Liberating Your People
When talking about Kelleher and Southwest's commitment for job security for his people, he added that while it was extremely important, it wasn't enough.
He said while embracing job security, there had to be the additional element of creating an envrionment where people felt liberated when they would come to work. There needed to be culture that entertained creativity and thinking outside the lines or box.
People needed to be released to solve problems and build cooperation with one another.
Kelleher has talked about what was called the Walk a Mile program. What it entailed was employees performing someone else's job for a day. It has been a great success as of the 20,000 people at the time that worked for Southwest Airlines (LUV), 75 percent of them opted to participate in the program.
While Kelleher has conceded that it was an administrative nightmare, he added that it's been one of the best tools they've used for creating understanding, empathy and collaboration across the company.
What I really like about this is that it wasn't held back because it was a difficult thing to coordinate. They went ahead with it and bore the pain so that the company and its workers could advance to another level - and they did.
All of this must go beyond talk to the executing of these types of things that will then bring about the desired vision and results. Kelleher was an expert at getting it done.
Other Herb Kelleher Sources:
Leadership: The Essential Herb Kelleher
Speeches and Presentations from Southwest Leaders
Southwest Airlines: The Hottest Thing in the Sky
Remember to Sign up for my feed, bizzbite and digg this!
Sponsored link: The outsourcing every manager requires - Tampa Locksmith
Comment Preview