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Get close, part 2
Jim Thompson (jthompson@taii.com)
Week of 29 June 2009
Click here, then click "Trans lator" in top navigation bar for other languages. Follow Nip Impressions on Twitter
Back in the 1 Jun 09 issue of Nip Impressions, I talked about moving people physically close to the operations of the pulp and paper mill. We'll take that a step further this week.
There are some people you can move close to the operations, but still never persuade them to leave their office. If this is the case, it is time to change the culture.
My stepson graced us with his presence the other evening (free meal). He and I got to talking about his summer job. He works at a prestigious golf course, a nationally branded collection with some high profile tournaments. The one here is not so high-flying, in fact it has lost its B-grade tournament. It is apparently losing money, bucketsful of it. My stepson, with two years of college and threes summers schlepping bags and carts around this course, marvels at the dim-witted management decisions from on high. I asked him if he ever sees the managers making these decisions out on the course--out where he is. The answer, unsurprisingly, is "no."
Poorly run mills have the same culture. People come to work, go to their offices, shuffle papers, answer emails, yack on the phone and never, ever get close to the operations, even if they are right outside their door.
I worked in a mill one time where this culture was stunning. It was an old mill, had the traditional mahogany row for the bosses up front. There was one innocuous door that led from this mahogany row out into the mill (my office was on the mahogany row side). It was a time warp. Go through that door and you thought you had entered the vilest, most wretched ghetto in the world. One step from mahogany air conditioned pleasantness to Dante's inferno. A new senior executive showed up shortly after I did, and he owned a flashlight. And he used it regularly to go out, meet the people, look at their problems and solve them. In a few months, a sidekick of his showed up, one with the same philosophy. We redoubled our efforts to learn every inch of that facility. It paid off handsomely. The facility went on to make (sustainable!) record profits in a so-so corner of the business, with only modest capital expenditures.
Much later, over a decade later, the facility was sold to a new ownership that went back to the old way of doing things. It is now closed and abandoned. Yet, the markets are not so much different than they were back in the day of the record profits. I am not saying that knowing the details of the facility were everything, but they were a large part of the process (see also Nip Impressions from 4 May 09).
How can you tell if you are changing the culture? Look at what goes on in the morning meeting. Yes, a lot of data is covered, and cross departmentally, it is the first time some will hear about what is going on in other areas (but never within their own area of responsibility). The morning meeting should not, must not be a place of discovery--if it is your people are not doing their jobs. Rather, the morning meeting should be a place of solutions and plans. The people sitting around the production table should already know what is going on and should be there ready and willing to competently discuss the challenges of the day. If there is much surprise in the morning meeting, your culture needs fixing.
Managers on top of things today (people like Luis Henao, Ed Kersey and Mike Michaud, all at a location I can't disclose) are using their cell phone on the way to work (hands free, of course) to talk to management of the night shift so when they land on the site, they already have a status update of what has happened since they left. In the most modern mills, this data was on their blackberry or other device and they looked at it when they got out of bed, so they knew what they wanted to talk to the night shift about on the way in. In other words, a manager that is learning overnight conditions for the very first time when they hit the morning meeting at 09:00 is probably 3 to 4 hours behind. And this is on routine days--if something went bump in the night, they should have been alerted to that within just a few minutes.
We have spent a lot of time on this subject over the last couple of months, for it is most important. Your people assets are probably the least effectively deployed of all your assets. Use them to achieve great things.
Up close knowledge improves safety, too. Your people working in the mill everyday know what practices are unsafe, they may just be ignoring them. If you are out there every day you can see them and act on them.
Be safe and we will talk next week.
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[Adv.] 17th International Conference--Beijing, China
I wanted to take a couple of minutes to mention our partnership this year with the The 17th International Exhibition and Conference for the Pulp/Paper and Forestry Industries to be held in Beijing in September. Please note that the dates have changed to 16-18 Sept 09. If you do business in China, you won't want to miss this conference. Alternating between Beijing and Shanghai, I had the opportunity to attend several years ago and found it quite impressive.
If you have any questions or wish to find out more information, just click on the logo above or "More" below.
Jim
Riddles by Travis:
Answer to last week's riddle: 1/e. "The answer is about the same, no matter [the size of N] (It gets closer and closer to 1//e/ the larger N gets, and is already a very good approximation [at] 5. Source: Su, Francis E., et al. "Matching Problem." /Mudd Math Fun Facts/.
Last week's riddle asked: "Jim has 20 clients for whom he has written 20 reports. Thanks to a mail snafu, the 20 reports are sent to the 20 clients randomly. What is the probability that no client receives the correct report? Would the probability increase or decrease if there were more clients (and commensurate reports)?"
