That sounds crazy....but it's true, we don't cut wood for a living. If you were to bump into a logger at a sports event and ask him (or her) what they did 99.9% of the time the answer would be "I cut wood for a living".

The truth of the matter is that wood is just a byproduct of the things that we do. We manage people who work with our landowners to supply them with the best possible experience when harvesting their timber. I believe that when you focus on what you do, and how you do it, your business will grow.

Tom said that he never has had this much business lined up in all the years that he has been working in the woods. I believe it is a direct result of a strong focus on systems, accountability, motivation and improved communication, not just within the company, but between the landowner and Maine Custom Woodlands.

One of the things that I have been really trying to point out to the guys is that they are professionals. We have tallied up combined years of experience that our company has and the guys were surprised at the total.

In my previous jobs, if I were to make a presentation, or conduct a workshop I had to supply the company, organization or school with a bio. This makes sense doesn't it? People want to know what they are getting, that I am qualified to speak on the topic, that I have the experience to back it up.

That's when I got the idea to create bios on all the guys in the crew. We have operators who have years and years of valuable experience, and the landowner would never even know. By nature of what they do, and the fact that they are a very humble group, they would never brag or seek unwanted attention. So I am going to gather information on all the guys and create a more informative landowner packet. Now if I have to supply a bio when I speak, to validate my experience, why wouldn't we share the valuable history of the guys who are working with dangerous machinery around landowner's homes and in their woods?

No matter what business you’re in, the more informed your client or customer is, the more comfortable they will be with your company. Transparency is the key to making any business more successful.

We are comfortable in the woods, we know what a good job is, and we know what our huge machinery will do. Most landowners do not have a frame of reference for what a mechanical timber harvest is.

We are working on a job right now that, because of the terrain we had to create a smaller than usual landing. There is a beautiful stone wall that runs right along the old tote road where the landing had to be created. We basically told these lovely landowners that the stone wall would have to be compromised, that they may possibly sacrifice the stone wall in order to harvest the timber. Even though we only had to create an opening for the trucks to get in, I was very clear when I said that the whole wall could be lost. The reason I did this is I didn't want to let anyone down, should a log or a skidder bump it. The tight quarters added a touch of concern on my part, for processing the wood, swinging the crane, turning the skidders and loading the trucks all had to take place in this not so normal landing. I wanted to make sure that the landowners weren't upset should anything happen.

I really have faith that they guys will keep the stone wall in good shape, and our excavation crew will place the rocks back into their old location to gather moss for another hundred years, and our landowners will value the fact that their wall was saved, instead of feeling let down if it was disturbed.

I also told them that I have a person who just loves to buy stone walls. So I put in a call to my good friend Chuck up the coast to put him on standby should they want to sell the stone wall.

So that's what we do, we educate, create opportunities for landowners that they may not have known existed, form relationships with a lot of very nice people and communicate, communicate, communicate. We take a lot of pride in our crew and the job that they do to keep everyone safe and our landowners happy. Oh yeah, by the way, we cut wood too!

The sun hadn’t quite pierced the day yet and I was turning onto the woods road for our weekly staff meeting. These meetings take place before the start of production and right on the landing of our current job. We can’t meet during or at the end of the day, for once things are set in motion, everyone is moving in different directions until quitting time. Our four tractor trailer drivers are back and forth to the mills all day long delivering round wood, biochips or pine chips. Our skidders travel back and forth from the woods delivering their hitches to the landing. Our feller buncher operator is deep in the woods cutting trails and laying out the hitches. Our excavation crew is always busy, and sometimes they are working on a totally different job.

So every Thursday morning at 6:30 everyone is expected on the current job for our weekly staff meeting. In the beginning everyone hated the meetings. Some refused to speak, and some went so far as to say things like “meeting schmeeting, why do we have to have a meeting?”

So the meetings were a struggle at first, but now I know that the guys see the power in the regular meetings. Our crew supervisor begins the meetings talking about the previous week, what production was, and any ways that we can do better. Then Tom talks about some bigger picture things regarding the previous week and what’s on the horizon as far as weather and new business. Then we have communication from the office, which has really proven to eliminate a lot of miscommunications with regards to paper work. I will also offer a little educational piece regarding one of our Master Logger Goals or how to improve communication or teamwork.

A couple of weeks ago, I added the MCW Forum. I explained to the crew that this portion at the end of the meeting was set aside for them to share. They may have something to share from the woods, or something to point out about another crew member, or news to share, for instance, like when one of our operators landed in the hospital. The one caveat was that it had to be in a positive vain. I made up slips that I included in with their weekly paperwork so if they wanted to add something and did not want speak up in front of the group, they could write it down and I would share it for them.

A couple of weeks went by, and not a peep from anyone. I started to worry that the MCW Forum might die a slow death. Then two meetings back as the end of the meeting approached, I made the announcement that this was the time to speak up if any of them had something to share, they could do it now. SILENCE. Then, out of the morning mist, our youngest operator spoke up. He pointed out that there were quite a few trees that had barbed wire inside and cautioned the rest of the crew to be careful. I was so thrilled that inside I was doing the “happy, happy, joy dance”. The guys had a healthy discussion regarding the location of barbed wire and feedback on dealing with it.

I want the guys to see that they each have their own powerful perspective, one that can add to our productivity, safety, or improved communication. We are all in this together and we all play a major roll in the success of Maine Custom Woodlands.