Groupe Morneau: making clarity a foundation for growth

How a family business more than 80 years old, operating 24 terminals, turned a long-held ambition into a concrete organisational system: giving its people more responsibility. An interview with Geneviève Perreault, Groupe Morneau, and Anne Chabert, idehō.

Groupe Morneau did not wait for new management models to talk about empowerment. For decades, the Quebec family business has called its people “collaborators” rather than “employees”, and empowerment is now one of its four values, alongside respect, excellence and mutual support. Long before the project discussed here began, André Morneau already held this conviction, summed up in his motto: “I am what I am because of who we all are.” Decisions and responsibilities were not meant to rest on a few people at the centre of the organisation, but to be distributed as close as possible to where the talent is.

As the company grew, however, a gap had opened between that ambition and day-to-day reality.

Founded in 1942 by Pierre Morneau, Groupe Morneau is now led by the fourth generation, with Catherine Morneau and David Morneau as co-presidents; André Morneau chairs the board. The company has around 1,300 employees, a network of 24 terminals in Quebec and Ontario, and six areas of expertise in transport and logistics. As it grew, part of the knowledge of how it worked stayed scattered across organisation charts, job descriptions, individual files and, above all, the memory of the people who had known the organisation for a long time.

In 2021, Groupe Morneau launched Chapô, a project dedicated to clarifying roles and accountabilities. Four years later, 950 unique roles have been mapped, 92 role templates and 75 circles created, three standard structures defined and 676 employees assigned.

Behind these figures lies a deeper transformation: in how an organisation makes visible who carries what, allows managers to let go, and builds an infrastructure able to support its growth.

We spoke with Geneviève Perreault, Organisational Development Partner at Groupe Morneau, and Anne Chabert, Organisational Transformation Expert at idehō, who supported the project.

Before Chapô, what problem needed solving?

Geneviève Perreault: We were a fairly traditional company in the way we worked. We had organisation charts, managers, job titles. But we had not yet put anything very concrete in place to support our vision of a more empowering company.

The need really came from the ground: there was a lack of clarity about who does what, and a lot of inconsistency between sites.

For a driver position, for example, we could have ten or fifteen different job descriptions. A terminal manager did not necessarily do the same thing everywhere. A responsibility held by a dock worker in one terminal could belong to someone with a different title elsewhere.

With 24 terminals, it was becoming hard to find your way and, above all, to have consistent expectations of our people.

Anne Chabert: You also have to see it in the context of more than 80 years of growth. A company can be very well structured to grow operationally while, over time, building up organisational knowledge that stays implicit.

Some people knew exactly whom to talk to, in which context, and how things worked. But that clarity was not necessarily shared across the whole organisation.

Geneviève: That information lived on people’s computers. When someone left, the information left with them.

What did this lack of clarity change in practice?

Geneviève: First, it cost time.

We recruit a lot, drivers in particular. Every time we recruited, we had to rework the job description. When there was a workplace accident and we had to provide precise information about a position, we had to sit down with the manager again and recheck the tasks.

So a lot of time was lost, for operations as much as for HR.

It could also create a gap between what we presented to a candidate and what they actually found when they arrived. Not because we wanted to present something false, but simply because things were not defined clearly enough.

And then there was a question of fairness. Why would someone in the same position in Quebec City or in Montreal have different expectations simply because they do not have the same manager?

Today, we can go back to the roles and the expectations. Whether you are in Quebec City, in Rouyn-Noranda or in Montreal, we know what is expected.

Why does empowerment depend on clarity?

Geneviève: You cannot empower people if what you expect of them is not clear.

Once expectations are explicit, control can decrease. Managers can trust the people who hold the roles more, and step back themselves.

We saw situations where some managers did a lot of micromanagement. That could stifle talent that was nonetheless there.

Clarifying roles forced some managers to loosen part of that grip. And we saw people step up, grow and reveal abilities the organisation had not necessarily seen before.

Anne: We also saw people who mattered to the organisation but who were perhaps simply not in the right seat.

Clarification lets you look differently at what someone carries today, what they could bring elsewhere and where they need support. Some of these people were repositioned and are still at Morneau today.

It is an effect of clarity that is often underestimated: it does not only define responsibilities. It also helps you see talent.

How did you proceed without disrupting 24 terminals at once?

Anne: Step by step.

The first discussions began in 2021. In 2022, we started mapping several support teams and a first operational environment.

But the idea was not simply to map one terminal. We wanted to create a standard terminal structure, solid enough to be carried over to other sites.

With each new rollout, the terminal concerned gave its feedback. So the structure evolved as we went.

Geneviève: We adapted to the reality on the ground. Some environments were ready earlier than others. We also had mergers and acquisitions going on in parallel.

We worked terminal by terminal, with the HR business partners as relays on the ground.

Anne: In a multi-site organisation, that is essential. Geneviève cannot physically be everywhere. You need people locally who understand the project, know the teams and can support the change.

What did you discover while mapping the organisation?

Anne: It is always a bit of a Pandora’s box.

You think you are mapping roles. In reality, you are digging up every inconsistency.

You discover processes that need clarifying. Roles you thought were covered, but that nobody really has the time to take on. A person who is clearly not in the right seat. A manager who perhaps has too many people reporting to them, or too many responsibilities.

You pull a thread and you do not always know how far it will go.