This week's riddle: Who starred in 3 films during the 1950's, underwritten by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, extolling the virtues of American capitalism?
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 "A new tool for human resources; a caution for job seekers"
Note: Emails are organized in the order received, with first received at the top.
Added caveat... getting into college is tough these days, especially the really good colleges. College admissions people also look at prospective students' Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace postings.
Next it will be the IRS, ATF, DEA, CIA, FBI, TSA, ... and for our friends up north, the RCMP.
Larry Wells
Atlanta, Georgia
USA
***
Jim,
I immediately passed this along to my two college aged children. This week's column was particularly germane to the subject of job seeking in the current economic environment. I'm reminded of the caution that was given to us some years ago by the HR department about e-mail (which is still pertinent): "Never send an e-mail that you don't want posted on the front bulletin board." In other words, assume that whomever you don't want to see the e-mail will eventually see it. The same warning applies for our personal e-mail as well as our professional communication, by the way.
My mother, the wise woman that she is, always told me that "Fool's names and fool's faces always appear in public places," which makes me wonder why I have a Facebook account in the first place. There is real value to these new mediums of communication, but to reveal one's inner self without the benefit of personally knowing the people who are receiving the information...that's a problem.
Thanks, as always, for your weekly words of wisdom; good advice indeed.
Thanks,
Jon Kerr
Cellulose Community Board Member
Andritz Inc.
Loveland, Ohio
USA
***
Jim,
Your article reminds me of an experience my daughter's new sister-in-law ran into this past wk.
Lindsay was married Sat. Wonderful experience!
They no longer have a bachelorette night out. For both he and she, it has become a weekend somewhere (!).
Lindsay and her girl friends went to Panama City a couple of weekends ago. Her future sister-in-law was to be part of the wedding party, and went along.
She is an attractive mother of two, and sang a solo in the wedding.
They all had a great time. No trouble that I heard about.
However, some photos of that weekend which were "posted" showed her having an "adult beverage" at a restaurant. Some ladies at her church somehow became aware of it, and suddenly she was being asked to resign from her church positions and you'd think they were going to paint a scarlet letter on her! I think a letter of apology is supposed to resolve this, but it gives an example of your comments. In fact, this happened because of photos posted by someone else, which she happened to be in!
We have to be very careful!!
I'm very unfamiliear with this area of cyberspace, but I think your comments are right-on.
Jeff Smith
Account Manager
BTG Americas, Inc.
Norcross, Georgia
USA
***
The answer regarding the 20 clients who receive 20 reports at random can be obtained as follows:
The probability that a client receives the correct report is 1 in 20 or 0.05 (5.0%).
Therefore the probability that a client receives the wrong report is 1- 0.05 = 0.95 (95%)
The probability that all 20 clients receive the wrong report is therefore 0.95 raised to the power of 20 = 0.358 or 35.8%.
As the number of clients increases, the probability that no client receives the correct report increases slightly. (i.e., for 40 clients, the answer would be 36.3%).
A more challenging question from this example would be: What is the probability that exactly half (or some other proportion) of the clients receive the correct report?
Steven J. Moore
Wausau Paper Corp.
Rhinelander, Wisconsin
USA
***
Jim,
You're assuming employers actually care...associations like Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers don't seem to be a problem for most people, who's going to care about a drunken night at college? ;-)
Name withheld
Ohio
USA
***
Jim,
Thanks for passing on your current edition of "Nip Impressions". As one in the current "job seeker" category, its a good reminder that nothing is sacred in cyberspace. To date, I've stayed away from even checking out the strictly "social networking" sites such as "facebook", etc.
I only entered LinkedIn after the urging of close colleagues and the career transition company Lee Hecht Harrison that I've been working with. I will closely watch what I post and only include what I deem beneficial information.
Bruce Redmond
Michigan
USA
***
Jim,
Great to see a response from Bill Fuller this week. One of the wisest people I know.
I'll quickly add to last week's comments: Prattville High School is starting up an elective program centered on educating students on explaining the engineering profession and on what engineers do. The teacher is going to have a group of professional volunteers to help steer the program. I may get involved. It sounds exciting.
Facebook: Oh my I can't agree more with your comments. While my facebook pages can be seen by "friends" there are many out there with open accounts that anyone can see. I fear most for kids and teenagers who in their naivety, put anything on facebook or myspace. But these web accounts are also great tools for keeping in touch and communicating. I try to guard what I write as if anyone could see it.
As a teacher, I do not have any student "friends" on these web accounts. I don't think it is appropriate and I tell the kids so.
Youtube - one fantastic source of music videos. I try to avoid everything else there!!!!
Good seeing you in Montgomery. Wish you could have stayed longer.
Peace,
Gene Canavan
Prattville, Alabama
USA
***
Jim -- great article about social networking. You hit the nail on the head!
