Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

"The freedom, informality, and interplay that people enjoy allows them to act in the best interests of the company."

When we hear a lot about the various age groups and how they certain ways they like to interact in business based upon how they're classified as boomers, generation x etc. One thing in my experience though, connected to what Herb Kellerher says above, is that every generation wants the three things he mentions of freedom, informality, and interplay.

Now in saying that it is expressed differently among the generations, but even so, it is still highly sought after and hoped for by those in the places they work.

Kelleher used an example of how it worked in the company when Southwest's (LUV) competitors began insisting that the company pay millions of dollars a year for them to use the travel agents' reservations systems. He was faced with either having travel agents literally hand-write the Southwest tickets or use his competitors systems at a huge cost.

He told them to forget it and that they would develop their own system. When he got his people together to discuss it, he found that his people had already got together to work on a new system, anticipating that this type of thing would probably happen at one time.

Kelleher said that only when a people see that the success of the company is in their hands and not the management, can something like that happen. It's the business culture that encourages this type of fun, freedom, informality that this sort of pre-emptive action can happen in. The workers know that without them it would fall apart, and they're given the freedom and atmosphere to go ahead and get things done without fear of censure or retaliation, but rather of gratitude and appreciation.

Other Herb Kelleher Sources:

Special Event

Leadership: The Essential Herb Kelleher

The CEO as Brand Guardian

Herb's way

Speeches and Presentations from Southwest Leaders

Southwest Airlines: The Hottest Thing in the Sky

Have Fun, Make Money

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