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Organizational Development

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Organizational Development: Three Core Elements Of Byway Sustainability

The National Scenic Byways Program is a dynamic, grassroots program, based upon the shared vision and efforts of partners to protect, preserve, promote and enhance the intrinsic qualities and resources of their special roads. But what is it that makes byways sustainable? What is necessary to support lasting efforts of a byway organization? Byway groups work hard to obtain designation at the State, Federal lands, Indian tribe, or national level, often to next come up against the big question: “Now What? How do we keep this going?”

What supports the “sustainability” of byways?
The sustainability of byways and byway organizations around the country is critical to long-term success. Think of a sustainable byway as a three-legged stool, with the legs representing planning, intrinsic qualities and visitor Experience. If any leg of the stool is weaker than the others, the stability of the stool is compromised. Similarly, a byway that is unbalanced in any of these three areas has weaknesses that affect the byway’s stability or health.

The development of strong partnerships and successful planning efforts to support byways can be measured in direct correlation to a byway organization’s attention to these core elements that are essential to a byway’s sustainability.

Core Elements and the Interim Policy
Planning, intrinsic qualities and visitor experience are the core elements that make up the foundation of the National Scenic Byways Program. These three core elements are drawn from the Interim Policy for the Program, published in the Federal Register in 1995. The Interim Policy is the principal policy guiding the National Scenic Byways Program, and sets forth the criteria for the designation of roads as National Scenic Byways or All-American Roads based upon their scenic, historic, recreational, cultural, archaeological and/or natural intrinsic qualities, and establishes the 14 points necessary to address in a corridor management plan. The policy also emphasizes the necessity of byways to support a visitor’s experience in positive ways.

Each of the three core elements is multi-faceted yet interdependent. Following is an overview of the essential aspects that each of the three core elements addresses.

PLANNING
Corridor Management
A corridor management plan (CMP) is a written document that outlines how a byway organization plans to protect, promote, enhance and manage the intrinsic qualities of its byway. A byway’s CMP acts as the guiding document for all efforts of the byway group and as a key element in all planning. A corridor management plan is required if pursuing designation as a National Scenic Byway or All-American Road.

Organization
The National Scenic Byways Program is founded upon the grassroots strength of individual byway leaders and their groups. Organizing a byway and, further, sustaining a byway organization include important planning elements of:
• envisioning an ordered whole
• pulling people together
• giving the organization structure and order
• seeking united action

Byways need to develop and maintain strong, resilient, long-lived organizations made up of people who are strong proponents for byways.

Funding
Building a strong financial foundation is an important goal for all byways, and an important aspect of planning for byway organizations. Fundraising success is directly linked to other success factors: a clear vision, a healthy organization, active partnerships and sound planning. Byway groups need to make and implement effective, long-term funding plans and promote those plans to potential funders.

INTRINSIC QUALITIES
Inventory And Assessment
Intrinsic qualities arise from a particular combination of resources along a byway that together define its character, interest and appeal. A byway organization must be able to identify, inventory and assess the intrinsic qualities that are representative of the route. A byway organization must prove the regional or national significance of the intrinsic qualities for designation as a National Scenic Byway or All-American Road.

The Byway Story
A byway story is the intentional, coordinated message that the byway conveys to visitors to help them make connections with the resources and qualities that the byway promotes. What byway story can be formed from your inventory of intrinsic qualities to frame what a visitor could experience along your route? A byway organization must consider how to best interpret the resources and provide visitors with opportunities to experience the special intrinsic qualities and resources that make the route unique.

Protection And Promotion
The National Scenic Byways Program is based upon a balanced approach of protection and promotion of the intrinsic qualities and resources of America’s most treasured roads. Byways deliver an experience of all the parts and stories in the corridor. Byway organizations need to learn to identify the core character of the byway, inventory its resources and communicate the importance of those resources to the individuals and groups that have an immediate and future impact on the byways’ character.

VISITOR EXPERIENCE
Wayshowing
Wayfinding is what visitors do, and wayshowing is what your byway or byway organization needs to do. Can visitors effectively find their way along your byway? They will, if you first provide a well-planned guidance system based upon wayshowing principles to show the way. Byway organizations need to plan for how to safely and effectively guide the byway traveler to a positive experience with signage, maps and other means.

Accessibility
About one out of every five Americans has a functional impairment that limits daily life activities and two out of seven families are affected by disability. Compliance with Federal accessibility mandates is essential for byways that use National Scenic Byways Program grant funds, and applying universal design will increase accessibility for all people touring your route. Byway groups need to consider how travelers of many different abilities will experience the intrinsic qualities of the routes, and incorporate those considerations into the planning.

Marketing
Authentic experiences, event planning, marketing plans, collateral materials and itineraries all play distinctive and vital roles in providing access to your byway visitor experience. Successful marketing includes promoting your byway to target audiences. Byway organizations need to gain insight on this broad topic to effectively communicate specific messages to their current and potential visitors.

Resource Center Specialists: Helping Byways Work Toward Sustainability

The America’ Byways Resource Center works to provide designated byways with the training, education and resources that they need to succeed and build sustainable byways. One of the ways in which we do this is through providing one-on-one byway assistance. Byway Specialists from the Resource Center, currently a team of four knowledgeable staff members, provide tailored and responsive service to the nationally designated byways, State byway programs and tribes across the country.

