHTO, ARTBA, ITSA, ATA, APWA, PMI, IHEEP, universities/colleges, MPOs, ACO/counties, LOM/cities, UP, BNSF, short line railroads, USDOT, FHWA, FAA, FTA, FRA, USACE, and others
    • assess the efficacy of acquisitions/mergers
    • support and collaborate with other line business sectors
    • monitor and assist growing bridge programs…design and construction
    • assess the efficacy of alternative delivery…DB, CMGC, PPP
    • assess economic stimulus of work…jobs created, taxes generated, spending/re-spending, etc
    • prepare, emphasize and execute sustainability across all business sectors
    • explore/expand:
      • teaming with contractors, consultants, and others-collaborate to win business
      • efficacy of targeted acquisitions/mergers
      • efficacy of new markets

The world is changing and we must change with it. Traditional engineering and construction are not enough.

Commit to the success of team, organization, clients, partners, and stakeholders.

Good to Great by Jim Collins, 2001, HarperBusiness, NY

Owner’s Readiness

12 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by in Leadership, Management, Owner

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An owner’s readiness to the success or failure of projects is not limited to major projects as described by Prieto (PM World Journal, Volume III, Issue 1, January 2014, entitled “Owner’s Readiness Index”) although this provides a useful background for discussion. Experience suggests risks to all projects unless certain owner elements are in place to enable project success. I will briefly touch upon some of these elements.

These elements are structured in the following areas.

  • Owner readiness with respect to clearly articulated strategic business objectives.
  • Owner readiness with respect to a clearly articulated decision framework and process.
  • Owner readiness with respect to planning and execution.

Owner readiness with respect to strategic business objectives

Vulnerabilities can unwittingly enter owner readiness like any human-designed system. This can especially be true when owners lack project experience and attempt to manage myriad relationships that are so complex that they can defy thorough understanding. There are several dimensions to this shortcoming to include:

  • Poorly defined or articulated vision, mission and objectives.
  • Inadequate alignment between various partners including elected officials, appointed officials, interest groups, planners and executors, the public and similar or corresponding partners in the private sector.
  • Inadequate communication and support of the “intent” to include the vision, mission and objectives.

Thinking through a strategy with clearly defined objectives requires experience. If this is not done well from the beginning then the project is at risk and the likelihood of failure increases. This is made increasingly complicated since many owner partnerships with differing agendas may be involved. Public sector partnerships might include federal, state and local elected and appointed officials, planners and executors, interest groups and private sector expertise as an extension of the public workforce. A similar collection of partnerships may exist with private sector owners.

While alignment and buy-in are essential to the success of any project, this is greatly facilitated by strong leadership and direction. Moreover, the strategy, to include the strategic business objectives, must be continuously communicated and supported. This greatly impacts maintaining alignment.

Inadequate focus on the strategy and strategic business objectives also allows biases to enter the process, causing increased risks to include delays, uncertainty and confusion. The assumption that there is a shared understanding of the strategy and strategic business objectives may result in suboptimal performance, delays and even failure.

Owner’s readiness with respect to decision framework and process

Planning and execution frameworks and processes greatly impact project success. As such, owners must have a secure grasp on these frameworks to provide stability and direction through the processes. These include but are not limited to:

  • Business model and scenarios with regards to the project.
  • Governance structure that provides clear leadership, accountability, alignment and confidence in the strategy.
  • Clearly defined roles and responsibilities to include an approval matrix and constraints. Executive involvement must be defined as a part of this without inhibiting the initiative of planners and executors.
  • Phasing and who needs to be involved at each phase.
  • Process clarity and timing to include approvals.

Decision frameworks and processes are key dimensions of an owner’s readiness. As such, owners must have a secure handle on them to provide stable and confident leadership and direction. As with the strategy and strategic business objectives, an assumption that there is a shared understanding can be a significant risk to project success.

