Building Successful Partnerships With Transportation Agencies Through Program Management

One of the most important things we do working daily with clients is to be part of the team. By showing we’re being successful, you start to build trust. You build that trust by understanding emotional intelligence and how people receive the information you deliver.

If someone is a driver or motivated, they’re typically not going to listen to a long-winded answer. You need to be concise and to the point. A few minutes later, you may talk to someone who’s data-heavy and needs that exact same solution in a much more data-centric way. In both cases, you’re getting that trust because you’re understanding the information and parsing it in a way they can absorb.

I’ve always believed that building trust in the long term begins with relationships. Nothing is more important than that. Now, the downside is that building relationships takes time. It doesn’t just happen automatically. Because we work on some big projects, many stakeholder groups exist, including agencies, private citizens, consultants, and partners.

When we’re discussing relationships with stakeholders, we need transparency and honesty. They’re dependable, and they can be trusted. You need the trust of the stakeholders to accomplish the goal.

As a former owner and leader at two national transit agencies, it’s become clear that perspective is of utmost importance in building a successful partnership. As professional service providers, our first perspective should always be from the client’s standpoint. Our partnership can bring solutions, but we must first take the time to understand the client’s needs to build relationships from their perspective.

On the private sector side, we have our internal perspectives and obligations that we manage each day. However, our partnership with the client should be based on an outward-facing perspective that places their needs, challenges, and commitments first.

As a program manager, you look at the process, systems, and procedures with an open mind. You should ask questions about what’s there, what’s available, and how they deliver their work. How that client does their work may differ from the organization down the hall, so ensure you fully understand them to build their trust by being observant, asking questions, and reading documentation.

I previously served as a client when I was at NCDOT before coming to Gannett Fleming. Large agencies have set policies and ways to do things. It’s a big ship; you don’t turn it on a dime. It takes some time, effort, and planning to implement new processes.

We enhance existing processes and systems within our client organizations by first complying with the requirements and embracing the existing system. Once your credibility is established as a user, clients will be open to feedback and suggestions that enhance those processes—especially if the suggestions are based on experience from agencies or organizations attempting to solve similar problems.

Every project can start great, but sometimes it has tough challenges. You can cycle back to trust and communication. As the program manager, you’ll probably have that sort of sixth sense when something won’t go right. It’s always important to have stakeholder engagement. It’s what they’re not saying that could be a problem.

When I worked at NCDOT, our stakeholders were the public. And they’re the property owners—the people impacted by the transportation projects. You can involve many people and personalities, and things can get off track quickly in that scenario, especially in your public meetings. Find that common interest. We all know that involving many people never gets everybody to agree on everything. Full alignment is much more powerful than full agreement.

Early and clear communication about the topics is vital when dealing with challenging project issues that cause “turbulence.” Stakeholder relationship management can only be effective if we listen to our clients, work together to jointly define a course forward in coordination with the client, and follow up (early and often) to verify that the corrective action has eliminated the turbulence altogether. Be direct, clear, specific, and on-point with communication.

This is a great question. State DOTs have a set transportation improvement program to deliver each year while technology rapidly evolves. In working with our public sector clients, we know many rules, regulations, policies, and procedures in design manuals and publications take time to change. There’s a continued effort to update those, but sometimes technology outpaces those standards.

The biggest thing is to collaborate with the client actively, and a lot of it has to do with understanding what efforts will be involved and what the right size is for the client’s needs. Develop a plan and put it into action. When well executed, I’ve always said that a C+ plan always trumps an A discussion that goes nowhere.

The future of transportation is changing—mostly due to advances in technology. A key step in helping the client evolve involves educating them on technological advances so they become experts on the latest industry trends. Embracing technological advances in areas that drive individual and team successes will also prepare the agency for the future—but we must take the time to work together and educate each other in meaningful areas to best prepare and position the organization for the future.