BCBusiness

NOVEMBER 2015 BCBusiness 39 NORTH sHORE REscuE im Jones was the legendary leader of North Shore Rescue who, over the course of more than 20 years, saved the lives of thousands of people. Jones died suddenly last winter, proving that disasters can hit even the best-prepared organizations. Organizations need to tap into their resiliency to recover from such a tragedy, says leadership consultant Terry Dillon, partner and CEO at the Reˆnery Leadership Partners consulting ˆrm. "I would be really surprised if an organization that is focused on rescue didn't have that kind of resilience within its ranks," he says. Indeed, North Shore Rescue's new leader, Michael Danks, is a second-generation team member who spent his childhood evenings playing a stretcher-bound patient for his dad's training exercises. "It's the smaller challenges that prepare you for the bigger ones," Dillon says. Leaders should ensure their organizations embrace those challenges as a team and not just as individuals. "It is a systemic thing. It's about the strength of relationships in the team." —Dee Hon attorney and president of Cit i zens for P rog ressive Transit. But, he says, there were many other factors that have played into what some have portrayed as a kind of "great man" transformation accomplished by leader alone. When Parker took over, the worst impacts of the reces- sion were starting to ebb. That made a huge di¥erence to Atlanta transit—the only system its size in the U.S. that doesn't get state funding and which relies heavily on sales taxes. During the recession, revenue from those taxes plummeted and the previous CEO, an energetic and vis- ible leader, had to drastically chop service. Parker was able to restore it as sales-tax rev- enue rebounded and created a wave of good publicity when he increased the frequency of local trains. Then, because there was better service, tran- sit ridership went up. As Biola puts it, "Your best advertise- ment is good service." Helping Parker is the fact that the mayor of Atlanta, Kasim Reed, has energeti- cally driven forward a plan for streetcars and is putting city money toward the e¥ort, which has improved the overall attractiveness and accessibility of the transit network. As well, four local development groups have decided to put major new projects near transit stations in the last 18 months. While not noteworthy in Vancouver, in sprawling Atlanta—where developers are just catching on to the "millennials want to live in walkable commu- nities" trend—the move to building around transit is revolutionary. And so, through a combina- tion of factors, things just keep on looking sunnier in Atlanta. Yes, it helps that Parker—a hip-looking guy with a trim goatee—bought a house near a MARTA line and is riding tran- sit all the time. It also helps that, through a combination of a lower-key approach and ˆnancially prudent manage- ment, he's getting along better with state politicians. And per- haps most of all, it helps that the region is adding more and more transit—and as service improves, shops and of'ices decide to locate along the line, which makes ditching the car and taking the train even more popular. "It's a virtuous cycle," says Biola. Vancouver has bene'itted from that virtuous cycle in the past, when ridership and service steadily moved up during the decade following TransLink's creation in 1998. It reached its peak during the 2010 Olympics, when the pub- lic happily left cars at home and piled onto the brand- new Canada Line—although it helped that the system got $17 million from the Games organizers to create an unprec- edented level of service while the Olympics were on. But if the next CEO of TransLink is able to achieve the dramatic transfor- mation that everyone seems to be calling for, it will take more than just good leadership and a strongly articulated vision. It will require the province to empower the transit authority and give its leader a real man- date—something that's been lacking from the beginning. SUCCESSION PLAN Tim Jones of North Shore Rescue left huge shoes to fill, but the organization was prepared

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