How is ArchTam weathering the coronavirus pandemic?

Steve: It hasn’t been without challenges, but I’m proud of how we’ve come together to support our people, our clients and our communities. The need to collaborate across the globe fueled our digital transformation several years ago, allowing us to quickly pivot to remote working as the pandemic spread, with up to 90 percent of our workforce becoming virtual. The feedback from our clients has been exceptional. We also have an amazing team of disaster response specialists in the U.S. who were able to rapidly mobilize in support of the pandemic response, helping our clients expand hospital capacity by thousands of beds in alternate medical care facilities. We also have a strong digital and innovation team that is helping our clients engage with the public virtually during this time. Like everyone, we still don’t know how the long-term economic impacts will play out, but we’ve kept a great team together, built a strong foundation and are actively engaged in helping companies and states plan a safe return-to-service and a better normal.

What role has innovation played in your pandemic response?

Steve: It’s been critical. From the earliest days of the pandemic, I’ve been receiving messages saying, “what if we do this?”; “have we considered this approach?” and so on. I’ve always known we have some of the brightest minds in the industry, but to see what’s possible when we are all united by a common purpose — in this case, a crisis — has been incredible.

Orla: Yes, exactly. And it’s not just new ideas either. We’ve invented brand-new apps and service offerings, of course, but we’ve also repurposed existing digital solutions in new and exciting ways that we didn’t anticipate prior to this crisis. The urgency of the pandemic helped expedite early-stage innovations like our virtual consultation tool and it unlocked the potential of earlier innovations to new use cases like our Mobilitics^TM scenario planning platform. Witnessing a company as large as ArchTam innovate at the speed of a startup has been an incredible experience.

Can you give an example of an ArchTam innovation driven by the pandemic?

Orla: I come from a transportation background so I may be biased, but one of my favorites is the reimagining of our Mobilitics^TM platform. A few years ago, a team of traffic planners and engineers won ArchTam’s Global Challenge innovation contest with an idea to use census data to model travel demand scenarios and inform the decision-making process of transportation agencies around questions such as:

• How will electric vehicles change traffic patterns?
• Will autonomous vehicles change our needs for parking space?

With seed money from the challenge, Mobilitics^TM was born. When the coronavirus crisis began, the team quickly realized the potential of combining the tool with big data to help address issues such as which people can come back to work and from what neighborhoods, and which areas will have the most traffic given stages of reopening. We partnered with big data providers to introduce geospatial dimensions to the data set and rewrote the algorithms. The result is a platform that can help transit agencies determine which trains or buses to put into service, at what capacity, frequency and timetable based on parameters shaped by the coronavirus pandemic. It takes the trial-and-error out of a return to service.

Steve: There are so many examples, but one of my favorites that I’m following closely is the ability to detect coronavirus in wastewater. Our water specialists are involved in wastewater testing and plant design for almost all of the major treatment plants in the United States. Through a combination of client relationships, deep experience in the science of wastewater and global studies that have proven the ability to detect the virus in wastewater, our team has developed a strategy to implement nationwide COVID-19 wastewater sampling, testing and analysis. The implications for this innovation are tremendous as states begin to test reopening of businesses. The more data available about this virus that we can get into the hands of scientists and public health officials — the better their ability to make decisions.

Much has been written about the difficulty of harnessing innovation. How did you do it?

Steve: We hired Orla. Well, only partially kidding. We’ve recognized for some time now that the keys to competitiveness are collaboration and innovation. It’s what our clients want and should expect from us. As important, innovation is also the key to retaining great people. No one wants to work in a design factory. The best and brightest want to work for a company that challenges them and rewards out-of-the-box thinking. It is no coincidence for me, that the more we focus on innovation and technical excellence, the more our team members want to stay at ArchTam.

Orla: It takes a holistic approach and support from leadership — and we have that in Steve and all of our senior leaders. It’s also critical that innovation not be relegated to a one-off initiative; it must become part of the fabric of employee experience, which is why the first pillar of innovation we deployed was around people. We’ve tried to do that in a number of ways. The Global Challenge I mentioned earlier is an innovation competition, looking for the next big idea. Each year, winners receive a share of a $1 million prize to further develop their idea. The consistency of this challenge and the “no-kidding-this-has-gone-to-market” part about it has made it incredibly powerful. We also realize that sometimes, an innovation might not be the next big global idea, but it can still have major impact on a local level. To harvest and reward these smaller ideas with a big impact, we’ve launched Mindblazer innovation challenges, which are quicker challenges that reward winners with time to move their ideas forward.