Over the past two years, Byway Specialists have actively increased their interaction with byway customers, State coordinators and partner groups. Byway Specialists realize they are most effective in solidifying and sustaining strong byway relationships when they frequently communicate and meet with clients. Byway Specialists can frequently be found on the road several times a month, making those personalized connections and providing customized service.

Together, FHWA program staff and Resource Center Byway Specialists work to deliver consistent messages about the core elements of the Program as they communicate with and assist byways across the country. The services and training offered by the Resource Center support the three core elements of the National Scenic Byways Program, and Program staff at the Federal Highway Administration work to infuse the message of the three core elements into all of the materials they prepare. Sustainability of byways through committed public support is a an overarching Program element that encompasses all of these efforts.
Take a look at a few ways Byway Specialists have delivered high-quality training to the byways community over the last several months, focusing on the message of the three core elements of byway sustainability.

Core Element #1: Intrinsic Qualities
The Interim Policy for the National Scenic Byways Program established six intrinsic qualities as the fundamental building blocks of a byway’s designation—archaeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational and scenic. Often, passionate byway advocates feel that their road displays many or all of these intrinsic qualities; however, the Program encourages byway providers to focus on only the one or two qualities that are most representative and regionally significant for their areas. With the limited time and resources most byways face in their day-to-day activities, planning efforts are best served when a focus is kept on those qualities and resources that are most distinctive for their road.

Byway Specialist’s Service: Iowa’s Byways CMP Workshop
In July 2008, Byways Specialists from the Resource Center provided a day of training on corridor management planning to the statewide Iowa’s Byways planning group. Iowa is addressing the sustainability of its byways by contracting with the Iowa Resource, Conservation, and Development (RC&D) offices, which are affiliated with the USDA. Using State funds so that each volunteer byway group has a minimum level of staff support, the RC&Ds help to provide insight on networking opportunities with partners in their respective regions. They also provide planning support and advice on grant opportunities available that would reinforce the mission of the each byway group. Participants who attended the workshop were planners from each of the RC&Ds whose service area included a designated Iowa byway.

Byway Specialists Kathie Knapp and Bonnie Hundrieser developed a six-hour training course that engaged the RC&D byway leaders and helped them to build an understanding of the essential Program core elements. A special focus of the day was on understanding a byway’s intrinsic qualities. They began by asking the group of new byway participants to carefully read and understand definitions of the intrinsic qualities as stated in the Interim Policy. Using small group discussions, participants were then asked to evaluate a series of photos representative of byways across the country and label each as representing one of the six intrinsic qualities. Participants found value in this exercise by learning how important it is to carefully read the Policy definitions and to understand them before beginning an assessment of the existing sites along a road that represent the selected intrinsic quality of their byway. Participants also came to appreciate the importance of evaluating the qualities evident from the byway roadway and not a larger corridor. Additional emphasis throughout the day was not only on the “nuts and bolts” of what a CMP should include as specified by the Interim Policy, but also considerations of assuring a positive visitor experience. The Resource Center is continuing to work with the Iowa’s Byways program for future trainings.

Core Element #2: Planning
The Interim Policy for the National Scenic Byways Program establishes planning as a key component in the development of sustainable byways. This is emphasized in the requirement of a corridor management plan for national designation, and also in the planning considerations related to developing strong community support, obtaining funding and supporting the visitor’s experience (i.e., byway signage).

Byway Specialists continue to reinforce the message that a byway’s planning documents should each be unique and developed to meet the needs of an individual byway. Planning documents such as CMPs should be crafted to fit the needs and issues and resources or partnerships that exist at a local level. It is important to remember that no one is going to judge the quality of a byway’s plan, so long as it meets local needs. As outlined in the Interim Policy for the National Scenic Byways Program, designation as a National Scenic Byway requires that corridor management plans include information on 14 points outlined in the Interim Policy, with an additional three points for designation as an All-American Road.

Byways Specialist Curt Pianalto has recently engaged two byways with an exercise and subsequent tool that highlights and enables the possibilities of continued strategic planning efforts, specifically in working to engage all potential partners and stakeholders in a byway’s region. As part of larger strategic planning efforts in each case, Curt led the Copper Country National Scenic Byway and the Illinois River Road National Scenic Byway through a brainstorming activity in which the groups created a long list of existing, potential and, in some cases, unlikely partners and stakeholders. The brainstormed lists were then clustered into like groups.

The creation of a clustered list is just the beginning. By entering these lists into the organization matrix tool, an organization can look at each of these stakeholders and identify how and if they could be engaged with the organization. The Copper Country Trail NSB created lists totaling over 100 potential stakeholders and partners. But all of these potential stakeholders and partners couldn’t possibly be part of the formal organization, of course. This where the matrix tool comes in handy, helping the organization strategically through all of the stakeholders to quickly assess:

• Whether that stakeholder is currently engaged with the organization
• Whether that stakeholder has values and a vision that mesh with the organization’s
• Whether that stakeholder can mutual benefit to the organization
• How this stakeholder could or should be involved with the organization, using a spectrum spanning from communication-only to full-blown leadership of the organization

This can be a very useful tool for any organization regardless of its status. In the case of Copper Country, the group members are reflecting upon their current structure, and using the tool to possibly reorganize. Now, this is not a one-time exercise. This planning tool creates a long-term and ongoing commitment and effort to engage stakeholders.

