Strategic Plan Home – AASHTO 2021-2026 Strategic Plan Home Page

Welcome

AASHTO and its member state departments of transportation (DOTs) have a long and respected history of leadership, working together to ensure a safe, sustainable, multi-modal transportation system that enables mobility, provides improved quality of life and promotes economic growth.

With the implementation of the previous strategic plan, AASHTO took a bold step forward, reorganizing its committee structure to be better aligned, embrace innovation and respond more fully to the needs of its members. The success of that effort was clearly evident in the development of this new plan, with a highly engaged membership, ready to embrace change and looking to the future.

The 2021-2026 strategic plan expands on AASHTO’s position as a transportation leader. It builds on the organization’s past work by encouraging new and collaborative partnerships and inviting greater participation from members and stakeholders. The new strategic plan will strengthen AASHTO’s efforts to improve quality of life by working toward a transportation system that serves the needs of every community safely, equitably, sustainably and efficiently.

As we navigate an ever-changing world, AASHTO is prepared with this new plan to address the evolving needs of transportation in America, well-supported by its professional staff and its volunteer state DOT membership. We look forward to working together to face challenges, solve problems and celebrate successes as we build the future of transportation.

Vision

Providing improved quality of life through leadership in transportation

Mission

Supporting state DOTs to connect America with the transportation system of today and tomorrow

Values

Goals and Objectives

Safety, Mobility and Access for Everyone

Advance a safe, multimodal transportation system

Connect community, economy, land use and the environment

Advance equity and social justice

Improve asset performance

Strengthen resiliency

Align transportation interests across partners and regions

National Transportation Policy Leadership

Deliver a proactive policy platform for the future

Evaluate emerging trends in technologies, policies and practices

Communicate the value of transportation

Advocate for sustainable funding

Promote a broad range of thoughts and policies

Organizational Excellence with World Class Services

Be the trusted developers and keepers of transportation standards and guidance

Keep committees relevant and aligned

Build transportation workforce capabilities

Innovate and modernize products and services

Maintain focus on AASHTO’s financial sustainability

Strategies

Policy, Implementation and Research

Establish framework and tools to enable impactful policy decisions, support implementation within member agencies and make priority research investments

Maintain focus on the elimination of fatalities and serious injuries

Adopt policy priorities that create a safe and sustainable multimodal transportation system

Create methods to better connect transportation research to policies and implementation

Develop policies and provide resources that support ensuring access to transportation systems for everyone

Seek transportation funding innovations

Advocate to minimize the impacts of climate change

Apply scenario planning to better weigh options in decision-making

Be intentionally inclusive as transportation policies are formed

Partnership and Collaboration

Strengthen partnerships with traditional and non-traditional organizations to support our vision, mission, goals and objectives

Promote the use of AASHTO standards and guidance across all transportation organizations

Collaborate to support equity and social justice objectives

Seek private sector partners for innovation opportunities, expertise and information sharing

Work together with partners to share information and efforts

Collaborate with local agencies

Work with Congress and the administration to advance policies

Workforce Development

Proactively shape the future transportation workforce, providing resources to fill skills gaps, build capacity and plan for the future

Develop next generation of leaders and workforce

Provide resources to meet evolving business needs

Create a workplace culture of innovation and continuous improvement

Support attracting and retaining talent

Expand capacity-building products and services

Provide knowledge management resources

Pursue funding for workforce development efforts

Increase diversity, equity and inclusion

Member Engagement

Expand ways to engage members and deliver an outstanding and valuable membership experience

Engage new CEOs and members

Create opportunities for members to network and share knowledge

Engage more levels of staff from member organizations including non-voting members and friends

Support diversity and succession management in committee leadership

Improve the collaboration platforms used by committees and staff to facilitate engagement between members and staff

Better communicate policy goals to members and local partners

Organizational Optimization

Foster an optimized organization that is strategic, integrated and efficient – built on sound management practices and best technologies

Embrace a sense of urgency and be agile and nimble

Catalog and provide easy access to materials

Promote diversity in all activities

Deliver timely processes and decision-making

Encourage cross-discipline learning and information sharing among staff

Continuously review and improve strategic communications and brand

Utilize technology to better serve members

Improve AASHTO’s digital presence

Review and refresh older products

About the Plan

The 2021-2026 AASHTO Strategic Plan was developed through an inclusive process with significant input from member state DOT leadership, AASHTO staff and other transportation stakeholders.

Input was gathered in six phases.

Surveys

Survey input from nearly 50% of the AASHTO Board of Directors, committee chairs and staff

Interviews

In-depth interviews with a representative group of AASHTO Board of Directors

Review

Review and discussion of peer organization strategic plans

SWOT

A detailed SWOT analysis of AASHTO

Webinars

Webinars and retreats to build the strategic plan

Comment

Comments and feedback on plan elements throughout plan development

Each phase of input allowed refinement of the strategic plan products for the next phase. Once complete, the plan was reviewed and endorsed by a representative group of AASHTO members whose responses to the document’s vision, mission, goals, objectives and strategies were highly aligned. The final plan was adopted by the AASHTO Board of Directors on November 13th, 2020.

This site was developed through NCHRP Project 20-24(130) Support for Development of AASHTO’S 2021-2026 Strategic Plan but is not an official product of the research project.