A Culture of Change: How the Railroad Industry Can Embrace an Evolving World

by Jeff Tuzik

Corina Moore is an agent of change. A champion of embracing change, too. Her transformative tenure as Ontario Northland’s Chief Operating Officer (2010 – 2014) and President and CEO (2014 – 2022) saw the railway emerge from divestment, deep financial woes, and an uncertain future to a thriving commercially driven organization known for being data-driven, customer-centric, and financially sustainable. In addition to refocusing the railway on revenue growth and performance metrics, she attributes much of her success at Ontario Northland to fostering a culture of embracing change, of questioning the status quo, and one of diversity and inclusion.

In her keynote address at the 2024 Wheel Rail Interaction conference, Moore, who is currently Executive Vice President of Transportation and Infrastructure at WSP Canada, explained how she worked to transform the organizational culture of Ontario Northland and how the changes she helped effect there can be implemented elsewhere in the industry.

It’s a story she’d told in part at WRI 2018 where she had a room full of railway engineering types nodding their heads in acquiescence to her approach to proactively changing the culture in an industry that is not known for its ability to change. Her efforts in transforming, revitalizing, and expanding Ontario Northland earned her respect and acclaim throughout the Canadian and North American railroad industry. Also in 2018, she was the first woman appointed to the Railway Association of Canada’s Board of Directors in its 100-year history. Progressive Railroading and The League of Railway Women named her North America’s Outstanding Woman of the Year. Identified by Railway Age in 2017 as one of 10 visionary women in the North American rail industry, she was the first woman to appear on the cover of Railway Age since its inception in 1856. Industry consensus is that she knows what she’s talking about.

Moore acknowledges that change can be hard. New technologies and processes — especially those that have the potential to disrupt the status quo — are much easier to talk about than they are to implement. As a result, many innovations simply stall and go un- or under-used due to structural and cultural barriers in the organization, she said.

“The railroad industry is known for being resistant to change,” she said. This gradual calcification stands in stark contrast to the origins of North America’s great railways. When these organizations were young, they were at the forefront of a changing world. They were innovative, creative, and they were on the cutting edge of technological advances, she said. Over time this spirit faded; “until recently, processes and technologies stagnated.” Before Moore’s transformation of Ontario Northland, there were systems and processes that had been in place, unchanged, for five generations of employees – more than 100 years.

The common mantra: “we’ve always done it this way” is often used to justify outdated and inefficient practices, but it’s also a trap that prevents progress, Moore said; “this is why it’s so important to cultivate a culture of continuous improvement, of challenging the status quo.”  

The Culture

How is the culture of an organization defined? How is it experienced? First, it includes the outwardly facing aspects like policies and procedures, mission and vision statements, dress and protocol, and the nominal ways in which things are done. “These are the company statements about respect and empowerment that hang on the wall.” Moore said, “They don’t tell the full story. They aren’t what drives the success or failure of the business.”

The important part of the culture, the true culture, is largely invisible to the outsider. It includes attitude and emotion, values and beliefs, unwritten rules and traditions, and the way things are actually done and what is genuinely valued. “These are the things that matter; the things that affect every process and person in the organization, every day,” she said. Despite improvements in recent years, she said, the culture within the railroad industry still lags behind industry contemporaries.

In her time at Ontario Northland and WSP, Moore has developed both a theoretical and a practical understanding of how to bring about cultural change in an industry often resistant to it — it’s not a hands-off process; it’s one that has to be implemented, she said. It starts with leadership fostering an ecosystem that’s conducive to, and inspires, a mindset of change and innovation. The right culture also instills the importance of caring about employees and listening to their input. There are three components in this ecosystem:

• People: Who’s doing it?
• Process: How it’s being done.
• Technology: What it’s done with.

Stagnation in any one of these can kill an organization, she said. If this is the top-down view, the individual viewpoint is one of constantly questioning, adjusting, and improving the processes they interact with on a daily basis. “Ontario Northland wasn’t transformed by a single big idea; it was thousands of conversations, suggestions, and tweaks that combined to make the organization stronger both culturally and financially.”

“Ontario Northland wasn’t transformed by a single big idea; it was thousands of conversations, suggestions, and tweaks that combined to make the organization stronger both culturally and financially.”

This is atypical of the leadership style often encountered in the railroad industry. Until recently, these organizations tended to fall under a command-and-control style of leadership where influence and authority are entirely dependent on position on the organizational chart, Moore said. Stagnation sets in because this type of leadership misses the fact that ideas that inspire change — process improvements and efficiency gains — can come from anywhere and anyone in the organization; “leadership isn’t about title, it’s about influence,” she said. Effective leadership provides a vision that connects the “how” and the “why” of processes and strategies so that the people involved in each step feel both engaged and integral.

