Green Diamond Resource Company
Green Diamond Resource Company
214 N. Third St.
P.O. Box 460
Shelton, Washington 98584
Mr. Gary Eyring
The Open Organization
1700 7th Avenue, Suite 116, PMB 386
Seattle, WA 98101
Dear Gary:
We have been working with you and The Open Organization for nearly five years now. Our work with you has been in several areas but the most fundamental of these changes has been an overall cultural change from a Command and Control structure to a Collaborative Team approach. This fundamental change was aimed at providing a more efficient and effective implementation of the changes resulting from our comprehensive planning efforts. The following are the areas of focus for these changes.
- Review of logging operations.
- Product quality (Logs).
- Review of Intensive Forest Management Operations.
- Rethinking of our log marketing strategy.
- Operational implementation of our Habitat Conservation Plan and our overall response to sweeping regulatory changes.
Nearly all the Timberlands team received Leadership From the Inside Out, Leadership 2020 and Project Management training. Further, we asked The Open Organization to provide facilitation of team meetings and coaching for Managers and Department Heads.
The results in the area of cultural change are still happening and I hope that never stops. When asked what the "wins" were from all the efforts to move to a more collaborative team approach the following list of "wins" came from the team.
- The lines between "Silos" have become "Dotted".
- There is greater mutual respect of each other’s viewpoints.
- Getting help from others is more available than before.
- There is greater trust than in the past.
- Decisions are happening where the work is getting done.
- Each one of us is being "Challenged" to look at ourselves.
- More aware of how people learn and process information.
- More openness.
- More and more contributions from team members.
- People have stepped up even though it is "messy" and are taking risks.
- More and better ideas.
- More people are being included.
- More and more communication at all levels.
- We are celebrating "small" successes and give rounds of applause.
- The company is investing in its people again.
Over the last two years we have also seen the following operating and financial result as of the end of 2000:
- A 15-20 percent increase in the productivity of logging operations.
- A 15% to 18% decrease in the cost of Company Union Logging which over two years amounts to a little more than $550,000 to our bottom line.
- The quality of our products has changed from 10-12 percent defects to 2-3 percent defects resulting in fewer miss sorts, more products meeting higher value specs and finally more positive bottom line impact.
- Adjustments implemented to change the way we market logs has resulted in a 7-10 percent increase in the value of our log sales which has resulted in a little more than $2,500,000 value increase in over the last 20 months.
- We are accomplishing this in the face of extreme changes in markets, environmental regulation and the implementation of our Habitat Conservation Plan, which is very challenging in itself. These changes are now being made "Hand-in-Glove" with operations to assure extenuation of the above gains. This could not have been done in our old culture.
- We are in the business of growing trees and improving the value of our tree farm. Our Intensive Forest Management review will add 3-5 percent to tree farm value on an annual base when implemented later this year. This is a $billion asset so these returns are very significant.
The last 12 months have seen the worst lumber markets in the last 20 years so you can see these changes and the corresponding results clearly illustrate the effectiveness of the training, coaching and skill of The Open Organization working with our Timberlands Team. The openness that is now a day to day part of our culture is the probably the greatest single factor in this success story and could not have happened without The Open Organization.
Sincerely,
Jim Thiemens
NW Timberlands Manager
