Doug Blackburn to West Virginia Coal Mining Institute, Inc. "We
Still Build Bridges"
October 13, 1995
The Bridge Builder
An old man traveling a lone highway,
Came at the evening cold and gray,
To a chasm vast, deep and wide,
Through which was flowing
a sullen tide.
The old man crossed
in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream
held no fears for him;
But he turned when safe
on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man," cried the fellow
pilgrim near,
"You're wasting your time
in building here.
Your journey will end
with the closing day;
You never again will pass this way.
You have crossed the chasm
deep and wide,
Why build you this bridge
at eventide?" The builder lifted his old gray head,
"Good friend, in the path
I have come" he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet
must pass this way.
This stream, which has been
as naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth
may pitfall be.
He, too, must cross
in the twilight dim,
Good friend, I am building
this bridge for him."
WILL ALLEN DROMGOOLE
Good Evening Before I go further, I should warn you that, although
this is a group dominated by engineers, and IÀm 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 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 Greenbrier 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 Nicholas 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 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.
|