When people within an organization feel heard and valued, they are more likely to be creative and innovative when they encounter limitations or inefficiencies. And when they see evidence of their influence in organizational processes, they feel empowered to go above and beyond. This, in turn, inspires others to do the same — a positive feedback loop for the organization and everybody in it.

Fostering a sense of community and engagement within the true culture of an organization also means, from a practical standpoint, that leadership can’t be a separate silo, either structurally or culturally. “This means going out to the track, the shop floor, the environment where the work is done, and having real conversations about how the work is done; what works, what doesn’t work,” Moore said. This kind of regular interaction keeps channels of communication open and reinforces a process of iterative improvement. The practical experience of people on the front line is critical to help define and implement the kinds of systemic and process changes that affect the entire organization, she said.

Another part of true culture, one often overlooked, Moore said, is the demographic makeup of the organization itself. “Too often, we [as an industry] think of diversity as just an HR policy or box to check-off, and we forget the inclusion part — which means that people feel heard and a sense of belonging,” she said. Gender balance and diversity are not mere buzzwords, but rather intrinsic components of an innovative and creative culture. “People who are “different” (gender, age, race, experience, etc.) bring different perspectives to the table; perspectives that lead to enhanced customer service, engineering designs that have improved constructability and usability, and forward-thinking ideas that were inspired by diverse viewpoints. Organizations that have diversity and inclusion as a cornerstone of their culture have a competitive advantage.”

Moore recounted an event that occurred shortly after she became CEO of Ontario Northland in which a coworker remarked that employees would now have to talk about “their emotions” on account of the CEO being a woman. “I took this as an opportunity, though,” Moore said. “Emotions are a huge part of the culture; they’re a huge part of the business. When we talk about ‘emotion’ we’re talking about morale, motivation, productivity.” Regardless of an individual’s place on the org chart, fostering a culture of caring and support in addition to accountability among their peers will make the organization stronger, “and you’ll see the results on the bottom line,” she said.

There are also tangible, demonstrable benefits to making diversity and inclusion part of the culture — an issue that Moore previously raised at WRI 2018 and remains relevant. The railway industry skews largely male. When Moore joined Ontario Northland, only 8% of the workforce was female — a figure in keeping with the industry at the time, she said. By the time she left, 23% of the workforce was female, and 50% at the executive level; productivity and morale were up. “We saw it at Ontario Northland and we see it across the industry; there’s more revenue, more profit, better safety stats, and better service when we have more a diverse and inclusive workforce.”

“We saw it at Ontario Northland and we see it across the industry; there’s more revenue, more profit, better safety stats, and better service when we have more a diverse and inclusive workforce.”

This applies to attracting the talent and perspective of a younger demographic as well. This is a talent pool that is facile with the latest technologies, that has new perspectives on how transportation can work, Moore said. These qualities can be a valuable complement to the institutional knowledge and experience that industry veterans bring to the table. This can be a particularly difficult barrier to breach. Traditionalism and the status quo are powerful forces that often lead to gatekeeping and rigidity, creating a culture in which new approaches (and people) are met with entrenched resistance, even hostility. A big part of why changing this culture is critical to the health of the industry, Moore said, is that new generations of (potential) employees largely hold the keys to technologies that will carry the industry into the future. This talent is lost if they bounce off the organizational culture.    

Moore recalled one time at Ontario Northland in which a 35-year veteran shop technician worked with a recent college graduate to automate a process that hadn’t otherwise changed since the railroad’s inception.

This atmosphere of collaboration didn’t happen organically, however; it took a great deal of effort to create an environment in which disparate, traditionally siloed, groups were comfortable working together, she said. “In the past, this kind of thing didn’t happen. There was no trust. We’d end up butting heads with the union, who would dig in and resist any change.” But when these groups came together, young/old, union/non-union, and communicated with honesty, the organization saw tangible benefits. “We were collaborating with the common goal of making the organization stronger and more sustainable.”

At WSP, Moore continues to champion a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. The strategies and behaviors necessary to drive this culture require constant focus and a clarity of objectives, she said; “It is a journey, but one that is critical to the long-term success of the organization.”

Jeff Tuzik is Managing Editor of Interface Journal

This article is based on a presentation made at the Wheel Rail Interaction 2024 Heavy Haul conference.