Owner readiness with respect to planning and execution

The owner’s organization must have a clearly defined capability to provide oversight of project implementation, to include planning and execution. This includes:

  • An ability to assess his or her own project team’s performance, partly to ensure they are enabling contractors and consultants to implement the project efficiently and effectively while not duplicating efforts or erecting barriers to success.
  • Ensure reports on project progress are efficiently provided to partners and stakeholders.
  • Ensure that the project is in compliance with the scope, schedule and budget and clearly defined in the contract and as augmented by other administrative requirements.
  • Ensure that plans and execution approaches are aligned and staffed with individuals with the right competencies to achieve the strategic business objectives. Plans should support required owner approvals and associated processes.

Summary

The owner’s strategy for a successful project must be supported by strong leadership and a transparent and clear business strategy. A shared understanding of the strategy, strategic business objectives, decision framework and process, planning and execution is key to project success. The assumption that a shared understanding exists puts a project at significant risk.

“Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.”

– Confucius

A Few Common Foundational Elements of Leadership and Management

08 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by in Leadership, Management, Relationships, Team-Building

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Below are some common foundational elements of leadership and management. This is primarily “a top of mind” list based on my experience. This list is neither comprehensive nor unique to me.

Leadership matters—people-based, results-driven; provide direction, remove obstacles; be accountable and responsible for everything that does or does not happen; take blame; give credit; be action-oriented; lead change; systematize; develop leaders; be authentic—to thine own self be true

Know the business

Know the industry

Attract and retain talent and build the team—they are the ones that get the results

Relationships matter—trust, transparency and alignment

Communicate a lot, especially listen

Collaborate constantly

Delegate authority and responsibility (accountability cannot be delegated)

Don’t tolerate micromanagement or bureaucratic nonsense

Focus on a clear and simple mission

Focus on results (outcomes), not process—oriented on a few, simple, elegant performance measures that drive the mission

Focus on continuous improvement

Focus on evidence-based decision-making

Be frugal—spend money as though it is your own

Leverage technology, and allow for changes in technology

Develop economies of scale

Develop feedback loops

Develop simple, elegant, consistent messaging

Develop simple, actionable focused reports

Balance everything against risks

Balance change, directives and control with empowerment, delegation, trust and relationships

Recognize individual and team success—this raises them as an example to others and themselves

Always use simple courtesy and appreciation—say thank you

Celebrate success and have fun

Feel free to add other items to this list or develop your own list of leadership and management foundational elements. What’s important is to be mindful of the foundational elements that work for you so that you can reflect and improve them. Leadership and management are aspirational goals that are never achieved or finished.

“Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance.”

-J. Donald Waters

“Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.”

-Harold S. Geneen

“The leader is one who mobilizes others toward a goal shared by leaders and followers… Leaders, followers and goals make up the three equally necessary supports for leadership.”

-Gary Willis

Leadership: People Skills and Getting Results

08 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by in Leadership, Management, Relationships

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As part of my leadership philosophy, I separate the leadership of people from the management of things for getting results. Inherently people cannot be managed and in fact resist it. However, they can be led with clear goals, direction and working on something they are highly motivated toward and that is greater than themselves. That said, the management is essential.

First and foremost, a mission statement must be clearly established. That is the ultimate aim. For a department of transportation (dot), and depending on their responsibilities, it is generally accurate to say they “provide a safe, reliable and sustainable transportation system for the movement of people and goods while improving the economy, mobility and environment”.

Based on my experience, I believe a dot must establish a relatively small group (10-15) of specific and measurable goals (performance measures) that should be divided into two groups:

  1. Strategic goals or outcomes (6-8) and
  2. Enablers (7-9) that support the achieving those goals.

It is fairly common to measure too many goals in a dot because nearly everyone has a different opinion of what is important, especially if it is the work they are doing. However, these goals must be vetted and the organization aligned with their achievement. There are essentially seven strategic goals/outcomes for dots:

  • Safety
  • Jobs and Commerce
  • Mobility
  • Access
  • Environmental Stewardship
  • Infrastructure Preservation
  • Customer Service/Satisfaction

While I have not defined these, there could be subsets to at least one. Customers can be defined as the public but also legislatures/congress and various partners such as construction contractors, consultants, truckers, shippers, etc. I mention this because in the end, it is the satisfaction of the customers, supported by the partners, that makes funding, political support, collaboration and a lot of other things work.

