Metsä Fibre - Management development in the sawmill business

In autumn 2022, Metsä Fibre started looking for a partner for a management programme to improve the management of the sawmill business and create a strong, unified management approach among the sawmills. The sawmill production management team was relatively new in its then composition, and the programme would also focus on improving team dynamics. Virva Juhola, Production Manager, Sawmill Business summarised the objective thus: ”Let's do things the same way in all sawmills, intervene the same way and manage the same way.”

”The first thing that comes to mind is that you do your background work really well. Janne has been visiting our sawmills, and that has given the whole team a strong sense of trust. And he is dedicated - we never got the feeling that his thoughts were elsewhere, but he was 120% present with us,” says Virva, reflecting on why working with MTTC is worthwhile. Sanna continues on the same theme: ”There is a clear and distinctive presence between MTTC and Janne. commitment and a strong desire to understand your business. Janne and MTTC sought and gathered information about our business, and in doing so also brought the theoretical content into the everyday life of each of the coaches.”

Thank you Virva, Sanna, Jukka-Matti and the whole Fibre team!

JIn addition to anne, the MTTC Metsä Fibre team includes Project Manager Johanna Vilkuna. In her role as Project Manager, Johanna has been responsible for keeping the project on track and ensuring that it runs smoothly, as well as supporting Janne in the implementation of the programme.

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MTTC was selected as a partner through a tender process. Sanna Huhtilainen, HR Director, Metsä Fibre, explained the selection criteria: ”MTTC's bid was based on both management skills and the ability to weld people together. MTTC's vision of how to take the programme forward was clear and well structured.”

During the programme, sawmill managers were coached once a quarter from 2022 to 2023 on different themes to put people at the centre of management in a technical environment. The coaching provided them with ways to translate the most important issues into everyday practice, strengthening their time management and future orientation in their work, and developing the effectiveness of their communication.

Virva describes the expectations for the programme: ”We expected the Excellent Leadership Framework to be implemented in everyday life with the same idea and the same approaches and to go through practices, how I lead myself and how I saw. At the same time, it was really important to spend time together and spar with each other.”

Sawmill business Jukka-Matti Keltanen, Human Resources Manager praises the success of the programme, ”We really achieved the goal of being a cohesive group that does things together. The atmosphere has become lighter and more positive, and professional skills have increased. The sawmill managers have moved on, as has the cohesive approach, although work with them is still ongoing.”

Virva has also noticed a change in the way it operates as a result of the programme. ”The things that have been learned are in the speeches of the sawmill managers. Especially in thinking and speaking, there is a change, and now we have to make sure that the new ways of working are implemented in everyday life. One of the managers even dug up his notes from the coaching and used them to justify his own thinking to me. That's when I realised that these lessons have really struck a chord. We return to the lessons of the coaching on a regular basis and, as a result, we see a change in the way we go about our daily lives.”

Sanna thanks her coach at More Than Training Company Janne Kolehmaista how he has managed to balance theory and practice in his coaching sessions, and the atmosphere he has created. ”There was a free and relaxed atmosphere, people were engaged and wanted to participate in the discussion.” Jukka-Matti also said that as a coach Janne is really inspiring. ”He puts this ethos-pathos-logos idea into practice. He has knowledge, enthusiasm and charisma, and he is able to bring all of them to coaching. I really liked his way of coaching.

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In addition to the references described above, we have carried out a number of different types of client projects, and we are happy to share the lessons learned with you.