Minnesota: Streamlining the Department of Transportation
CPCS advised leaders in the Minnesota Department of Transportation on business processes to align constituent parts with the organization’s overall vision.
The challenge
The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has a broad and complex mission supported by a decentralized organizational structure.
However, its constituent districts and offices vary in terms of business planning maturity.
This variation makes it difficult for MnDOT to ensure that all activities align with the agency’s overall mission and priorities.
What we did
MnDOT selected CPCS to help with the design, implementation and assessment of agency-wide business planning.
“A sound business planning process is more than developing a guide telling you how to get from A to B,” says Camille Wu, transportation expert at CPCS. “It’s about working with staff members at all levels to change the institutional culture, systems and structures. This is a process in which the agency begins to move away from ‘business as usual’ decision-making and towards a performance and outcomes-based model.”
How CPCS proceeded:
- Assessed business planning needs and desired outcomes of MnDOT’s offices and districts through robust stakeholder engagement efforts
- Developed a customized business planning maturity model
- Created a live business planning template
- Organized over 44 business planning training sessions for districts and offices across the State of Minnesota
- Developed customized business planning rubrics, accountability plans, monitoring guides and evaluation frameworks
- Provided strategic advice on performance indicators for MnDOT’s Strategic Operating Plan
Impact
Business planning has been done in state agencies elsewhere, but MnDOT’s FY20-21 approach differs in several important ways:
- Strategic alignment
- Decentralization
- Inclusion
- “Living” plans
- Capacity building
“We see business planning as a fundamental part of prioritizing our work efforts and aligning them with agency goals. Our business plan will serve as an ongoing framework for decision-making as our office and agency adapt to meet the challenges ahead of us.” – Tom Styrbicki, Director, Office of Project Management and Technical Support.
