A unionized dairy in Canada needed to improve its effectiveness in order to survive. But the workforce saw no need to change. After all, everyone was still buying milk. The challenge was to get the unionized work force to see that they needed to change and why.

We were asked to help management create a sense of urgency about change in the workforce. It was decided that documenting and telling the truth about the state of the company was the best strategy.

We asked employees what they thought about the company and benchmarked their assessments against the best companies in the industry. Once the assessment was complete we worked with management on plan to “share the truth.” Once the strategy was finalized, the plant manager took the lead and executed the plan.

In a general meeting, he told everyone that the company was no better than average.

He explained that the number of dairies in the area was declining and that the complete capacity of their own dairy could be replaced by one nearby that was operating under capacity.

After that meeting, he continued to provide a regular flow of information about the industry. Finally, he sent a personal letter to every employee's home, explaining the continuous improvement initiative. Over time, the staff started to recognize that they must change.

The results of this information-sharing were acceptance for the need to change, significant participation by employees and process improvements that generated initial savings of many millions of dollars.