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From hands-on training and change management strategies to executive sponsorship and employee engagement, our guests Allison Meadows and Taylor Tagg explore practical lessons from Stratas Foods’ successful three-and-a-half-year ERP implementation. Learn how this leading supplier of fats, oils, mayonnaise, dressings and sauces kept their people at the center of the process to transform their business.

 

Show Notes:

Guests Allison Meadows and Taylor Tagg explore how Stratas Foods aligned training, change management, and executive support to implement a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that impacted all 1,200 employees.

• Change management and L&D must work together. Taylor Tagg explained that while learning and development and change management often operate differently, both rely heavily on listening, communication, and supporting employees through uncertainty.
• Hands-on learning drives adoption. Stratas Foods discovered that employees learned best by “getting in the sandbox” and practicing in real-world scenarios instead of relying solely on traditional instruction.
• Employee involvement increases buy-in. Allison Meadows shared how training became more effective when employees helped shape tools and job aids, transforming resistance into collaboration.
• Executive sponsorship is critical to success. Taylor emphasized that strong support from company leadership—including resources, visibility, and alignment—was essential to completing the transformation on time and under budget.

• Successful change focuses on people, not just processes. Both guests stressed that organizations can become overly focused on systems and workflows, but lasting change happens when employees feel supported, connected, and included throughout the process.

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Transcript:

Susan Cort: [00:00:00] Learning and development can be a critical driver in a company's evolution.

Allison Meadows: It just starts with making training usable in the real world. In operations, people are learning while the job is moving. So if training isn't practical and easy to use in the moment, it gets left behind pretty quickly. Um, we try to build tools, uh, that people actually pull out during the workday.

I like to say that checklists keep training from becoming a checkbox.

Susan Cort: That's Allison Meadows, operations training supervisor at Stratas Foods, the leading supplier of fats, oils, mayonnaise, dressings, and sauces in North America. Allison and Learning and Development Manager Taylor Tagg join d’Vinci's Angeline Evans and me to talk about how meaningful learning experiences, trust, and connection can help employees navigate change and ultimately embrace transformation.

Next on Powered by Learning. [00:01:00]

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Susan Cort: Joining me now are d'Vinci Client Solutions consultant Angeline Evans and our guests Taylor Tagg and Allison Meadows from Stratas Foods. Thank you both for joining us.

Angeline Evans: Thanks for coming, guys.

Taylor Tagg: Thanks for having us.

Allison Meadows: Thank you. So happy to be here.

Susan Cort: We're glad that you're with us as well.

Let's start off by telling our listeners what your company does and also what your roles are.

Taylor Tagg: Stratas Food is a, uh, manufacturer of cooking oil, uh, sauces, mayonnaise, and different condiments. We primarily serve the retail grocery industry. We serve fast food industry and various components, and then we also have our [00:02:00] oil and many ingredients that you probably eat every day.

Um, people like to say that, that probably every fourth or fifth meal you're probably eating a Stratas Food, uh, ingredient of some sort. And, uh, so we're, we're happy to be a part of Stratas Foods. My name's Taylor Tagg. I'm the learning and development manager, and then also organizational change management lead in the large project that we just completed.

So our... part of our goal is to help people, you know, really develop themselves, uh, find career paths within Stratas, and, and then learn their way to the top if they wanna go there. So thanks for having us.

Susan Cort: Great. Allison, what about you?

Allison Meadows: Uh, yes. Well, I'm the operations training supervisor, and my role basically is to take our large corporate initiatives and get them to the people in the plant, the boots on the ground.

Um, my focus really is just making training relatable and usable for the people that are actually doing [00:03:00] it.

Susan Cort: And talk to us a little bit about, uh, kind of the size of your company. Is Stratas Foods something that someone's going to see on their grocery store shelf, or is it a, a company that's sort of within the companies that we recognize as consumers?

Taylor Tagg: Yeah. Primarily Stratas Food is a, uh, a manufacturer of other private labels. Um, some of the larger grocery store chains that you would recognize, uh, you'll see our product. You, you won't necessarily see our name on the product, but we've got a probably little symbol on the bottom of the, of the bottle that would indicate that Stratas Food made it.

So, you know, primarily we're, we're we're manufacturing other customers' products, um, for, for their use.

Susan Cort: So there's probably a little bit of, uh, Stratas Foods in our refrigerator. We just may not know it.

Angeline Evans: Exactly.

Taylor Tagg: Or on, or on your shelf. Right. Or on your shelf right now.

Susan Cort: Yeah,

Angeline Evans: yeah.

Taylor Tagg: Yeah.

Angeline Evans: So I understand Stratas Foods has been navigating significant change lately, and I'd love to hear just as the, as L&D leaders, how are you aligning your learning [00:04:00] strategies with the broader business goals from the start?

And just talk to me more about what's going on.

Taylor Tagg: Yeah, great question. Uh, we just, just completed a three-and-a-half-year change management project, uh, into a, a ERP, uh, o- overall arching operational system within the company, which kinda represented a huge significant change for us going from a very antiquated, very old, very manual system to a now modern ERP system.

Um, and the thing about this is that it, it was not just a change management project, it turned out to be a complete business transformation. Um, not what we do, but how we do it, and it really... it probably affected almost every person in the company. Um, and that's a l- that's 1,200 folks, uh, in the company. So, uh, learning and development kinda played a, a role in that, in that project.

Some of the broader business goals that were key to this project from the start were [00:05:00] really very strong executive sponsorship, people that were willing to walk that talk and put up the resources. Um, the people that we, uh, the project team, we pulled out people uh, from their full-time jobs into this project for three and a half years.

Many of the, the top leaders from different areas of the, of the, of the project, that was to ensure that we were successful. And I think one of the things that was important to us was that we're creating this whole new project, I mean, whole new operating system, and there really was nothing to fall back on.

So if we failed, we were really in trouble. And so that turned out to be an advantage for us, um, as far as making sure that we were successful. Uh, we had this broader business goal where, where we will, we will be successful no matter what. Um, Stratas kinda has this mindset of just plowing your way through it and getting to success, and that's exactly what we did.

Uh, sometimes that's beneficial and [00:06:00] sometimes it's not, but that helped us out in that regard. And then we had, uh, really one message that was from top to bottom throughout the whole company that, um, we were all in this together, we needed all hands on deck, uh, that we were not really gonna be successful if, if one department was more important than the other.

We all had to contribute to that. Uh, so that was really kind of the, the overall broad business goals that were there. How learning and development, the learning strategy fit into that is that kinda number one, we had the, we had to really capture our processes. Uh, too many times we had local knowledge walking out the door, people leaving, going to other jobs, and then there was nothing behind it, um-

Allison Meadows: Mm-hmm

Taylor Tagg: for people to learn from. We captured all of our- Yeah ... processes with, with documentation and job aids, and that was great. Um Uh, a- and then the second thing was, uh, we found out very quickly that people, especially in a manufacturing environment, [00:07:00] um, they want, they want hands-on, hands-on learning. Let me take the wheel as fast as I possibly can.

And so that was a 95%, um, learning style that we found out within the company, and so that's what we did. We put them in the sandbox, we showed them how to do it, and then they failed forward from there. And that which turned out to be really successful for us. And then the third thing is that we, we got...encouraged other teams to kinda see upstream and downstream from their areas how this new operating system was gonna work within the company. And in doing that, they kind of expanded their horizons a little bit. They weren't so siloed and focused on their particular area, but they got to see what was coming before them and then what was coming after them, which really kind of expanded their perspective and horizons.

And so we tried to fit those learning strategies in with those broader business goals, uh, from the, from the start, and that turned out to be very successful for us in the end. [00:08:00]

Angeline Evans: It sounds very comprehensive

Taylor Tagg: It was, but it was, it was devel- a development, you know, like anything else. Yeah. We had to fail forward ourselves in many regards-

Angeline Evans: Mm-hmm

Taylor Tagg: uh, to get there. But, um, that was, that was all kind of the, the process that we all learned from.

Susan Cort: It sounds very successful. It's a great story.

Angeline Evans: Yes. And Alison, Taylor kind of led into it, but how do you ensure training isn't just a checkbox? Like, what actually drives adoption and behavior change across Stratus Foods?

Allison Meadows: Yeah, absolutely. Um, for me, it, it just starts with making training usable in the real world. Uh, in operations, people are learning while the job is moving, so if training isn't practical and easy to use in the moment, it gets left behind pretty quickly. Um, so we try to build tools, uh, that people actually pull out during the workday.

Um, I like to say that checklists keep training from becoming a checkbox, um, which- I like that ... kind of means- I do too ... people [00:09:00] actually use the tools regularly.

Angeline Evans: Right

Allison Meadows: And that's when the training becomes part of the routine, instead of just another completed assignment.

Angeline Evans: Mm-hmm.

Allison Meadows: But I actually, I have a story.

This happened to me yesterday, and I- Okay ... thought, "Oh my gosh, this would be perfect

Susan Cort: for the podcast." Breaking, breaking news, Allison.

Allison Meadows: Exactly. So, um, I was working on a job qualification standard checklist, and, um, I brought the draft out for review to one of the employees, and she instantly shut it down. Um, said everything was wrong.

And the I realized that the first time I brought it to her, I was actually focused on the document itself. Okay. And so then the second time I came, I approached it differently and asked her what she wanted to see, what was most important- Mm-hmm ... um, what would actually make it useful for the job, and the entire conversation changed after that.

Wow. And [00:10:00] she opened up, and she really gave valuable feedback, and she became part of building it, instead of- Mm-hmm ... resisting it, and I think that is a huge part of change management. Um- Mm-hmm ... people are much more likely to adopt something when they feel involved in it, and- Yeah ... like, their experience actually matters.

Susan Cort: That's great. You made her a part of the process.

Allison Meadows: Yeah. So it was like an aha moment for me just yesterday.

Angeline Evans: That's incredible. So from an operations training perspective, then what would you say it really takes to translate change strategy into something that works on the ground for employees day to day?

I feel like that story, you know, is a great example.

Allison Meadows: Yeah, I mean, it really starts with relationships and trust from the very beginning. Um, people are more open to change when they feel supported and involved, but- You know, they really need to feel that somebody understands the reality of their job.

Allison Meadows: Um, so from the training [00:11:00] side, our role is to help make change feel more manageable instead of overwhelming. So like Taylor was saying, creating that space for learning, letting them play in the sandbox, um, giving them t- time to practice. Um, listening throughout the process is so, so important.

Susan Cort: Mm-hmm.

Allison Meadows: Um, so we spend a lot of time checking in, uh, asking questions, what's working, what are you struggling with? Um, that feedback really helps us adjust before that frustration starts to build.

Angeline Evans: Yeah. It's really like a 360-degree view, what you're describing.

Allison Meadows: Yeah, absolutely. And I'm sorry, I just wanted to add, supervisors are so important and a huge part to successful change. They're like the con- the connection point, you know, between the strategy and the employee experience. Mm-hmm. So we're introducing the change, but those supervisors are the ones that are reinforcing it through coaching, [00:12:00] follow-up, communication. So it really takes everybody working together, and, uh, the more conte- connected and supported people feel throughout the process, I think the more successful any kind of adoption is gonna be.

Susan Cort: I'm sure those supervisors appreciate being the ambassadors for what you're trying to do, too.

Angeline Evans: Mm-hmm.

Allison Meadows: Absolutely, yeah

Angeline Evans: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Uh, so Taylor, when you think about the roadmap, you know, you and Allison have built, what are some of the biggest pitfalls organizations run into when they try to connect the L&D with change management?

'Cause I'm sure that's something a lot of our listeners deal with, and how would you recommend avoiding them?

Taylor Tagg: Yeah. That is a excellent question. Um, as, and as, as a person that was hired by Stratas as a learning and development manager and then moved into change management not knowing a whole lot about it at all, um, I quickly [00:13:00] found out that on the surface they kind of seem like they work together and can fit seamlessly, but you quickly learn that L&D and change management are almost at two opposite ends of the spectrum.

Um, a, a lot of the L&D things that you're focused on, uh, may be a little bit more future-focused, has a longer runway, you know, to, to come to completion, but change management is presence in the now, finding and figuring out the problem you're dealing with right now, and if you don't fix that problem, you're not gonna get to tomorrow.

And so, you know, where L&D may be a little bit more of a concrete plan, you know, change management is shift on the fly. It's, it's complete openness to not completing what you thought you were gonna complete and doing a 360 at, at a moment's notice. Mm-hmm. And then when you think about L&D being more of a lecture-based and teaching somebody a skill, change management is completely almost learning in the flow of work.[00:14:00]

And so in those regards, they seem- Mm-hmm ... on very opposite ends of the scale. But I did, I did find a way, uh, for them to work seamlessly together, and as Allison kind of mentioned before, you know, both, both of those segments, L&D and change management, you have to have people that listen really well and listen to your people and the feedback that they're giving you and the challenges that they're experiencing, the frustrations that they're, uh...

You know, some people are hanging by a thread, you know, may not make it till tomorrow in one of these large business transformation projects. And so in, in all regards, we had to listen really well, and I found out that L&D can really be almost like a communication hub, um, uh, for disseminating feedback, getting it to the appropriate, uh, people, um- Taking care of those HR kinda hotspots where people are at their breaking point, uh, L&D really can [00:15:00] function as a, as a nice connection hub for all of that.

So, you know, to kind of sum that up a little bit, uh, L&D, change management have, have their, have their places, but there are moments where you can work together e- even though at, at times it seems very, very opposite.

Angeline Evans: Thank you for sharing that insight. Uh, and I understand you've spent a lot of time studying be- human behavior and personal development.

How do you think that lens influences the way that you design change and learning experiences, especially for employees that are going through uncertainty that they experience when there is significant change at their organization?

Taylor Tagg: Right. And, and we, we experienced it here at Stratas, high levels of uncertainty, um, throughout the process.

Uh, more so at different times than others, but I think everybody had that, had that anxious moment where they're like, "Oh my gosh, what have I gotten myself into?" And so how do you, how do you move through those, through those, uh, [00:16:00] uncertain times? And I really try to design change for projects or, uh, programs around change where allow people, um, to have a moment, and I'll explain what that means in a minute.

Um, there are a couple of things. Uh, adversity has always been a teacher for me. It's always taught me something that I needed to learn in that moment that I may not have been able to do otherwise without that difficult circumstance. Um, and then I also try to design things that help people mind the landscape, you know, meaning they can pick out what's useful to them, um, from the program, discard the rest, and then really focus on what they're strong at, their strengths, what they bring to the table And then also too that during significant times of change, people are creating all these neural pathways, and it's just, it just, it sucks, right?

It's, it's uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable. And I always, you [00:17:00] know, preface this with this time, it, it's temporary. It will pass. This too shall pass. You know, it, it may be uncomfortable now, but in a month or two, it, it's gonna be like you'll forget- Yeah ... all about it, right? And that, and, and go back to that moment, creating moments for people.

Um, in 2006, I had a moment. I was driving down Cordova Road in Memphis, Tennessee, and listening to Dr. Napoleon Hill's “They Can Grow Rich.” He was talking about the 13th principle of learning from adversity and defeat, and he said that adversity carries with it a seed of equivalent benefit that is greater than the adversity itself.

Susan Cort: Hmm. Mm-hmm.

Taylor Tagg: You really must go and find that benefit that's within that seed, but it's there. And in that moment, uh, I realized I had a choice. I could be judgmental about the things, the difficult circumstances that were in my life, or I could choose to learn from them. And in that moment, I [00:18:00] kinda decided that life was not happening to me, it was happening for me.

And that allowed me to assign purpose and meaning to almost everything that had happened in my life before that, which I had not been able to do before. Now that, that was a moment That was a moment that changed my life. It shifted everything and everything that I've thought about and how I approach my life.

And in designing change, going through uncertainty, uh, we try to put people in position not just to learn a skill, but to have a moment.

Angeline Evans: Mm-hmm.

Taylor Tagg: To have a moment where their perspective changes and things shift for them, and they see life differently now than they did before. That doesn't happen all the time, but, but it can happen for many people if your environment's correct.

So that's what we're, we're trying to do in many, many circumstances.

Susan Cort: That's really inspirational.

Angeline Evans: It is. I love how you describe that moment, 'cause that's why a lot of L&D leaders find themselves in this career and [00:19:00] stay there, is they love having that aha moment in the group somewhere. Right. And those are those moments.

So what a great way to sh- to describe that. So I, um, I know you all are both speaking at TICE, is that correct? On change management.

