When Rashad Rice enrolled in the Operations Academy Senior Management Program in 2022, he was Operations Manager in the Maryland State Highway Administration for the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT). He credits his advancement to Division Chief of Transportation Management Center Operations at least in part to the skills and knowledge he gained while in the OA, giving him a wider view of the concept of transportation systems management and operations (TSMO). It was exactly what he needed as he moved forward in his career.
Rashad began his career as a contractor in 2014 but moved five positions up the ladder since that time. Because of the expediency of his growth, he felt he might not have spent enough time gaining experience while on the lower levels. When he arrived at the Operations Academy and began taking the sessions, he immediately began to see how much more involvement there must be between stakeholders across the board in transportation.
“I felt like I was a little out of place, but I got to see right away that there were others at the Operations Academy who felt the same,” Rashad said. “That feeling was due to how quickly I had moved up and that I lacked much experience in one place. But in the Operations Academy, there are people from every facet of the industry, and everyone is in the same place, trying to learn what other states are doing and how everything is structured.”
Because he was feeling out of place, Rashad was at first reluctant to ask questions. But very soon he saw that others were in the same situation, which helped him open up more, expanded his communication process, and helped him find new ways to approach his engineering division.
Some states are more siloed, and others are doing multitudes of things with other agencies. Rashad observed how they collaborated and how they got their initiatives through their divisions and applied what he saw to his own role in MDOT.
He learned that he could be most beneficial by using the tactics he learned in the Operations Academy to improve communications across the board in his agency.
“One of my strong suits is people management,” he said. “I’m in TMC Operations, but communication is the most important aspect of TSMO and it’s what we do as far as operations goes. I learned how people have gotten around red tape and other roadblocks and took what I learned back and modified it to how we operated to make communications more efficient on my end as it pertains to operations.”
With his background in mechanics, he had not had much experience in doing presentations before becoming a manager. A session on communications, led by Shelley Rowe, demonstrated the importance of conveying his ideas effectively to an audience.
It was a transformative session, and it showed the impact of excellent communication and how it could be connected to the TSMO strategies he was charged with conveying to his leadership.
“It made me become a better communicator in my agency,” he said. “It bridges a lot of gaps. In my state, we are a bit siloed, but she taught us how to bring everyone to the table and show everyone what part they play in TSMO.”
As an operator supervisor, it’s easy to simply stay in one area and do the same things. “But as a manager, I now see a larger picture, and the Operations Academy had a huge part in helping me understand that larger picture,” he said.
Rashad’s network expanded exponentially, and his connection to other people in the same roles in other states opened his world.
“The depth you get into with what you learn in the Operations Academy, and the networking with others is invaluable,” he said. “It’s very challenging, but if you put your head down and give it all your attention, you will definitely reap the benefits.”
