Living Your Values during a Time of Crisis
Background: A fire started just south of Weed, CA at 1:30 PM on Monday, September 15. Pushed by wind gusts exceeding 40 mph, the fire burned through a hillside neighborhood in less than 15 minutes as it also hit our veneer mill. Ignited shingles from the first neighborhood were found ½ to mile away due to the winds, also hitting a second group of homes. Over 70 homes were incinerated by the fire, including the homes of roughly 15 of our employees. Although our mill suffered extensive damage, the efforts of our employees, some of who lost their homes, combined with the quick responsiveness of local firefighters, saved a majority of the operation. This article expands on an earlier communication to our employees and the community in the aftermath of this disaster.
It’s not uncommon for an organization to have its values posted in their entryway, around the office and even on different company publications. Unfortunately, my experience is that it’s also not uncommon for those values to simply stay posted or published, rather than reflected or demonstrated by leadership or the workforce. And, it’s not uncommon for those values to even disappear, or contradictory behaviors occur, when a crisis hits. A crisis will often reveal the strengths of an organization and its leadership, or expose the weaknesses—a topic for a later discussion.
That has not been the case with our new Core Values at Roseburg Forest Products. Never were those values better demonstrated than during and following the fire that hit our Weed Veneer facility just on September 15th. One value that stood out immediately was one of our core values that “Sawdust in the Veins”. This value was not shown solely by our folks in Weed, but across our entire organization as we responded to the fire and its devastating effects. It is clear that sawdust in the veins is a living value and one that we should be proud to claim.
The stories surrounding the fire in Weed are still being told. There were employees who, just moments earlier evacuated from the plant then voluntarily stayed to fight the fire in an effort to protect the mill; this happed even as they knew their own homes were being lost. There were phone calls being made from other Roseburg operations, most hundreds of miles away, even as the fire burned, with staff asking what they could do to offer immediate help. There were Weed employees coming back to the plant after the fire, seeking to help clean up or watch for the hot spots that continued to ignite. Then there was the leadership team putting together a response plan in less than 72 hours from the start of the fire; a response plan to keep Weed employees working, provide temporary housing for the 15 or so employees who lost their homes and everything in them, and immediately provide practical assistance so employees would have the toiletries and clothing. All of these efforts reflect living out sawdust in our veins. The efforts were focused on the people, those employees committed to working in wood products.
Three days after the fire, several of us met with the Weed employees and their families, including many children. We thanked them for their commitment and efforts then outlined the immediate and ongoing assistance that Roseburg Forest Products will be providing. There were positive responses from throughout the audience. But, the most positive responses were heard when we told them that our intent was to be up and operating no later than Thanksgiving. We explained that we are committed to the Weed operation and our employees there, as well as to the community.
This clear commitment to rebuild our veneer facility in Weed and resume operations reflects the sawdust in the veins of our Executive Team and other leaders, who live out this value every day. The commitment from our Weed employees to help with protecting the mill, helping with clean up and even moving north temporarily so that we can keep producing veneer also demonstrates this core value in a realistic way. The fire was devastating as over 100 homes and buildings were destroyed when a fire south of town blazed up in wind gusts exceeding 40 miles an hour. The damage was extensive and will take months to overcome, but we are already living out our commitment to our folks and the community.
Our second core value is handshake integrity. We “walk the talk” and meet our commitments. And we do so in tangible, meaningful ways. As demonstrated above, we immediately began that process after last week’s fire. On the Tuesday morning after the fire, a Roseburg Forest Products engineer drove a pickup from Roseburg to Weed, stopping along the way at a Costco just long enough fill up the back of his pickup with food and water. That allowed us to provide snacks and lunch for our folks at Weed that returned to the plant site to begin damage assessment immediately after the fire. Our management team at Weed began making personal phone calls to each employee to check in and provide a status update. Staff mobilized and began the response process to the fire and its damage. We have a mutual commitment with our workforce in Weed, so wanted to show them that our commitment had not wavered. Damage assessments began immediately so that we could have our rebuilding plan ready to begin execution before the week was out. And, that execution did occur.
Our third core value is driven to win, because we are a company that has been, and will remain, competitive in a tough industry. Even as we assessed the fire damage to our Weed plant, we began to determine how other Roseburg Forest Products operations could adjust to cover the lost production. We took steps to maintain our commitment to our customers, to protect our market position-- that in turn provides stability to our workforce, and to provide interim production opportunities. Part of this step included adding shifts at our Oregon facilities, where those shifts will actually be manned by Weed employees who would otherwise be temporarily displaced. This past Monday, one week after the fire, we had over 50 employees, some with spouse and children along, come to Roseburg to begin working at our other plants. We had an orientation then a pizza feed that afternoon then the Weed employees jumped back into work on Tuesday. We are providing lodging and meal assistance as these folks commit themselves to continuing production until their “home” mill is back up and running. Their commitment to temporarily relocate and immediately begin production demonstrates them sharing that driven to win character. And, our initial reports are that our local workforce smoothly integrated those employees into their respective locations—another positive reflection!
Am I proud of our organization, and to be part of a team that responded so well to crisis? Absolutely! It took incredible collaboration and coordination to respond so quickly to complex and diverse needs, while helping face the emotional impact of such great losses. But, we also saw the mutual commitment of our employees, so the motivation was there to make the effort and achieve the results. Not that it’s over yet but, just a week after a fire ravaged the community of Weed, as well as severely damaging our plant, Roseburg Forest Products is moving forward towards rebuilding and recovery. And, we will be meeting with city officials again this week to see how we can engage in the community’s recovery.
Roseburg Forest Products has sawdust in our veins, handshake integrity and is driven to win—throughout the entire organization. These are not values simply placed on the wall or in a publication; they are values that start with our leadership and are reflected through our entire organization. These values were reflected in a very real and practical manner throughout, and after, last week’s crisis. We are committed to our wood products industry and the surrounding communities…and, despite the disaster caused by the fire in Weed, it is a commitment that we, and our employees, will maintain.