Enablers may include:

  • Project Delivery
  • Asset Management
  • Fiscal Responsibility/ROI
  • Collaboration/Partnership
  • Workforce Development
  • Leverage Technology (think digital technology, a subject transforming transportation)
  • Risk Management

It is important to note that everything that is important cannot be measured. Also, focus can be lost if too many things are measured.

That said, everything is in a constant process of improvement and so it must be for dots and the industry to remain competitive.

One of the more intriguing data I have come across on the subject of people versus management of goals/results is from the Harvard Business Review, December 27, 2013 entitled “Should leaders focus on results, or on people?” by Matthew Lieberman. His article reports that if a leader has great social skills only 12% of people consider him a great leader. If a leader has great results skills he is considered great by 14% of people. If a leader has both skill sets the percentage of people rating him a great leader sky rockets to 78%. However, less than 1% of leaders are rated high in both goal focus and social skills.

Another study entitled “High-Resolution Leadership: A Synthesis of 15,000 Assessments into How Leaders Shape the Business Landscape” by Development Dimensions International or DDI, 2016, www.ddiworld.com/hirezleadership, covered 300 companies from 18 countries. This study reflected that of the eight highest interaction skills, empathy overwhelmingly tops the list as the most critical driver of overall performance, followed closely by involving others (i.e. engagement). Both relate to higher leader performance in decision making and planning. Overall, the study suggests that leaders need high emotional intelligence (empathy) in their daily dealings with people as well as high cognitive abilities in more intellectual pursuits such as strategy and financial management.

“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.”

-Peter F. Drucker

A Primer on Leadership and Management

22 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by in Leadership, Management

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The synthesis of strategy, operations and tactics in leadership and management is perhaps unique for each individual. However, there are some basic tenants that are probably shared by many. As one example, I provide my approach and framework to outline real-world leadership and management. This begins with my leadership style.

People-Based, Results-Driven

First, what does it mean to be people-based? I have adopted the philosophy that: You lead people and manage things, but it us all about people. Jim Collins (Good to Great, Harper Business, 2011) has put a fine point on this by stating “first who, then what”. This reflects that what is most important in any organizations are its people, but not just any people. They must be the right people. Some of the elements of this are: select the right people, set the right expectations, provide the right tools and training, provide growth opportunities, help them succeed and develop them as leaders. My working premise is that the role of leadership is to develop more leaders to lead people and get results. If this is done well, they will take care of the customers and clients.

Some other elements of successful leadership and management include:

  • “feedback loops” and continuous improvement
  • trust
  • relationships
  • collaboration
  • engagement
  • alignment
  • humility
  • listening
  • common courtesy
  • consistent communication
  • have fun

At more senior levels the responsibilities include setting the vision, values, direction, culture, priorities, establishing a plan with specific and measurable performance measures and coaching within a framework where people can flourish.

There is an adage used in the Army: “people first, mission always”. There has been considerable discourse on how this is done, especially given that soldiers are trained to be sent into harms way in combat. James H. Zenger and Joseph R. Folkman (The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders, The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009) studied two elements—results focus versus social skills—and found that great leaders find a way to shift and balance these two foci. A focus on results or social skills alone results in “mediocre leadership”. So, what does it mean to be results-driven? In simplest terms this means achieving specific and measurable goals. The coin of the realm in the private sector are profits while in the public sector it is serving the public good.

Daily Operations

  • “feedback loops” and continuous improvement
  • outreach to employees, clients, client’s-clients, stakeholders and partners
  • ensure trust/relationship
  • ensure collaboration
  • ensure engagement
  • ensure alignment
  • ensure results
  • identify issues, problems, obstacles and fix them
  • balance everything against risks
  • continuously assess employees, new and existing clients, stakeholders and partners
  • remain humble
  • listen first and foremost
  • extend simple courtesy and appreciation
  • communicate a lot
  • have fun

The world is changing and we must change with it. I hope this primer is useful.

“In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.”

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow