Bob Coles, Mill Manager, Augusta Newsprint, Augusta,GA

June 20, 2017

ANC has been working with Roundstone since 1995 on a mill-wide initiative to improve all aspects of workplace relations and communications. During the period between 1995 and 1999, ANC’s efficiency increased from 88% to 93% and costs decreased significantly with no job losses. Employee satisfaction improved by over 40% and there were significant decreases in safety lost time and absenteeism. (See the case study) Their successes influenced one of the nation’s largest unions, PACE, to adopt an across-the-board preferred partnership approach with management.

But in the glow of their accomplishments, ANC faced the challenge of maintaining momentum. “It’s hard. How do you always make it energetic, enthusiastic and interesting?” asks Bob Collez, ANC mill manager. “We’re making the same rolls of paper day after day. To try to keep up enthusiasm is a challenge.”

But the importance of facing that challenge became vividly clear during the last two years when management noticed key indicators starting to slip again.

Of greatest concern: The quality of paper production began to drop off. Customers noticed. And then the machines themselves began to malfunction. They were stymied. No one could determine how to increase machine efficiency and paper quality. Employees became increasingly frustrated dealing with breakdowns on hot Georgia summer days inside of an even hotter papermaking environment.

“We weren’t communicating what we were trying to do to get machine efficiency up, and I think we left out the employees’ involvement in a lot of that,” admits Joe Coursey, ANC union president of PACE Local # 3-1958.

After many meetings with each other and Roundstone, ANC and Union management realized they once again needed to call on people all over the company to help them.

Trainers from the head office of ANC’s parent company, Abitibi Consolidated, in Montreal assisted them in putting together a multi-disciplinary team of over 30 people. It included everyone from operators to maintenance to management – even several union shop stewards. The team split into several teams, each looking at different areas of the machines. They identified and implemented 72 things they could do to improve the situation.

Opportunities were identified and implemented, ranging from improving the quality and stability of the raw materials or pulp stream, to realignment work on the paper machines. Other results include:

Efficiency has returned to 90+% after dipping down to the mid-80s during the worst of the machine breakdowns
A new safety milestone of 225 days without an accident
Customers report being very pleased with the current product
Perry Willard, ANC union president of PACE Local #3-1504, compares the process of maintaining an enlivened culture with a roller coaster ride with lots of up and downs, even within an overall positive context.

“You’d think after seven years, it would be something that you wouldn’t have to nourish a whole lot and it would kind of grow itself. But it doesn’t. You have to stay on top of it,” says Joe Coursey.

Connection Comes First

Jun 21, 2017

Roundstone International

One of the health care industry’s biggest concerns these days is the state of its paid caregivers: stressed and unhappy. Jay Kaplan, M.D., Medical Director for the Studer Group, works directly with this problem. In addition to the clinical practice of medicine, he counsels hospitals and physicians nationwide about improving their services. Kaplan speaks about and embodies the changes he wishes to inspire in others. “What people are searching for,” he says, “is connection in a culture that focuses on doing.” Referring to the work of Harold Kushner, Kaplan points out that we tend to recognize only two basic acts: the Achieve Act (doing, accomplishing) and the Connect Act (being in relationship, relaxing, connecting to oneself). We see these as sequential — first one achieves, then one connects. But, in a healing environment, he maintains, “connect comes first.”

With a patient or an audience, Kaplan knows that the energy he conveys creates connection more than his words. So he gears up for his presentations by taking a run or moving to music. Though he speaks without notes, he keeps reminders in front of him: BREATHE – CONNECT – THE FOCUS IS NOT ON YOU – HAVE FUN. “When we’re nervous,” he observes, “we focus on ourselves rather than on our listeners. When anxious, we stop breathing.” By taking time to center himself, Kaplan becomes more alert and responsive to his audience.

Health professionals, he believes, need to serve themselves as well as their patients, colleagues and families. Challenging them to think beyond just getting through the day, he asks what it means to thrive. “I ask how many of them can pump their fist at the end of the day and say, ‘YES, it was a great day!’”

Kaplan believes the key to happiness lies in cultivating an inner life. To inspire his own imagination, he takes quiet time, amidst family and work responsibilities, to write poetry. Leadership is a recurring theme.

Another is versatility. Doctors, Kaplan says, tend to use the same style with every patient. He thinks they’d be more effective by adapting their approach to each situation. The inspiration for his own versatility is a form of movement he studied with dancer and author, Gabrielle Roth. Movement practices, he finds, awaken a sensitivity that enables him to connect more easily with his patients.

Someday he hopes to write a book about healing in America. “There’s a lot of treatment going on,” he contends, “but not a lot of healing. Healing requires connection.” Kaplan envisions all our institutions as potential instruments for healing. “A service station man,” he insists, “can be a healer.”

transformation

Jay Kaplan, M.D., Medical Director, Studer Group

Bob Coles, Mill Manager, Augusta Newsprint, Augusta,GA

Connection Comes First

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