Canadian Pacific Railway's CEO Hunter Harrison just doesn't get it. Or worse, he gets it - but is a master at deflecting blame.
Mr. Harrison is on record as stating that the Lac Mégantic tragedy occurred as the result of the actions of one person (i.e., the train operator). He's in a lather about the recently released Canadian Transportation Safety Board's report, saying that the new safety procedures are out of proportion and would not have prevented this accident.
That one employee has been singled out for blame is lamentable. Why are the CEO and the executive team not in the dock as well? This accident was not the fault of a lone employee.
A CEO is accountable for creating the environment, policies, processes and managing the behaviours of all their employees.
So maybe because of one person's behaviour the accident was triggered. However, the CEO is accountable for this behaviour. It is his company, his strategy, his capital equipment (underserviced as evidenced by fires and brake failures), his employees who are trained to operate the trains at specified levels. If they fail, he fails. There is no such thing as "teflon management" for any manager. His employees' mistakes are his mistakes.
Any incident, such as the terrible one that occurred at Lac Mégantic where 47 innocent people lost their lives, does not just occur as the result of the actions of one lone employee. Instead, it occurred because of a series of systemic failures in an organization headed by a full-steam-ahead CEO who failed to provide the required management and resources to enable employees to successfully carry out their work.
Mr. Harrison appears to miss this point.
