Some Lessons Learned When Communicating with Neighboring Communities

This paper combines 35 years of direct plant managerial experience on processes handling hazardous materials and energies with a subsequent decade of personal reflection to understand how the leadership roles evolved from one of sleepless nights worrying about the plant into one where sleep came easier knowing that the personnel could be trusted to operate the plant safely at all times.  The changes did not occur overnight.  Although the change was slow, the steps were deliberate, with trust between everyone in the organization built over time.  This paper shares some of the key lessons from my days as one of the plant managers working with the Kanawha Valley community sharing our core value: ensuring the safety, health and welfare of our employees and of our surrounding communities.  Once we recognized what the community wanted, we were able build trust within our plant and successfully share our sound hazards analyses and risk reduction efforts to our community.