Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) is a relatively new concept in some transportation agencies. When Paul Manyisha, Tunnel Manager at Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) enrolled in the Operations Academy Senior Management Program at the University of Maryland, he had a lot to learn about how it worked, and how best to implement a new framework of TSMO culture into his agency.
He received many important takeaway lessons from his experience last year at the Operations Academy, but he counts improving his communication skills as the most impactful. Learning the art of storytelling, idea pitching, and the most effective ways to present new information to stakeholders helps him daily in his role as tunnel manager.
His favorite session had been specifically about storytelling. As a “stereotypical” engineer—that is, one who isn’t much of a talker, he learned to appreciate the value of tailoring his plans to the appropriate audience, understanding the specific interests of different stakeholders, and communicating his plans effectively to win their support.
“I took a lot of innovation and ideas and shared them with my leadership and my team,” he said. “I have been working to make TSMO part of my agency’s culture. It’s a concept that has grown, and although it may have existed under different names, now it is about adopting it as TSMO and bringing it all into the next generation.”
In his department, which is very focused on safety, applying TSMO practices has become even more important. At PennDOT, Traffic Incident Management meetings occur regularly. In these meetings, they coordinate with first responders and emergency management to discuss better ways to respond to accidents.
“These discussions get better when you apply better communication practices, which is a TSMO principle,” he continued. “I have a crew of 80 people who handle incident management inside and outside the tunnels. Our main responsibility is to clear traffic and get it moving again. We are improving the way we do this because I’m making TSMO practices a priority on my team.”
He learned to elevate the social side of engineering and found great benefit in networking with the other industry professionals he met at the Operations Academy. The ability to call on those people with whom he connected has remained a great advantage to his time in the Operations Academy.
“Those connections have been so important,” he explained. “There were a lot of different agencies, organizations and other DOTs, and a lot of us were either in the same boat, or a bit behind in terms of where we strive to be in implementing TSMO.”
The time spent talking to people who faced similar challenges before, and now have moved to a better place so they can help others out was extremely enlightening.
“Hearing from people who need help with problems we’ve faced already and asking us for help since we’ve been through it is a very useful experience,” Paul said. “Seeing different perspectives from each organization is really helpful, and we can see that in some way, we can all help each other.”
The Operations Academy put everyone together at the same table—first responders, truck drivers, operators, managers, engineers, and others.
“We give each other an idea of what we’re going through, and you can see everyone’s side of things. Teaching us all how to see from different perspectives is something extremely useful and helping us all see that is something the Operations Academy does very well,” he said.