Taylor Tagg: We are. We're gonna hopefully give, give, uh, some people who are going through organizational change or about to go through organizational change, you know, uh, some tips, some practical tips, some real life, uh, resources that may be a benefit to them, so that maybe they can have a moment where they're going through their own organizational change.

Angeline Evans: Awesome. And for listeners who don't know, TICE is the Training Industries Conference and Expo in North Carolina, and it is in June, I believe.

Susan Cort: It is. It's the middle of June.

Angeline Evans: Awesome. So I thank you so much for everything you shared, but before, um, we let you go, I'd love to hear from both of you, you know, with all of your experience, if you had to strip it all down, no frameworks, no buzzwords, what's one thing [00:20:00] that you feel actually drives successful change in an organization?

Who wants to go first?

Taylor Tagg: Go for it, Allison.

Allison Meadows: Sure, I'll go ahead. Um, really, I think it all boils down to people feeling connected to it instead of feeling like it's being done to them.

Angeline Evans: Mm-hmm.

Allison Meadows: Um-

Angeline Evans: Right ...

Allison Meadows: you know, when communication is consistent and people feel supported through the process, um, the adoption's going to look completely different.

Angeline Evans: I love that.

Taylor Tagg: And, and I'll say, too, you know, there's not just one thing. There's many things that go into, you know, successful change. But if there, if there's one for me in looking back over, um, you know, our three and a half year business transformation... And by the way, we, we were able to complete this project, um, on time and under budget, which is com-

Angeline Evans: Wow very rare.

Taylor Tagg: It's very rare, and it's, uh, doesn't happen very often. But I attribute [00:21:00] that to, to this point, um, is that executive sponsorship from the top is, is key. If you don't have CEO and the CFO and the executive committee that are on the same page, and that are behind, uh, the project and the people w- within the project, and put the resources up, the necessary resources and the additional resources that you're gonna discover along the way, um, it, it becomes really difficult, uh, to complete one of these things.

The statistics show that only about 3 in 10 projects are completed successfully. Before we began, we spoke with many companies and heard plenty of cautionary tales about projects that failed for a variety of reasons. But one of the biggest factors was a lack of executive sponsorship and support from the top.

If it's there- Mm-hmm ... you've got a great chance of being successful. And if it's not, it's gonna be maybe, maybe a [00:22:00] tough ride. And so stripping it down, you know, like Allison said, it's feeling like you're part of the process. You're, you're in it, but it's also you've got, you've got great support from the top.

Susan Cort: Yeah. Every level needs to be involved it sounds like. So thinking back, I mean, now that you've come through this successfully, uh, and certainly there'll be another change management on your horizons, is there anything that you've learned from this last one that you'll implement moving forward, kind of a lessons learned?

It sounds like it all went very well, but anything that you walked away with that, that you'll make sure you do the next time?

Taylor Tagg: I think, you know, for us, we, we learn- we learned a lot of lessons on this one. Um, a- and again, we were very successful with it, uh, bec- because I think we were able to fail forward in many regards.

We didn't have all the answers on the front end, but we learned, we, we grew, we did it better. You know, I think in the, in the next change management project, w- you know, we'll probably, um, have a key focus [00:23:00] on, uh, not only the proc- the new processes themselves, but the, the people involved in those processes have equal or greater attention, uh, to them.

Um, 'cause they're... you can really get lost in the new process and how to do it and how it's gonna affect everything, but if your, if your effort lacks or it's not focused on the people doing those processes, then y- you really can, can suffer in that regard. And so I think, you know, for us, the, some of the lessons learned is that the people effort is equal or greater to the process effort.

Susan Cort: That's a great takeaway, great inspiration. All this has been, uh, really inspirational. Thank you so much for sharing what you've all done, and continued success to you in the future.

Angeline Evans: Yes. Thank you both so much for joining the podcast. Thank you.

Taylor Tagg: Thanks for having us. We enjoyed it.

Angeline Evans: Yeah.

Susan Cort: My thanks to our guests, Taylor Tagg and Allison Meadows from Stratas Foods for joining Angeline and me today.

If you have an idea for a topic or guest, please reach [00:24:00] out to us at poweredbylearning@dvinci.com. And don't forget that you can subscribe to Powered by Learning wherever you listen to your podcasts.