Jeff McKenna
Duluth, Georgia
USA
***
Jim,
While I respect the fact that paging through potential employees Facebook and Myspace pages can provide a massive amount of information that would not otherwise be available, I have some serious problems with using this information as a basis for judging a person's "hireability".
As a recent college graduate myself, I do keep a facebook page. I primarily use this page as a way to keep in touch with friends who I no longer see, and for posting pictures of recent trips, events, or adventures that I have been a part of. I can assure you that this page, while perfectly respectable, was never intended for the eyes of any potential employers. I can also assure you that my facebook page is not "out there" for anyone to see. The only way that anyone can view anything besides a small picture of me is to request that I allow them to view my full page. While I wish that everyone with any social network page would do the same, I also have to wonder what conclusions an employer might make about me just based on that information...
Imagine that you are looking into hiring me, and that you decide to take a look at any social networks pages that I might have as a part of the process. You do a google search of my name and come up with a facebook and a myspace page; however, that is as far as you can go. These pages are restricted, and you cannot view them. What is your impression of me at this point? Do you think I am just doing a better job than most at guarding some of my more personal information? Or, do you start wondering what kind of information is on these pages that I would have reason to hide? If you start wondering what kind of party pictures, personal rants, and devious groups I belong to, or decide not to hire me because you think I am hiding something from you, then we have a serious problem.
One employer, the city of Bozeman Montana, has already come up with a simple solution to this problem: require every applicant to provide passwords to all their social networking pages. I wont even get into what a violation of personal privacy this is, but I will say that after receiving heated responses from individuals, the London Guardian, and the ACLU, Bozeman discontinued this particular practice.
My ultimate point is this: When using social networking pages as a hiring tool, where do we draw the line? What are the boundaries of the acceptable and the unacceptable? If I post on Twitter that I am happy I bought a new car one day, and sad the Michael Jackson has passed away the next day, it's not because I'm bipolar, it's probably because I'm bored. What happened to the days when a series of personal interviews was the best way to evaluate a candidate? If you want to hire me, and you want to see my Facebook page, ask me. If I say no, that's the end of it. If we start using people's social networks pages today, when do we start asking to look at email accounts, or for copies of all my personal correspondence. I'm not saying abandon the practice altogether, I'm just saying beware.
Corey McBain
Montana State University - College of Engineering Graduate '09
Bozeman, Montana
USA
---
Thanks. The point is, it is out of your control. You may feel it is not right, unjustified, etc., but that is irrelevant. Employers will judge you by this information (unless prohibited by law) just like they judge your appearance when you show up for an interview. It is like I tell young people all the time, you certainly have a right to have tattoos, bolts through your nose, whatever, but employers still have a right to not hire you. And you will never know why you didn't get the job.
Jim
***
My point is that in the hands of someone who takes these things too seriously, any innocuous online remark can be dangerous. By googling your name, I was able to find a blogger under the name Jim Thompson who is (apparantly) located in Georgia. I have no idea if this is you or not, but if I were a potential employer I could deduce (and am
probably completely wrong) that you are a republican, that you dont have a very good opinion of fraternities, and that one piece is titled "Lets Kill Lobbyists..."
As a Democrat and past Fraternity president (my house had a no alcohol policy) I might decide to hire someone else who had no such blog just because they might be democratic, fraternity friendly, non violents. And you would never know why you didn't get the job. Basically, I could come to ridiculous conclusions based on nearly anything I found about you even though I'm sure you're a stand up guy. And this blog might not even belong to you!
I'm just saying, if you go into this with the idea that there is something bad out there to find, I promise you that you'll find something.
Sorry if I'm monopolizing your email. Thanks for the reply,
Corey McBain
---
Well, Corey, you can scream personal rights all you want to, but you will not win this one (and it is not winning it with me that I am talking about). Employers will do what they want to. The prudent will not put anything on the web that they are not comfortable with everyone in the world seeing.
I hope you read the letters column in the upcoming edition of Nip Impressions. You'll see some other views.
The last time I checked, there were 270,000 Jim Thompsons in the United States, so I enjoy a bit of anonymity myself.
Some of my prejudices? I would not hire anyone that has belonged to a fraternity and I have told my step son who belongs to one that he needs to be careful. I wouldn't put that on a resume unless I was very sure all the people that might read it are fraternity friendly. You would be surprised how many are not--I would guess half of all employers have a dim view of fraternities.
I am sure you are a great person, my point is you have absolutely no idea nor control over what impersonal future employers think of you. The more you make public, the less control you have.
