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Developing Context Sensitive Solutions for California

2005-06 Training Project Summary Report

Training Project Team

Caltrans—Division of Design, Landscape Architecture Program

Caltrans—Legal Division, Tort Litigation and Risk Management

University of California–Berkeley, Institute of Transportation Studies,
Technology Transfer Program

CH2M HILL, Inc.

Developing Context Sensitive Solutions for California

2005-06 Training Project Summary Report

During the 2005–2006 fiscal year, Caltrans delivered fourteen 3-day training sessions to 424 Caltrans employees and 154 external partners (mostly local agency personnel) on how to implement context sensitive solutions (CSS) in California. This training project was sponsored and managed by the Caltrans Division of Design, Landscape Architecture Program, through an agreement with the University of California, Institute of Transportation Studies, Technology Transfer Program (Tech Transfer), who brought in an instructional team from CH2M HILL to develop and deliver the training series around California. This report summarizes the results of this training program, including learning objectives, participant demographics, evaluations and feedback from training participants, and recommendations for next steps, including how to remove some of the barriers to CSS implementation that were identified by participants.

Course Objectives

Each 3-day training session was delivered free to participants, who started by learning the definition and guiding principles behind CSS, then went through an 8-step approach suitable for using CSS in a broad range of Caltrans activities. This approach is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: 8-Step Context Sensitive Solutions Approach

Training modules focused on procedural steps by pairing lectures with hands-on exercises conducted in small multidiscipline, multi-agency groups. The exercises allowed each group to work through a customized case study derived from a real California highway project. The training also incorporated skill-building modules focused on understanding team dynamics, conflict prevention, and collaborative decision making.

The objectives of each module are summarized below.

Introductory Module: What is CSS?

• Understand definition and guiding principles of CSS.
• Understand “context” and be able to identify context elements in a variety of settings.
• Learn steps of a CSS approach.

Process Modules

Stakeholder Engagement

• Recognize the elements of successful stakeholder involvement.
• Learn to identify stakeholders, plan for stakeholder involvement, and identify effective methods of stakeholder involvement.

Problem Statement Development

• Identify attributes of effective “solution-neutral” problem statements.
• Explore approaches for development of problem statements that incorporate “context” information and public perceptions.

Evaluation Framework Development

• Understand the usefulness of an evaluation framework in collaborative decision making.
• Understand the basic rules for creating evaluation criteria and performance measures and approaches for integrating stakeholder input.

Alternatives Development

• Understand the basic rules for developing alternatives in a CSS approach.
• Consider approaches for linking alternatives to the identified problem.
• Recognize that “design” is a series of choices, not mandates, and understand the implications of these choices.
• Explore creativity in alternative development.

Alternative Evaluation and Selection

• Understand the basic rules for alternative evaluation and selection in a CSS approach.
• Review terminology and methods for evaluating traffic operational quality.
• Understand concepts of safety and methods to evaluate safety effects of decisions.
• Understand how to use evaluation criteria to determine value tradeoffs and distinguish among alternatives.

Tort Liability

• Learn that using design flexibility and engineering judgment to apply CSS principles will not increase liability.

Skill-Building Modules

Team Dynamics

• Introduce team dynamics concepts.
• Identify personal work preference styles.

Dealing with Conflict

• Understand the nature of conflict and how collaborative communication can be used to prevent conflict.
• Explore communication tools and behaviors that assist with conflict prevention.
• Identify approaches for conflict management.

Consensus Decision Making

• Be able to define consensus decisions.
• Learn a technique for facilitating consensus decision making.

Participant Demographics

The course was delivered fourteen times—once in every Caltrans district and twice in Sacramento. A total of 578 individuals attended the sessions between March 2005 and March 2006 (92% of those who registered attended). A breakdown of participation by district is shown in Figure 2.

Approximately three-fourths of all participants were Caltrans staff, representing a wide range of functional units. Figure 3 shows the breakdown of participation by agency type. Figure 4 shows the breakdown of Caltrans participants by job title/function.

Participant Course Evaluation

The participants’ response to the course was consistently positive. On a scale of 1 to 4, with 4= excellent, 3 = good, 2 = fair, and 1 = poor, average scores in our quantitative evaluation were between 3.2 and 3.8. Figure 5 summarizes responses to a few of the key evaluation criteria. (Note: Data from the Redding class was collected, but lost in transit and is unavailable for this report.)

