The
Forest Around Us |
Comment By Bill Moore |
Talking to the trees |
....There’s
a definite lack of communication! But nobody told me! I didn’t
understand what he meant! Nobody told me! |
old buddy where it’s
nice and quiet and you won’t have to abuse your lungs. You may need
that puff when you climb up the sidehill. ....It is sometimes a source of ama-zement to find out how ill informed a logging crew can be. Just plain stubbornness, or forgetfulness or a “they should know better” attitude is the cause of so many problems. ....I remember the case of an engineer laying out a logging road—then the shovel digging the grade—and lo and behold the superintendent appeared and said he didn’t want the road where it was and to put it somewhere else. Now I ask you! That is stupid communication and it’s costly. Yet it happened—don’t let it happen to you—don’t talk to the trees. ....The crew gathers for a safety meeting. This should be a good place to communicate, but sometimes men are shy or bored with such meetings and will not speak up. A little provoking can sometimes get the silent ones to open up—and to the benefit of all. Try it—you’ll like it. And, oh yes—if you are the boss or high mucky muck of the meeting, don’t think this is an open invitation to do your Gettysberg address. Nothing but nothing will turn most audiences off like a long winded speaker. Better, like a good boxer, a jab here and a provoke there, and mix it up with the people. The words flow easier back and forth this way. ....There are more shy people than there are bold ones. Both may have their own way of communicating but both must be communicated to in different ways. Chances are the shy ones will get into less trouble than the bold talkies. But it takes a lot of bold men to cope with some of the logging that goes on in this land. There are times when danger is close at hand — and a careless act can mean disaster. |
It is quite often difficult
to get your message across to such men for they feel they know it possibly
better than you, the supervisor. The language better be pretty plain in
such circum-stances if you expect to impress. ....There seem to be so many philo-sophies about today. There’s an en-vironmental one, a rule book by government one, a get the big guy feeling, and I suppose there is still the “I’ll look after me” philosophy. All these areas require that people communicate back and forth, so we all know where we are at. And yet as our system grows we sometimes totally fail to understand other people’s way of doing things. We not only don’t understand, we develop a blockage in our own minds that will not accept some other system than our own. This type of communication breakdown can hurt. To mend it takes a lot of good common sense. Maybe if the words were dollars and cents we would understand better. ....If a man does not understand what he is supposed to do—how to keep in the clear—how to follow instructions and as in the woods, how to survive, he stands an excellent chance of being hurt and the company stands to have higher costs. Draw your own con-clusions about good communications. ....Too often there seems a reluctance on the part of some management to tell the crew, or sometimes the staff, just what the company’s plans are for the coming year. Maybe they feel their people don’t care or possibly they want to keep it a deep dark secret. There is no surer way to instill poor morale in people than not informing them of company policy and plans. Some will be interested and a company needs every ally it can find these days. ....I have written before of the factory committees of Finland whereby it is a |
76 | British Columbia Lumberman,
March, 1975 |
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law of the land that all plants and businesses shall form such a committee
of equal labor force and management. They meet once a month and with
alternate yearly chairmen discuss the overall business of the company
— from safety to production to emp-loyee’s problems. This
committee pro-vides and excellent forum for visiting management or labor
delegates and the spectrum of topics handled by a good committee can
only lead to a better understanding of what the employee can expect
from his company and what the management’s views are of conditions
and the future. I’m sure this form of com-mittee would work well
in many of our larger plants and logging camps to help the flow of communication
to everyone. Keep out of the bight, |
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British Columbia Lumberman, March, 1975 | 77 |