From Self to Community: The Use of Powerful Questions at the Midwest Transportation Workforce Summit

The critical task of developing a transportation workforce strategy challenges the transportation industry as it faces a loss of workers to retirement and separation over the next ten years. While there are many efforts in place to build a pipeline of talent for this sector, transportation stakeholders continue to act in isolation limiting their work to a single mode or an occupation. In 2015, the Midwest Transportation Workforce Center (MTWC) adopted Collective Impact, a structured approach to cross-sector collaboration as its overarching framework for engagement and community building. Numerous change management approaches exist that can be used in a Collective Impact initiative. This paper describes the approach used in the Midwest Transportation Workforce Summit, centered on the use of powerful questions—open-ended questions that prompt clarity and action, to move discussion beyond current workforce problems to an alternate future. MTWC’s goal was to develop a different experience for its Summit attendees –one that examined the individuals’ role in perpetuating the problem and seeking commitments to change behavior. The Summit’s goal was to get attendees to move from self-interest to a more caring and holistic view of the transportation workforce that includes an appreciation for the complexities inherent in a multi-modal and multi-occupational sector. The use of powerful questions offers planners a framework to accelerate action among groups that typically work in silos. The approach offers promise for changes in attitudes and behaviors, a critical first step for systems change.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABG20 Standing Committee on Transportation Education and Training.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Adams, Teresa M
  • Hart, Maria Viteri
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
• Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 13p
• Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Communities; Stakeholders; Transportation planning; Workforce
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Education and Training; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01623368
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 17-06865
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jan 24 2017 3:31PM