How HR helped Weyerhaeuser's extreme makeover.

1. Tell the iLevel Story. Success of the transition depended on all 15,000 associates understanding what the new iLevel strategy was. This was done through the use of a leader-led DVD presentation, coupled with an innovative gaming platform. Each associate went online and was assigned a game character (known as an avatar) and placed on a virtual team whose purpose was to solve a challenge in the new iLevel world. There were four challenges, one each week for four weeks. Each challenge took an average of 15 minutes to solve. Associates learned what it took to go from a tree to a completed house in the new iLevel business.

2. Improve Decision-Making. The transition agent teams were charged with collecting information about the transition. How were associates reacting? What were associates not understanding? What were we not communicating that they wanted to know? This feedback enabled the executive team to be aware of the hot issues and to act on them. It also created a real-time feedback loop, which enabled open communication across all levels of the organization. Because transition agents met each Tuesday, the executive team had to respond to their feedback and provide a new agenda by the following Monday. This kept a constant flow of information about what was happening in sales, manufacturing, and operations and improved leadership interactions. This was essential for success.

3. Accelerate the Change Process. The weekly meeting, improved decision-making, and open communication created transparency. No one wanted to be the person who came into a meeting and said his or her assignments were not completed--no one wanted to let the team down. More importantly, the collaboration tool allowed the agents to share methods and best practices in implementation and avoid re-work. This collective effort created energy you could feel throughout the entire organization. People knew what they needed to get done and they were doing it!

Strategic Selling

All of the associates in iLevel were touched by the transition, but none were touched more than our sales associates. The value experiences we were promising to deliver to builders, through our dealer channel, required that the iLevel organization act so that each customer thought they had a single point of contact for all the products and services they purchased. To do this, our sales reps had to become strategic problem solvers for our customers. Solution-based selling, a process of consultative selling and in-depth knowledge of technical home building, was required. In four months, 670 iLevel sellers received extensive training in these areas in our iLevel university in Colorado. They also were trained on a new software tool to help them compare material options with their customers and address their technical needs. This was no small feat. We had to take these sales reps out of their markets at a time when we were about to launch a new brand.

Dan Harris, "university dean" explains:

We walked into this new business with a mix of Sales Reps and

Managers, some with broad knowledge and some with limited

background in structural frame technology. The inherent differences

required specialized programs, one for each group. One of the

common themes though was how to sell solutions. We used

Comparis,[TM] our new floor performance/cost comparison software

tool, real blueprints, and live examples to demonstrate and address

Dealers and Builders business needs.

A Cultural Revolution

According to VP of Marketing Kurt Liebich, "The cultural piece (of the change) has probably been our biggest challenge." When the transition started, there were at least three very different cultures in the organization, as a result of the strategic acquisitions made from 1999 through 2002. Each culture was competing to become the dominant one. Each culture developed to meet the needs of its organization's business strategy. One strategy was to be highly specialized, another was slight differentiation, and the third was low cost commodity. (See Exhibit 1.) None of these cultures met the needs of the new, single iLevel business strategy. A new iLevel culture had to be embedded in the hearts and minds of our associates, and it had to happen as quickly as possible.

Leadership recognized that before iLevel could deliver a new brand experience to its customers, our associates had to start living the brand. We identified four values as key attributes of the iLevel Brand (see Exhibit 2):

1. Integrity;

2. Market-driven;

3. Innovation; and

4. Performance.

HR developed a feedback tool to see how closely the behaviors of the executive team aligned with these values and look for ways to lead by example. The old behaviors were identified and "exposed" in a fun way with the transition agents. They recognized some aspects of the old cultures in their own behavior and realized that everyone had to change some of their behaviors. More importantly, none of these old cultures could "win."

Internal communication vehicles focused on reinforcing the iLevel culture, matching brand to behavior. When the iLevel Brand went public in April 2006, external brand events were used to reinforce key messages, iLevel sponsored "NASCAR" and "Extreme Makeover/Home Edition" to emphasize the alignment with the four values and provide associates with a sense of pride in the new brand and culture. The Weyerhaeuser employee survey was modified to include questions on the iLevel values of innovation and market-driven to guide actions for improvement. (There already were sufficient questions on integrity and performance in the standard company survey).

Cultural change does not happen overnight, but momentum was quick, resulting in a dramatic adoption of the iLevel brand within Weyerhaeuser. The adoption was so successful that the brand launch team received the prestigious Weyerhaeuser President's Award.

As an HR professional I was energized by the experience. To come together as a new executive team, with a charge to transform three businesses and five product lines into one unified culture, launch a new brand, and grow the company's market presence, defines the contribution that HR is capable of providing to an aggressive CEO growth agenda. Innovative ideas, such as the use of the collaboration center and tool and creating a transition agent network, enabled leaders to align to lead a new, highly successful market-driven strategy.

So, what are we doing today? We are focused on managing through the housing downturn, driving the five customer experiences (see Exhibit 3) and implementing SAP software to improve our supply chain efficiency (no small task!). Each of these focus areas has a significant HR impact, particularly in staffing and training. In addition, we are looking for a correlation between associate survey feedback and customer and brand awareness data to improve our cultural revolution.

Internally, employee survey results are up across the business and turnover of sales associates has decreased over historic levels. It is still too early to claim victory, but the indicators are all pointed in the right direction.

Weyerhaeuser has been doing business for over 100 years and has been a member of the Fortune 500 since 1956. The company may not be widely recognized among the general public, but if iLevel has its way, everyone will know the value of a home constructed with Weyerhaeuser products and services, and iLevel will fulfill our aspiration of becoming the "undisputed leader in the residential structural frame market."

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Allan Bradshaw joined Weyerhaeuser Company in 1989. He has held several leadership positions in HR supporting manufacturing, sales, marketing, sales, marketing, and international operations in most of the Weyerhaeuser businesses. Allan has led HR integration efforts on several Weyerhaeuser acquisitions including MacMillan Bloedel, Trust Joise, and Willamette Industries.

Currently, Allan leads the HR function for the Wood Products Division of Weyerhaeuser in Federal Way, Washington, and was a driving force in the creation of "iLevel[TM]', a new full-service, whole house framing solution business marketed to the largest homebuilding companies in the United States. He recently appeared in Workforce Magazine describing the "Extreme Makeover" of a traditional forest products company involving over 16,000 associates in the new $8 billion iLevel business. He combines a detailed knowledge of business strategy with HR expertise in a true strategic partnership for Weyerhaeuser Company.

Allan holds an MA in Leadership Development from Royal Roads University in Canada. He is also an advisory board member of the Institute for Corporate Productivity (formerly HRI).

Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world's largest forest products companies, was incorporated in 1900. In 2006, sales were $21.9 billion. It has offices or operations in 18 countries, with customers world wide. Weyerhaeuser is principally engaged in the growing and harvesting of timber; the manufacture, distribution, and sale of forest products; and real estate construction, development, and related activities. EXHIBIT 1 From Multiple Cultures to ONE iLevel Culture Direction Culture A Culture B Strategy Sell First "Value added"

("highly (slightly

specialized") differentiated) Customers Builders Dealers Expertise Product Experts Process Experts

(build to exceed (meet everyone's