Our plant managers play a key role in driving engagement and building and defining our culture. To make certain Mauser Packaging Solutions’ plant managers are equipped to successfully build an engaged culture, an engagement workshop was launched in mid-March to organically discover engagement opportunities across our leadership network.
The newly launched plant manager engagement workshop is designed to be different from traditional training by creating a collaborative environment that facilitates open discussion. The content of the workshop is designed to help plant managers examine engagement through lens of their limited bandwidth as well as employee needs. Rather than being presented with prescribed content and canned solutions, participants engage with each other to organically discover opportunities and solutions through interaction among peers and personal self-discovery. “No two sessions will be identical as individual participants will drive the conversations and outcomes of each workshop,” said Bruno Couteille, Vice President of Human Resources.
Designed and facilitated by Mathew Ralph, former Langley, Canada Small Packaging Plastics plant manager, the workshop is comprised of approximately 28 interactive exercises that range from exploring why employees become disengaged to examining individual behavior styles to understanding how engagement fosters a positive safety culture. “Matt has lived experience as a plant manager. He is personally familiar with the demands and expectations that a plant manager experiences every day and has a track record of success in a variety of facilities,” commented Couteille.
The two-day workshop is now available to all North American plant managers. Ten regional sessions are scheduled to be held in 2022 and will accommodate 8-10 participants per session. Sessions will drive collaboration and networking of plant managers across the North American business units.
A pilot session was held at the Small Packaging Chicago Metals facility on March 22 and 23. When kicking off the pilot session, Mark Burgess, Mauser Packaging Solutions CEO and President commented, “Plant managers play a crucial role in our business. We ask a lot of our plant managers and often expect perfection – perfection in quality and safety standards, perfection in hitting numbers, perfection in engagement. We are committed to providing the tools to better manage and engage their teams so they can be successful. This is a first step. This is something we should have been doing all along, but we are doing now and will be doing more of in the future.”
Participants of the pilot session reflected on the workshop and shared their impressions and biggest takeaways.
Above: Mark Burgess, Mauser Packaging Solutions CEO and President, addresses participants to kick off the workshop pilot session.
Below: Pilot session participants with Mark Burgess, Bruno Couteille, and Mathew Ralph.
“The opportunity to network with other plant managers from all arms of the business was extremely valuable. We may all have different operations in our facilities but at the end of the day people are people and it was nice to hear from other plant managers and learn from each other. The workshop made me consider how we can be better leaders as opposed to being better managers. For anyone participating a in future session, go in with an open mind and be prepared to participate, contribute and learn.” – Adrian Gunter, NASP (Plastics) – Cedar City, Utah
“The comradery and commonality with the other participants is what stands out most to me. Everyone in the workshop understands the demands and challenges of the role you are in and you really learn as much or more from the other participants as the presenter. The DiSC assessment and evaluation of our results really increased my self-awareness of my personal style. It gave me the knowledge to better adapted how I engage with others and tailor my approach to individuals based what I perceive to be their style.” – Le Evans, NAIP (IBC) – Romeoville, Illinois.
“The workshop was a good opportunity to refocus our mindset toward engagement and safety. It was interesting to interact with other Plant Managers and gain exposure to their systems, manpower needs and challenges. The open dialogue and free flow conversations among peers was beneficial and spurred thoughts on different ways of approaching engagement within the facility.” – Matt Collins, NAIP (Reconditioning) – Chicago-Millard, Illinois.)
“This was truly a workshop environment as opposed to a training session where you are sitting and watching a PowerPoint presentation for two days. The breakout sessions and interacting with other Plant Managers was valuable and I enjoyed the opportunity to meet other leaders in the company. I left with tangible ideas I can implement personally as well as with my leadership team and my general employee population to improve engagement at my facility.” – Mike Maziur, NASP (Plastics) – Valparaiso, Indiana.
The next engagement workshops will take place in Newnan, Georgia April 12 and 13 and Indianapolis, Indiana May 10 and 11. For more information about the scope of the workshop or future sessions, please contact Mathew Ralph or your Human Resources Director.
