Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 19:13:33 GMT Server: NCSA/1.5.2 Last-modified: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 22:16:21 GMT Content-type: text/html Content-length: 15401 Doug Blackburn to AIME 10.13.95

Doug Blackburn to
AIME

October 13, 1995

Good evening ...

Before I go further, I should warn you that, although this is a group dominated by engineers, and I'm a speaker with an engineering background, this is not going to be an engineering talk in its traditional sense.

In fact, I need to warn you that this is not a normal dinner talk at all. It's a homily. And while it's not Sunday and I'm no preacher, I also offer no apologies.

The year is 1968, and an 18-year-old engineering student at VPI sits awestruck as he views a film that many of us here also likely saw at some point in our engineering past.

That student was me, and the video was startling. It showed the Seattle-Tacoma bridge gyrating and twisting before it finally, and spectacularly, fell to the water below.

As many of you may already know, the Seattle-Tacoma bridge disaster came about after the bridge was caught in a windstorm, and the wind set up a sympathetic vibration. Those vibrations in the bridge just kept feeding on themselves until the harmonics got so out of kilter that the undulating bridge collapsed.

That film left a real impression on me about the role engineers play in our lives. It also convinced me not to be a bridge builder ... that the variables that civil engineers have to contemplate were beyond my engineering skills and abilities. I didn't sign up for that, I was convinced.

And so I turned to coal mining. Only later did I learn that coal mines are the largest engineering structures in the world... and had all the variables of bridge building plus a few extra. But that's a different story, for a different time.

It didn't take me long, once I had left the friendly nest of the academic world, to realize that we build other types of bridges.

You see, as engineers, our job is to take the goals and objectives of the corporation and build the systems -- bridges, if you will -- that allow our employees to function safely, effectively, efficiently.

Those systems in mining are roof control and ventilation ... haulage ... information systems ... and materials handling.

And as mining engineers we tend to get involved in a number of different areas because of the general background of our engineering training.

But even later, as a manager, I came to a realization that was for me profound. For there was at least one more critical bridge that I realized that we build ... and that is the bridge between the vision of the corporation and the hearts and minds of our employees.

At Zeigler, our vision is to be the best in all aspects of our business. We realize that we owe our allegiance to three stakeholders--customers, shareholders and employees--and that no decision is a truly good one unless it advances the causes of each of these.

Today, I work with President and Chief Executive Officer Chand Vyas, a visionary who has helped mold the modern-day Zeigler by turning that vision into reality.

But these points are easy to make in the abstract. And so I'd like to recount to you bridges that have been built in my own past, so that they may better illustrate the theme of my talk.

Over the quarter century since I saw that dramatic footage, I've been able to observe a number of master bridge builders. And that's what I want to focus on tonight.

In looking back at these people, these master bridge builders, it becomes clear to me that they have all shared one common quality, one theme that seems to run through their relationships with all their colleagues and employees. I call that quality the ability to show kindness in excess of expectations.

These acts of unexpected kindness have been the cement for the structure of the foundations upon which those bridges have been built. And I think we can all learn a great deal from observing such men.

We normally think about the role our parents play in guiding the way we direct our affairs and live our lives, and you might at this time think that I feel compelled to mention that my dad was a master bridge builder. But as you all know, our expectations for our parents are so high that their kindness can never exceed those expectations. Still, although my dad may not be eligible on those grounds for a bridge building certificate, I do want to mention that by all accounts he really was a master bridge builder, as are most parents.

In my first job after coming out of school, I worked for a manager of engineering named Neil Pleasants. In 1973, Neil asked me to bring his slide presentation to the Greenbrier for the AIME meeting. And I thought that was just great. I thought, 'Hey, I get to come to the Greenbriar and the only thing I have to do is to handle the projection duties.'

But of course, when I got here I found men in green coats and white gloves who took the slide tray from me and who handled all that.

And I found out that what Neil had actually done was to bring me to an AIME meeting to introduce me to this fine group of people and this terrific organization. That was only one of many things Neil did to help me during the three years that I worked for him ... one of the many acts of unexpected kindness that he consistently showed me.

In my mind and my heart, Neil Pleasants is a master bridge builder.

About that same time I met two of the folks in the audience tonight: Judge McWhorter and Tim Salvati, who I came to realize over the years are also master bridge builders.

Judge McWhorter brought a sense of professionalism to the marketing and sales of mine machinery that I don't think the industry had seen before.

At the time I met Judge, sales in this industry were characterized by the three Bs, if you'll pardon my candor... booze, broads, and bribes. Judge McWhorter brought professional marketing skills and a sense of integrity and a willingness to take a young engineer under his wing that to this day has cemented our friendship.

Tim Salvati has also constructed/erected a number of bridges throughout his career. One he built for me was when he explained the role of union-free managers ... to rebuild a sense of community in his company that was lost with the coming of the roads and the bridges like the tremendous one that crosses the New River Gorge here in Fayette County.

He taught me that when the coal camps broke up and our fellow coal miners became commuters, we lost a real sense of community -- and what we must really do as managers is to take every opportunity to rebuild that community.