Core Element #3: Visitor Experience
The Interim Policy for the National Scenic Byways Program establishes a focus on the visitor experience, as illustrated by an emphasis on good wayfinding signage, attention to visitor accessibility and strategic marketing that helps visitors know what to plan for and expect. Byways are designated not only to help protect the special character and resources of a particular area, but also to promote and share those resources with others who may come to visit.

As part of Byway Specialists’ toolbox of teaching tools, group participation techniques help byway providers understand visitors’ needs. Byways Specialists are impartial observers; they often recognize that individuals working on byways are so familiar with them that it is difficult to look at the byway from the point of view of a new traveler, one who is unfamiliar with the byway story, the road or the resources that are available along the road. Byways Specialists assume a principle responsibility to use techniques that help the volunteers and leaders of byways look at their routes with new eyes. Often, asking training session participants to look at their own experiences as travelers on an unfamiliar road is a useful way of helping folks see traveler needs. It is also useful to examine the policy statements about planning by asking what is missing to fully engage the traveler.

Leaders of the Flaming Gorge Scenic Byway in Utah recognized their byway needed a new plan for how visitors found their way along the byway. Leaders wanted to conduct a holistic planning activity along both the Utah and Wyoming portions of the byway. They sought information from the Resource Center about the concepts behind Effective Wayshowing, a topic Byways Specialists advocate to byways. Dennis Adams met with 15 or so of the byway leaders in September to review the concepts and help them organize a planning project.

The first important step in planning for the needs of a visitor is to know what a visitor needs to have a successful byway experience. Think of the layperson’s summary of these elements, as shown in the following example.

Successful byway travel translates to:

1. I know exactly where to start and where I’m going to end,
2. I never make a wrong turn,
3. I never go too short or too far and I always go the right way,
4. I always know what I’m looking at and
5. I understand where I am in the big picture.

A useful tool to get byway leaders thinking like a traveler is to do a small group exercise. Byways Specialists ask small groups to recall a trip experience not on their byway. What was the experience like? The groups are asked to list experiences that contributed to a good trip and equally important, the experiences that created bad trip memories. The results from Flaming Gorge are below. Once this group of byway leaders understood the needs of visitors, they could begin charting the elements of their plan and complete the process in the coming months.

[TABLE: “Think Like a Traveler” (“Good Trip” qualities in left column, “Bad Trip” qualities in right column)]
GOOD TRIP
Viewing wildlife
Wide variety of available activities
Accessibility

BAD TRIP
Rough road
Congestion - traffic and/or not safe
Bad directions and travel information

GOOD TRIP
Safe experience
Information: weather, facilities, costs, directions
Visitor use limited (not over-run)

BAD TRIP
Lost
Car problems
Bad company

GOOD TRIP
Fun in car
Good food
Opportunities unexpected

BAD TRIP
Lack of visitor use limits
Unsafe conditions
Too expensive - tourist trap

GOOD TRIP
Learn something
Natural wonders
Relaxing experience
Adventure fun
Seeing rare wildlife

BAD TRIP
Structures in disrepair
Easy to get lost
Bad customer service
Not authentic

GOOD TRIP
Scenic view
Informative signage
Clean, well-maintained facilities

BAD TRIP
Stressful
Not meet expectations
Not enough information
Poor customer service

GOOD TRIP
Resource - scenery, wildlife, people
Quality activities - recreational opportunities, not crowded
Lodging - amenities, food

BAD TRIP
Poor road conditions
Poorly maintained toilets

GOOD TRIP
Water/ponds
Scenic beauty (eye of the beholder)
Good road

BAD TRIP
Getting lost
Poor facilities and/or customer service
Not up to expectations - too built up, promoted better than it is, poor fishing

GOOD TRIP
Learn something new (education)
Convenient and easy to identify resources
Easy to pre-plan information
Companion (who you are traveling with)

BAD TRIP
Getting lost
High expectation, low reality

Other byway groups can contact Curt Pianalto at cpianalto@byways.org for a copy of “Wayshowing for Byways: A Guidance System” which is available as a PDF document. It explains in detail the concepts and tools that are available to help byways or States address the needs of byway visitors in a holistic manner.

Working Together To Build Better Byways
Working toward the sustainability of your byway requires a balanced approach of addressing the three core elements. Your byway was designated because of its special intrinsic qualities, the promise of a memorable and unique visitor experience, and well-thought planning to protect and promote your slice of America’s special roads. The America’s Byways Resource Center and the National Scenic Byways Program staff at the Federal Highway Administration are here to support you in your quest to build the most sustainable byway you can. Visit our websites for information on grants, nominations, education and training, or for information on how to contact your Byway Specialist: www.bywaysonline.org and www.bywaysresourcecenter.org.