In addition, we’ve set up a group of nearly 200 early career “Innovation Agents” to help drive the culture throughout the organization and an Innovation Council to help steer what can be a big ship with the soul of a speedboat. Telling the story of innovation is also critical. Every year, we celebrate our top 10 innovative projects. We produce Innominutes — 60-second videos about recent innovations — and Innovation Showcases, which are deeper dives with Q&A. Keeping it all together is strong leadership commitment. I believe this foundation has been a critical component to our coronavirus response.

That’s a lot. What’s next?

Steve: I know I don’t just speak for myself when I say we are hoping for a quick end to the pandemic. Realistically though, we know there is a long way to go — in helping clients safely return to operations and developing a measured, phased return to service. We also know that what we are returning to will be different than what we left. But some things will remain the same. I have been particularly impressed with how our clients have continued to focus on key issues like sustainability and social equity throughout the pandemic. How do we take the best of what we’ve seen, engineer resilient solutions to the vulnerabilities that have been exposed and design, build, engineer and plan for a better normal? How do we ensure that we get the best possible returns on much-needed stimulus funding? Those are the questions we are helping clients with today.

Orla: The path ahead isn’t easy, but I’m energized by the promise of a better normal. The coronavirus has forced the world’s biggest pilot of digital work/life. It has created the greatest experiment in CO₂ reduction the world has ever seen, and it has forced widespread behavior changes in record time. The question I’m asking is, how can we design infrastructure that continues these positive gains so that we aren’t just creating a new normal but a better normal?  A better normal must also be a resilient one; our industry has so much to offer in designing systems and structures that can withstand the shocks and stressors of pandemics, weather events and all types of future uncertainties.

We’re crowdsourcing ideas on a better normal from our employees and are convening clients, policy makers and thought leaders in a virtual hackathon to “hack a better normal” with multiple perspectives and creative problem solving. Solving problems is our profession and our passion, and this crisis will undoubtedly be the mother of many more innovations to come.

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Each March, ArchTam celebrates International Women’s Day globally. Why? Because women’s perspectives, experiences and ideas are critical. In my two decades in this industry, I have experienced both inadequate representation of women in leadership as well as more diverse leadership teams and have seen the difference it makes. I strive to identify and mentor the growing and developing talent in this business, while paving my own path.

In the past year, I took on a new leadership role focused on digital and innovation for ArchTam’s Design and Consulting Services Americas (DCSA). In addition to stepping into this new role, I also joined the DCSA leadership team and am happy to see that several other women joined me at that table this year too. These women lead national business lines and programs, strategy and, most importantly, our people. I could not be more honored to serve beside them. These women raise critical issues and ask important questions. They support and drive productive, meaningful dialogue in meetings so that we discuss issues and hear all opinions on our way to a resolution. It is an incredible experience to look around a room and see women leaders and peers on every side of the table. This is the active and engaged work environment I want and am proud to see at ArchTam.

The ArchTam team at Investor Day

It is no secret that the industry struggles with a lack of diversity, and some sectors, such as coding, are seeing fewer women enter the workforce. However, the evolving industry landscape means that some of the old gender-based power structures don’t apply in emerging fields. Now is the time for people with more diverse backgrounds to establish themselves as experts/leaders in the field. The Digital and Innovation team at ArchTam is working to exert a positive influence on this. We kicked off the Digital Innovation Initiative focused first around celebrating our innovative people and projects. We are working to ensure that our digital and innovation culture reaches every corner of our company and that our staff feel empowered to suggest new ways to solve problems. Internally, we are partnering with our HR Inclusion and Diversity team to develop a joint strategy for inclusion and diversity across the Digital and Innovation initiative.

Externally, our team is assessing opportunities to partner with nonprofits focused on increasing the number of women in STEM fields. I have been involved with the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) throughout my career and have found some amazing mentors through this organization. I am focused on paying that forward by mentoring women inside and outside of ArchTam.

