When a Door Opens

Mid 1980s

The company had a problem. It had bought up a number of small, regional companies over a span of a handful of years. Including the one I worked for.

Some of those operations had problems with health and safety. Too many lost time accidents. Before we were bought, the ice cream plant I worked at had the same problem.

As a production supervisor I played a key role in solving that problem. That role wasn't in my job description; it just made sense to try and fix this problem and lots of people supported me. Not getting hurt is easy to get behind!

Somehow or other my new company found out about what we had done and one day a corporate HR person comes to the plant and asks if I want a 3 month project trying to fix the health and safety problem across the organization.

An ice cream plant isn't too crazy busy in the winter so the powers that be let me go!

What a cool adventure! Travelling around Ontario and Quebec and meeting my operational colleagues and figuring out what we could do. Plus I ate frogs legs for the first time! Went to a Montreal Canadiens game! Had to get my car towed in Victoriaville, Quebec in the middle of winter!

Given that not getting hurt is easy to get behind, we pretty quickly were on our way to fixing our problem. We surprised a lot of people for some reason!

A few years later a different corporate HR person came to the plant and offered me an 18 month project rolling out a quality management program.

That became 8 years and a career in organizational development.

Doors show up in interesting ways.