Handwritten comments on the evaluation forms supplemented this quantitative evaluation. Participants indicated the most useful elements of the course to be the discussions of:

• Stakeholder engagement
• Alternative development and evaluation
• Consensus building
• Conflict prevention
• Tort liability.

A few felt that a shorter version of the training with increased focus on how to implement CSS in Caltrans’ own project delivery process would be helpful.

Feedback from Participants on CSS Implementation

Each training series ended with a 90-minute “feedback session” designed to collect observations from participants about how CSS could be useful in their own work at their own agencies. The instructors also asked about participants’ perceptions of the barriers that would inhibit their ability to integrate CSS practices into their work. Despite the diversity of participants, the feedback was consistent across all series. For the remainder of this report, we focus on responses from Caltrans training participants only.

Benefits of CSS

Participants identified three key benefits of implementing a CSS approach for Caltrans projects:

1. Increased efficiency. The CSS approach speeds project delivery and decision making. Participants pointed out that a lack of stakeholder involvement early in the process costs time and money later. Addressing issues and concerns in the initial stages of planning and project development as part of a CSS process is seen as more efficient in the long run. CSS can help Caltrans “do it right the first time” and avoid wasting money on alternatives that are not viable.
2. Ability to build partnerships. Use of CSS builds greater trust and cooperation with agency partners and the public. Involving stakeholders in a CSS process generates project support and improves Caltrans’ image in the community. CSS provides the structure to build consensus among stakeholder groups with competing interests. CSS processes help internal and external stakeholders learn about and understand each others’ issues and values, resulting in better partnerships.
3. Opportunity to balance transportation and community needs. CSS provides a way to improve consideration of multi-modal solutions, take into account community values and local knowledge about problems, explore innovative solutions, and improve the quality of transportation projects. CSS is seen as an avenue for creating “win–win” scenarios.

Barriers to CSS Implementation

Participants identified three major barriers to CSS:

1. Skill gaps. Participants specifically identified the need for more Caltrans staff with experience in meeting facilitation and public involvement. Participants felt additional skill training would be needed for successful application of CSS tools. While many participants were eager to integrate CSS approaches taught during the course, they felt they would not be able to move forward with confidence on their own because of such issues as limited staff and funding resources, potential lack of support from project development team members or management, and inadequate skills to involve stakeholders.
2. Existing project delivery process. Participants stated that some of the existing Caltrans planning and project development processes can hinder CSS implementation. For example, resources in the K Phase to develop scope, budgets, and timeframes are not always adequate for completing CSS process elements; additional resources need to be “front loaded” to accomplish early stakeholder outreach. Typically, “solutions” for various transportation problems are developed before there is adequate opportunity for community involvement. Participants indicated that some of Caltrans’ internal business practices often conflict with CSS outcomes.
3. Existing institutional culture. Participants indicated that while CSS is consistent with existing Caltrans policy and guidance, it is not consistent with current practices. Participants stated that general attitudes need to be changed if CSS implementation is to be accomplished. One group passes on the results of its work to another: planners to engineers to environmental specialists and landscape architects to construction and maintenance staff. There is little opportunity for collaboration in the early stages of project conceptualization. As in any organization, inertia makes it easier to continue relying on old ways of doing business, and staff may lack the necessary support from management or coworkers to implement new CSS processes in their daily activities.

Recommended Next Steps

The CSS training project helped build a solid understanding of what CSS approaches could do for project delivery in transportation in California. Hundreds of Caltrans staff across the state now have a much better grasp on why Caltrans’ leadership has elected to implement these concepts. However, one 3-day training series does not provide all the support needed for changing institutional culture and procedures. The thoughtful comments we heard from Caltrans staff across the districts suggest that to reach the goal of implementing CSS, additional steps are needed.

We recognize that removal of barriers to achieve institutionalization of CSS practices into Caltrans processes is a long-term endeavor and will ultimately require modification of some existing procedures and guidance. Caltrans’ staff will continue to need training to understand areas in which process and procedural modifications are needed as well as to build support for such changes.