A late addition to the TTC Board’s agenda for December 3 is a presentation on the characteristics the TTC should look for in a new CEO by the search firm hired to manage the process.

Updated Dec. 4, 2024: A section has been added at the end with additional information from the Board meeting.

Jayson Phelps, Senior Partner, Phelps Group, will make the presentation, but the deck is already available and contains some interesting reading. Over recent weeks, Phelps Group conducted 1160 surveys via a publicly available web site, as well as 1062 by email invitations. Individual interviews were conducted with 31 people including the TTC Board, Leadership Team and “key stakeholders”. [Full disclosure: I was one of those stakeholders.]

The presentation summarizes feedback from those surveys and interviews. It is broken down into four sections: Experience, Leadership Attributes, Capabilities, and Challenges/Opportunities. There is also a section on Key Success Factors At 18 Months.

Anyone who has read position descriptions for senior management will recognize many points of which these are only a few.

• Knowledge of transit systems,
• Intergovernmental experience,
• Good communications skills,
• Ability to build relationships with employees, governments and the public,
• Valuing diversity,
• Planning, budgeting and capital project management,
• Working within limited funding,
• Exploiting technology for organizational improvement.

Two particularly stand out:

• Demonstrated focus on rider experience, accessibility, and affordability.
• Passionate about improving transit systems as essential public services.

There is a long list of challenges including restoration of maintenance and service reliability, but also related issues such as organizational structure, departmental silos, and conflicting priorities.

Through the presentation, some points imply a very troubled background within the TTC. It has been no secret that the past era was not a happy one, but seeing some of these issues in print as part of a new CEO search gives a sense of the rot.

• Ethical Leadership and Accountability
  • Upholds ethical standards, communicates honestly, and takes accountability for decisions.
• Stakeholder Engagement and Public Advocacy
  • Skilled at navigating relationships with unions, government entities, and community organizations, fostering collaboration and trust.
  • Skilled spokesperson, building credibility with the public and enhancing organizational reputation.
• Workforce and Organizational Culture
  • Low workforce morale, mistrust in leadership, nepotism, favoritism, and resistance to change.
  • Talent drain to competitors, non-competitive compensation, and limited diversity in leadership.
• Operational and Infrastructure Issues
  • Maintenance backlogs, reliability issues, and slow zones requiring urgent state-of-good-repair projects
• Key Success Factors at 18 Months
  • Public Trust: Strengthened public confidence through visible leadership, improved service quality, and consistent dependability.
  • Employee Morale: Enhanced employee engagement and reduced turnover through recognition programs, inclusivity, and fostering a collaborative workplace culture.
  • Workplace Culture: Addressed toxic workplace culture by fostering fairness, collaboration, and transparency

Terms like ethical leadership, honesty, accountability, credibility, low morale, mistrust, nepotism, favouritism and toxic workplace culture do not sound like the kind of organization TTC purports to be. Many senior staff have left either through retirement, buyouts, constructive dismissal, or simply through disgust with the TTC’s leadership.

That list of key characteristics and challenges for a new CEO tells a grim tale.

Rebuilding the TTC will be a challenge on many fronts, not the least of which is getting hold of today’s pressing issues, but simultaneously developing a plan for a new TTC and building the organization’s trust that it can be and should be implemented.

For many years, the TTC Board failed in their duty to manage their CEO and actions taken by him, and were happy to sit back as long as he met the City’s and Mayor’s target of keeping costs down. Whatever investigative details were provided to the Board prior to the CEO’s departure, we will probably never know.

For too long, some Board members chose wilful blindness. They have no place at the TTC.

Continue reading →