Throughout my career, when I have so often been the only woman in the room, I have found myself gently educating my male counterparts on subconscious biases and generally my insight is well received. Recently, I spoke on a panel, Sponsors vs. Mentors, held at a large regional engineering conference. In response to a question from the audience, I used a few simple examples to demonstrate how meeting interactions often impact women. For example, I mentioned how the suggestions women make in a meeting are often unacknowledged and that several minutes later a man will make those same suggestions. I noted that women are more likely to be interrupted — interestingly by both men and women. I also discussed how many women, especially young women, often do not sit at the tables during meetings — and the impact that could be made if their colleagues invited them to sit with them at the table.

Penn State Transportation Engineering Safety Conference – Mentor V Sponsor panel

Nothing will change if we do not speak up, are not visible and do not take deliberate actions. I believe being a senior-level women in our company who is focused on digital and innovation helps other women within and outside of our company see what’s possible. Being highly visible through social media, conference speaking engagements and visiting our offices and encouraging women to step up also helps to drive gender parity.

Every day I see women taking the lead to bring about a better environment for our clients and for our people. To everyone celebrating IWD this year, should you have the title or just the influence, be the leader that you want to see in this business. That’s what I’m trying to do every single day and I would love to work alongside you.

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Vehicle crashes consistently rank as one of the leading causes of preventable death in the United States, exacting heavy emotional and financial tolls on individuals, communities and society. Preventing these accidents is a top priority for decision makers around the country. We must recognize that our roadways, as they are, reinforce dangerous tendencies for drivers and pedestrians and that our fatal and severe crashes are a critical and preventable public health issue.

This is where future-looking initiatives like Vision Zero come in and change the way the transportation industry, communities and elected officials handle their roadways.

Vision Zero, already adopted by several major U.S. cities including Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington DC and throughout Europe, is based on a set of principles which declares that all actions should adhere to the following:

• Traffic deaths and serious injuries are preventable
• No loss of life is acceptable
• Human life and health are prioritized
• Human error is inevitable and transportation systems should be forgiving
• People are vulnerable and speed is a fundamental predictor of crash survival
• Focus on systems-level changes above influencing individual behavior

The Citizens of Philadelphia were introduced to the initiative in December 2015 with the first Vision Zero conference and began to consider how it would be applied to their city. Mayor Jim Kenny hired the first Director of Complete Streets in 2016 and Philadelphia’s Vision Zero Action Plan released an overall goal of zero traffic deaths by 2030. The action plan laid out the following priorities, equitable to all citizens:

• Save lives by reducing the number of traffic-related deaths and severe injuries
• Improve overall performance of streets system and prioritize the safety of those using our streets who are most vulnerable
• Reduce Philadelphians’ risk for developing chronic diseases by promoting active transportation
• Shift trips from motorized to active modes of transportation to reduce congestion, improve air quality and improve health safety

This plan kicked off the current movement to make Philadelphia a safe and truly accessible city. In an effort to build for tomorrow, the data-driven approach has allowed the city to focus on its high injury network of roads. The corridors with the highest rates of fatalities and severe injuries cover 50 percent of all major incidents in just 12 percent of Philadelphia streets.1 Paired with focusing on the most dangerous roadways, instituting protected bike lanes, newly designed curbless intersections and aesthetically-pleasing designs have only increased the ability of Philadelphians to get around in a safe, sustainable manner.

In parallel with the City’s initiative, organized by the Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition, ArchTam has been an avid supporter and partner in the Vision Zero conference each year since its inception. In 2018, we were challenged to develop a way to help the different road users to be empathetic to each other’s experiences. We developed a 3D virtual reality experience that invoked emotional reactions from those who tried it. The VR allowed the viewer to experience a busy road as a pedestrian, bicyclist or driver with varying levels of sidewalk and bicycle lanes (protected and unprotected). The immersive experience gave attendees a glimpse into the perspective of other roadway users.

The project’s collaborative nature has allowed all stakeholders to have a say enforcing the notion that we’re all working together for safer streets. Community members from all walks of life are working together and empathizing with one another to better understand how we can transform our current environment and build safer ones in the future – together.

1: Vision Zero Philadelphia Three-Year Action Plan

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