With December in full swing, we’re entering the busiest shipping season of the year — a time when preparation matters just as much as performance. And few stories illustrate that better than what happened to UPS in 2013.
That Christmas, UPS faced one of the biggest logistical failures in its history. Online shopping had grown faster than anyone predicted, major retailers kept extending their two-day shipping promises and winter storms hit key regions at the worst possible moment. Hubs overflowed, aircraft were overloaded and millions of packages sat stuck in transit.
Families woke up on Christmas morning without gifts that were supposed to be there. Social media erupted, news outlets ran front-page stories and retailers scrambled to apologize to their own customers.
UPS didn’t try to spin it. They owned it.
In a statement that surprised many, the company admitted, in plain language, that it had not planned well enough. Instead of defending the system, they committed to rebuilding it. And they did.
In the months that followed, UPS invested heavily in forecasting technology, hired and trained seasonal workers earlier, built temporary sorting hubs and restructured agreements with retailers to prevent unrealistic shipping guarantees. They examined the root causes instead of the symptoms, and by the next Christmas, delivery performance was stronger than expected. Trust had been restored.
The lesson wasn’t about shipping. It was about honesty. Organizations don’t lose credibility because they fail; they lose it when they refuse to acknowledge the failure.
At Bark, we help leaders and teams see clearly, speak honestly and make decisions that align with what’s real — not what’s comfortable. When your communication is grounded in truth, your team trusts you, your audience believes you and your decisions create momentum instead of confusion.
UPS understood that real progress begins when you own the problem instead of avoiding it. Honesty is what clears the path forward.