As president of the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute, Tim got me involved in 1973. Over the years, Tim saw to it that I was introduced to people and to opportunities that have greatly enriched my career. And it's that kindness in excess of expectations that truly makes Tim Salvati a master bridge builder.

Then, in the mid-seventies, I had an opportunity to work for a fellow named Buck Harvey, a giant of a man and a Baptist minister who might appreciate my sermon here this evening. In three years, every time I went to him with a problem, he asked me one of three questions: he said ...

  • What does the law say?

  • What does the contract say?

... and then ...

  • What do you intend to do about it?

If I was on the right track he'd let me know. If I was on the wrong track, his only response was, "Why are you being so hard-headed about that."

Over the years, Buck pointed out to me that you probably could get by running a company using nothing more than four Bible scriptures ... and I've never lost sight of these.

The first was the Golden Rule, which I think we're all familiar with, as the basis for good working relations.

The next saying was offered through Luke, who told us that, for whomsoever more is given, much more shall be required.

If you think about it, as managers in this industry, we really are given a great deal. It takes about three hundred thousand dollars of capital for every employee on the payroll. We manage companies with hundreds of millions of dollars in sales ... by any yardstick these are giant companies and we have been given great assets.

But where more is given, much more is required. Along with those resources, we are given the responsibility to well serve our shareholders, customers and employees.

And, if you look into the full biblical quotation here, we are offered more insight. Because Luke was not just referring to material gifts, but gifts of time, talent, treasure. He was referring most of all, in fact, to commitment. Where more commitment is given, more of us is required. Or, put another way, if we are to ask for strong commitment on the part of our people, we are called upon to make sure that we have earned -- are earning -- that commitment.

The third saying was, Am I my brother's keeper?

Buck maintained that we are, as the Father did in his message to Cain in Genesis. Buck wanted me to remember that we need to provide a safe workplace and a good process for preserving worker safety.

And the fourth, and perhaps most important saying, was... Where there is no vision, the people perish. I think that message from Proverbs has been particularly true in the coal industry. In coal mining, the people who have really set themselves apart have been visionaries. And vision is something that this industry sorely needs if we are going to overcome the death spiral of introducing technology, eliminating jobs, cutting our costs, lowering our price ...introducing technology, eliminating jobs, cutting our costs, lowering our price. Somehow we have to get off that spiral if we're going to survive.

Through these guiding scriptures, I am reminded that Buck Harvey was, indeed, a master bridge builder.

Finally, in the late Seventies and Eighties I had the opportunity and the honor of working with one of the preeminent bridge builders of our time ... Morgan Massey.

In building the A. T. Massey Coal Company, I think Morgan clearly did something at least equivalent to building the New River Gorge Bridge. As you well know, that bridge is the longest single span arch in North America. I know Morgan must have felt like the engineers at Michael Baker who designed it ... we certainly felt like managers at the American Bridge Company, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel, that erected it must have felt ... that he really was building something special.

In doing so he touched a lot of lives. In 13 years I can't remember a single business conversation with Morgan Massey. Our conversations were about people and relationships, about economics or philosophy.

I also can't ever remember getting any overt guidance or direction from Morgan. But when times were the toughest, there was always a parable, a story, he told you. And if you listened at a deep enough level you could sort out your own solution to otherwise intractable problems.

Over a thirty-five year career, Morgan Massey built a lot of bridges, incomparable bridges, and I feel very fortunate to have worked for Morgan for those years -- and to have some of that influence rub off on me.

No homily is complete without a call for action, and that action comes in the form of a reflection I would ask each of you to make.

I think that as we look around the room at each other tonight, it is legitimate to propose that every person you see, at each of these tables, is a bridge builder.

Everyone in this room, because of their leadership position in the industry, has someone we role model for, that we're mentoring, that we're bringing into AIME, that we're preparing for the next generation of leadership in our industry.

And as we go about our business we have to recognize that we're not just building the systems that allow our employees to work safely and effectively ... but we also have an obligation to build those bridges between the corporate vision and the hearts and minds of our employees.

When we look back on our careers, maybe each of us will have stood in the same shoes that the engineers at Michael Baker or the erectors at U.S. Steel have. And, in our own way, we will have built a bridge that's sturdy and meaningful.

We should constantly be reminded that it's these kindnesses in excess of expectations that cement the bridges we're building.

The people who built the Seattle-Tacoma bridge had good intentions; I submit that their intentions were as good as those that guided the builders of the New River Gorge Bridge. But what bridges are each of us building today? Only time will tell if these bridges are well-engineered, able to stand the elements and the pressures of the ages. But I know that the bridges that were built for me ... built by those master bridge builders I've singled out tonight ... HAVE stood that test of time and the winds which buffet our careers.

These people have left the coal mining industry structurally stronger because they are master bridge builders. As we move forward from tonight, I would encourage each of you to continue your own bridge constructions. For, in the end, there is no finer tribute you can pay either to the AIME, or to yourself.

Maybe we are not the scared 18-year-olds in pre-engineering that were so intimidated by the collapse of a bridge that we forever swore off civil engineering. But by the systems that we put into place, by the vision that we link to our actions, and by the kindness that we show in excess of expectations, one thing is clear.

We still build bridges.

Thank you very much.

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