Maintaining a Strong Culture

C: That was a fun exercise. I never thought love was so complicated! But in many ways I think we’ve embedded those components in the Culture at Southwest.

K: Talking about culture, Colleen—to me, it is fragile. I’ve talked with people from organizations that had a strong culture at one time. These people often said that they witnessed how a little benign neglect was able to destroy that culture almost overnight.

This experience confirmed what I’ve always believed: Lip service can be a great danger. It’s easy to talk, speak, and brag about your culture; the hard work is living up to it every day. I know you all at Southwest don’t like to leave anything up to chance. As Peter Drucker said, “Nothing good happens by accident.”

C: You’re absolutely right. To act on your good intentions, you have to provide some structure. Our Culture is so important to us that we formed a Company Culture Committee (CCC) before we even published an organizational chart. Our CCC is a group dedicated to preserving our Culture for the present and the future. The Committee stresses that the Southwest Culture resides in each Employee, no matter the Employee’s title.

The Committee consists of about 120 individuals who serve three-year terms. In addition to attending quarterly meetings, Committee members are required to participate in Culture events throughout our system. After serving three years, a member moves to Alumni status, but many of our Alumni remain active in Culture activities. This group works on their own time and spends endless hours trying to adjust the Culture where it clearly needs adjusting, create it where it appears not to exist, and preserve it where it is in good shape.

When I chaired this group, I didn’t come up with the agenda for them, but I facilitated their meetings once they came up with their agenda. Of course, when I stepped down as an Officer in July 2008, our CEO appointed someone else to chair this Committee. I’m quite comfortable that she will follow the mission that was set twenty years ago for this special group of Employees. The CCC is so special that Herb has been quoted over the years as saying he thinks it is the most important Committee we have at our Company.

K: Was being the head of the Culture Committee hard for you to give up when you stepped down as President?

C: It sure was. I love the People who were involved, and it was fun to watch the Committee members blossom and grow. When I started the Culture Committee, I thought it would be about how to make life easier for the Employees. I was astounded because the Culture Committee is all about coming up with wonderful ways to sustain our Culture and to make work more fun. And we work hard to implement all of these very creative ideas. Let me give you a wonderful example of this:

Many of our People are deployed, so we have been active since 9/11 with all branches of the armed services. I don’t think this is bragging, but our reputation as a family-oriented Company is real. We try to stay in touch not only with our Employees who are deployed, but also with the families who are left behind. I often receive notes from our deployed Employees or their families. One of my favorite letters came from one of our Pilots when he was serving in Iraq.

We send these brave folks all kinds of goodies, including T-shirts that say, “Southwest loves you,” and munchies like peanuts and pretzels. It doesn’t cost very much, but it seems to make a real difference. This Pilot wrote and told me he opened the box of stuff we’d sent him in front of a Pilot from another airline. When the other man saw what was in the box, he said, “Your company sent that stuff to you?” Our Pilot said, “Yeah.” The other Pilot said, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Our Pilot laughed and said, “No, as a matter of fact, they sent me a bunch of T-shirts; would you like one?” The other Pilot said, “Yes, I sure would.”

So—no kidding—our Pilot sent me a picture of what happened to the T-shirt he gave the other Pilot. When the other Pilot had his photo taken for a new company ID, he wore the Southwest T-shirt under his shirt. He did it to make a point that he never heard anything from his company.

Our People know we care. They know that it’s genuine. We don’t do those things to get accolades; we do them because it’s the right thing to do.

K: Margie and I certainly were recipients of your caring Servant’s Heart, Colleen, when we lost our home in the wildfires that raged through Southern California in 2007. The wonderful care package of fun Southwest goodies you sent warmed our hearts. It was so unexpected and fun. For example, we laughed out loud when we pulled out a big Southwest Airlines cookie jar and quickly headed off to the store to fill it. That was an over-the-top expression of a Servant’s Heart.

C: It’s the least I could do.

K: Are there any other examples of how you provide structure to maintain your culture?

C: Yes. Let me tell you one of the ways we have ensured that Customer Service is always a top priority for us. In June 2001, I created our Proactive Customer Service (PCS) Group. I plucked Fred Taylor, Jr. from the frontlines, tucked him under my wing, and asked him to take on new responsibilities for coordinating the Company’s proactive Customer communications.

Fred put together our PCS Team and, since then, this small group of five has worked directly with our operational, communication, and support departments to help make sure the information being provided to our internal and external Customers is accurate, timely, consistent, and meaningful.

Fred’s drive for innovation has helped us create a unique Customer accommodation program and make the case for an advanced Customer messaging system. The PCS Team is constantly developing new ways to provide more timely and cost-effective communications while enhancing the overall message being delivered to our Customers by way of personal notifications and online videos. The PCS Team’s activities are unique to Southwest, and their efforts are directly tied to the Company’s cost management, revenue production, and Customer goodwill initiatives.