Building Strong Relationships

Despite directing one of the country's largest in-plants, George Morton tries to maintain a personal relationship with each employee.

by Bob Neubauer

To say George Morton is concerned about his employees is simply not saying enough.

"Every day I go out into the plant. I talk to my employees. I find out how they're doing, what their ideas are, what do they think we can do better, and we listen to those things," says the 55-year-old director of the Washington State Department of Printing.

And with 157 employees—110 or so of them in the main plant—that is no easy task.

"It's a commitment," he admits. "It's something that is important to me, because, frankly, they've made this place successful."

That success is reflected in the positive customer feedback the department receives, and in the recognition it has gotten, such as an Arthur Andersen "Best Practices" award in the Strategic Planning Category.

But though Morton is quick to praise his staff, much of the credit clearly belongs to him. He spearheaded the department's strong customer service focus soon after becoming director in 1998, turning what had been a low-morale department with a mediocre reputation into a model of quality and efficiency that has received accolades from the governor. Under his direction, quality improvement programs have saved the state $441,000 and generated $212,000 in revenue.

Still, Morton says his biggest personal success has been boosting employee morale and involvement. His deep respect for his employees stems from the fact that he was once on the production floor himself. To this day he professes a love for running a press

"I love putting ink on paper," he enthuses. "It's great."

Morton's printing career started in 1968, when he took a job with Georgia-Pacific's corrugated division. He started in the plant, making and printing boxes. In his nine years with GP, Morton worked his way up to customer service and then sales before his desire to move to Olympia, Wash., the state's capital, brought him to the Department of Printing's door in 1976.

Starting once again as a general worker, Morton began his long climb to the top. He completed a four-year journeyman's apprenticeship and went to work on the large presses. After that he moved to the small presses. From there, he was promoted to customer service representative, then purchasing officer, and then copy center manager before finally being named director.

His first two tasks in that role, he says, were to improve customer satisfaction and employee morale. He dove right in.

"What you do is you infect everyone with your enthusiasm," he explains.

Morton brought in experts to give everyone customer service training. He empowered his staff to do whatever was necessary to make customers happy. Customers responded well.

"We feel like partners with our customers, and it's our responsibility to make them successful," he says.

He turned to employees for ideas on how to help customers and began his daily visitations.

"I respect their opinions, and I think that they've responded to that," he says.

Morton also looked at the technology in the in-plant and saw a great need for networked printers. As a result, the department has gone from having no networked printers, to having all of its high-speed printers and copiers networked. Scanning capabilities have been installed at all 14 copy centers around the state so they can send digital data to the department's 5,000-square-foot digital copy center, where most of the high-speed printers are located.

"The customers are delighted," he remarks. "They're getting their jobs sooner."

Despite the positive changes he's brought, Morton remains modest.

"I've hired all these wonderful people, then I need to get out of their way because they've got so much talent I would only slow them down," he says.

He credits his assistant director, Dan Swisher (whom, ironically, Morton was apprenticed to back at GP) and Larry Weber, chief information officer, for their contributions. Weber developed an Internet storefront to bring the department's services to more people. It won the Governor's Quality Award last year.

Morton knows he can't relax though. Competition is getting fierce, and customer requirements are changing.

"As soon as we quit meeting those requirements, someone else will," he notes.

Though Morton admits it's hard to leave work behind when he goes home (he spends hours on the computer doing research), he enjoys spending time with his wife of 33 years and his two grown sons. He's also fond of playing softball, racquetball and going fishing and skiing. His successful career is the icing on the cake.

"It's just one of those lucky things," he says. "I got into an industry, into a field that I truly love."