CASE: Metsä Fibre – Leadership Development in the Sawmill Business 

In the fall of 2022, Metsä Fibre started looking for a partner for the management program, the goal of which was to develop the management of the sawmill business and create a strong unified management method among the sawmills. The sawmill production management group was quite new in its composition at the time, and the focus of the program would also be improving group dynamics. Saw Business Production Director Virva Juhola summed up the goal like this: "We operate in the same way at all sawmills, intervene in the same way and manage in the same way."

MTTC was selected as a partner through a tender. Sanna Huhtilainen, HR Director of Metsä Fibre, opened the selection criteria: "MTTC's offer showed both leadership skills and the ability to weld a team together. MTTC's vision of how to move the program forward was clear and well structured." 

During the program, the managers of sawmills were trained once in the quarter 2022-2023 on different themes so that people were brought to the center of management in a technical environment. In the trainings, they were given ways to put the most important things in everyday life into practice and strengthened their own time management and future orientation in doing things, as well as developed the effectiveness of communication. 

Virva describes the expectations for the program: "We expected from the program the implementation of the Excellent Leadership framework in everyday life with the same idea and the same operating models, and that we go through the practices of how I lead myself and how to saw. At the same time, it was really important to spend time together and spar with each other." 

Sawmill business HR Manager Jukka-Matti Keltanen praises the success of the program: "We really achieved the goal of being a united team that does things together. The atmosphere has become lighter and more positive, and professional competence has grown. The activities of the sawmill managers have moved on, as has the unified operating model, although the work with them still continues." 

Virva has also noticed a change in operations as a result of the program. "The things that have been learned appear in the speeches of sawmill managers. A change can be seen especially in thinking and speech, and now we have to ensure in management that the new operating methods also remain in everyday life. One manager even dug out his notes on coaching in our conversation and used it to justify his own thinking to me. That's when I noticed that these doctrines have really crashed. The lessons of the training are returned to regularly, and through that, a change can be seen in everyday activities." 

Sanna thanks the trainer from More Than Training Company Janne from Kolehma about how he has managed to balance the relationship between theory and practice in coaching, and what kind of atmosphere he has created at coaching sessions. "There was a free and relaxed feeling in the training sessions, people focused on things and wanted to participate in the discussion." Jukka-Matti also stated that Janne is really inspiring as a coach. "He implements this idea of ethos-pathos-logos. He has knowledge, enthusiasm and charisma, and he is able to bring them all to coaching. I really liked his way of coaching."