Jim
Something I didn't say to Corey when I responded above. These days, employers are looking for reasons not to hire you. They have plenty of qualified candidates and the challenge is to weed them out, thin out the group to a manageable size. If you have any questionable issues at all, you will be tossed. A goofy line or questionable picture on a social networking site is all they need.
Jim
###
Have a comment? Send your email to jthompson@taii.com. Unless you tell us otherwise, we will assume we can use your name if we publish your letter.
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From zero to $13,450
We have put together a new piece showing how you can efficiently market and advertise your business on a budget from Zero to $13,450--the most you can possibly spend with Paperitalo Publications in a year at current prices. Check it out here
Call me today to talk about your marketing and advertising program for 2009. We reach the world every week--no exceptions.
Regards,
Jim Craven
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Pasadena, California, USA
Tel: 626-799-0036
Email: jcraven1@charter.net
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As I travel, I am always looking for someone to go to dinner with, share a barbeque sandwich lunch and so forth. If you are in the area of any of these events (or along the way, since I often drive), give me a call on my cell phone (404.822.3412). I would be delighted to visit with you.
Also, I accept a limited number of trips per year to mills for reimbursement of travel expenses only (I am a cheap date). I like to visit mills and talk, and I'll be happy to hang around a day or two and talk to your professionals, shift teams and so forth, in a formal setting or just out in operations. Contact me for arranging such a visit.
One caveat: clients may require my presence at a time or place that conflicts with these. Clients get priority for every date but my wife's birthday or our anniversary.
9 - 12 Jul--Panama City, Florida
14 Jul--Shreveport, Louisiana
21 Jul--Blandin, Minnesota
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From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you, the readers, for you are the source of our success at Paperitalo Publications. You avidly read Nip Impressions, PaperMoney and Capital Arguments. You pass them on to others. You save them in your own electronic files for future reference. We are deeply grateful for your enthusiastic support.
There are a few suggested actions we would like to offer you to assure our continued success in the future.
First, be vocal with your suppliers--tell them what you read! Suggest to them that if they have an advertising budget, they just might want to spend a tiny bit of it in the family of publications that you actually read--Paperitalo Publications. If you are really enthusiastic, email our associate publisher, Jim Craven (jcraven1@charter.net) and he will be happy to provide you with the email for the advertising manager at the supplier(s) of your choice so you can email the decision maker directly to let them know how you feel. You, the reader, have more influence on current and prospective advertisers than anyone else.
Second, some of you have actually asked if you can pay for our publications. Wow! Not to deny you this opportunity, here is a paypal link that you can use if this is your desire: In appreciation, each month we randomly select a "donor of the month" which receives a year's free subscription to the Thompson Private Letter (a $295 retail value)(void where prohibited).
Third, if you have any suggestions as to how we can make any Paperitalo Publication better, please email me directly at jthompson@taii.com.
Again, we thank you for all your support and encourage you to keep reading, passing and filing.
Warm regards,
Jim
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Travis Hale
In honor of Independence Day (US). Are you ready for your American citizenship test?
http://tinyurl.com/lym7p2
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Your contributions are welcome in this department, regardless of point of view. A few criteria--if you send us a copyrighted piece, also provide a permission to publish statement from the owner. We will not publish overtly political pieces or anonymous pieces. Paperitalo Publications will fact check the source of the paper and it will be solely at the discretion of Paperitalo Publications as to the decision to publish or not publish. Paperitalo Publications is not responsible for the content of any paper published here nor any conclusions or decisions one may reach from reading them.
Energy Myths and Realities
(presented by Keith O. Rattie, Chairman, President and CEO of Questar Corporation at Utah Valley University, 2 April 2009)
Paperitalo Publications is grateful to Chuck Klass of Redington Beach, Florida, USA, for bringing this speech to our attention.
***
The updated Lacey Act explained
Paperitalo Publications is grateful to Chuck Green of Webster, New York, USA, for bringing this to our attention.
***
Cap & Trade Job Losses
This is the Heritage Foundation's View of the Cap & Trade Legislation currently before the US Senate.
---
Cap & Trade Job Gains
This is the Environmental Defense Fund's View of the Cap & Trade Legislation currently before the US Senate.
Note: we diligently searched for a more balanced set of presentations on the Cap & Trade Legislation and this was the best we could come up with. If you know of any others, please share them with us. And, please, don't write us any derogatory letters saying liberals need cartoons to explain complex matters. We will not publish them--Jim
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Permission granted for reprinting, as long as this entire column is reprinted without modification or truncation.
"Nip Impressions" is a registered trademark (USPTO Reg. No. 2985097) of Talo Analytic International, Inc.
The characters from the novel "The Osage Mill" are fictional and copyright, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Talo Analytic International, Inc., all rights reserved.
Be safe, and we will talk next week,
Jim Thompson
Paperitalo Publications
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