That is also what can make this kind of project take longer than expected. But these difficulties are not side effects of the project: they are precisely the problems that clarification finally lets you see and address.

Once that foundation exists, difficult conversations change in nature. You can ask: is the role clear? Is the accountability in the right place? Is a decision process missing? Which roles should take part in this decision?

You finally have a shared basis for thinking things through.

Does this new clarity also change the way decisions are made?

Geneviève: Yes. It is one of the differences we see most.

Before, some decisions could be made in one department and then reach the other people concerned, who would say: “We weren’t consulted.”

Then we had to start again.

Today, when several divisions or departments are involved, we bring the right people together from the start. Things are said, we make a decision together and we apply it.

Since we started working this way, it has become much rarer to hear someone say: “I wasn’t consulted, let’s go back to the drawing board.”

Anne: It also takes away some of the internal politics.

The decision depends less on whoever speaks loudest or holds the most important title. There are explicit roles and scopes of responsibility.

In my view, that creates a much healthier climate for collaboration.

What results can you measure today?

Geneviève: We had not built the project around a battery of KPIs, so I prefer to be transparent: we observed changes in ways of working more than we measured precise time savings.

This year, however, we ran an organisational survey with an external firm. On role clarity, we were at around 9.2 out of 10. That was clearly not the case five years ago.

The rollout itself also shows the scale of the work done: 950 unique roles, 92 role templates, 75 unique circles, three standard circle structures and 676 employees assigned.

But the most visible results are sometimes elsewhere: fewer reversals in decisions, more consistent responsibilities across sites, managers who trust more, talent that emerges, and people repositioned where they can contribute more.

What role does Talkspirit play in this transformation?

Geneviève: The platform was an integral part of the project. Without the platform, opening up that information to everyone would have been much more complicated.

It gives us one shared place to make this structure visible and keep it up to date.

We are now going further in how we use it. Around 90 managers will gradually be able to manage their own assignments and scopes. We have prepared bite-sized training content and set up an audit system to keep the data quality high.

The next step could be meetings, because their effectiveness is one of the topics we are working on today.

Anne: The tool is not an end in itself, it is a means. But it is a means that makes things much easier.

Governance and roles provide a first foundation. Then, as the organisation moves on to meetings, alignment or other practices, the platform can gradually become the place where these different dimensions come together.

Do you need to adopt holacracy or remove hierarchy to work with roles?

Anne: No, and that belief can create unnecessary fear.

I do not think we have a single client that we have taken to pure holacracy. We know the foundations of these models and we pick the practices that answer a concrete need.

At Morneau, the need was first and foremost clarity of roles and accountabilities.

The hierarchy still exists. Job titles still exist. We created a clearer system of collaboration through roles.

Problems of clarity and alignment exist in practically every organisation. You do not need to adopt a complete model to solve them.

Geneviève: We are creating our own hybrid model.

We keep what works in our traditional model and add new ways of working where we want to evolve.

Job titles, for example, remain useful. When we recruit externally, candidates need to understand immediately what we are looking for. So we let the two logics coexist.

What does Chapô now make it possible to build?

Geneviève: This is where the project becomes truly strategic.

We did not have real competency profiles. Now that roles and accountabilities are clear, we can link competencies to roles.

That leads us towards a competency register, then towards our LMS and development paths linked to the competencies needed in the different roles.

We are also working on operational processes. The person leading that project now uses this structure every day as a shared starting point.

Anne: That is why I always say that clarifying roles is not an end.

It is a beginning and a foundation.

If Morneau opens a new terminal tomorrow, there is no need to start from a blank page. A standard structure already exists. The same goes for a new division: you know which roles, which responsibilities and, gradually, which competencies are needed.

This kind of project can be seen at first as a cost. In reality, you have to see it as an investment in the organisation’s infrastructure for growth.

What advice would you give a company that wants to start?

Geneviève: First, surround yourself with the right people.

If I were starting again, I would build a larger project team. Anne and I carried an enormous amount. A broader team would have let us move faster and keep more momentum.

I also recommend external support when the expertise does not yet exist in-house. Anne practically became a colleague during the project. But the aim must be to transfer that expertise: we also trained people internally so that the system can keep living.

You need a strong ally in senior leadership. For us, Catherine Morneau played that role. In moments of doubt, she held the course: “This is where we’re headed.”

And you need allies on the ground, especially in a multi-site company.

Finally: you have to start, even if not everything is perfectly clear at the outset.

Anne: And treat it as a genuine organisational project.

It takes project management, change management, resources for the rollout, and time.

Because ultimately, you are not simply documenting roles. You are making your organisation clear enough to be able to evolve.

Clarity as infrastructure for growth

The story of Chapô begins with a seemingly simple question: who does what?

Four years later, the answer touches management, decision-making, competencies, training, processes and the ability to open a new terminal tomorrow without rebuilding a structure from scratch.

That may be the main lesson from Groupe Morneau. A role-based organisation does not necessarily require removing hierarchy, adopting holacracy or overturning what already works. It starts by making explicit what can no longer stay implicit as the company grows. “I am what I am because of who we all are,” says André Morneau’s motto. Chapô has become its infrastructure.

So the question to ask may not be: “Which model should we adopt?”

But rather: “What do we need to make clear so we can keep growing?”

Not a tool. Your Organisation’s Operating System.