Summary: <p style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">A decade ago, the Barilla pasta factory in Foggia, Italy, had a big problem with people skipping work. The absentee rate was around 10 percent.</p><p style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">People called in sick all the time, typically on Mondays, or on days when there was a big soccer game.</p><p style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Foggia is in southern Italy. Barilla's big factory in northern Italy had a much lower absentee rate. This is not surprising; there's a huge economic gap between southern and northern Italy. It's like two different countries.</p><p style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Barilla execs told Nicola Calandrea, the manager of the Foggia plant, that they would close the factory unless he brought the absenteeism rate down.</p><p style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Calandrea decided that to save the factory, he had to change the culture. On today's show, we visit the factory and hear how Calandrea made it work.</p>
