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

Build Bridges Between People

There was a time with Southwest Airlines (LUV) where their people voted themselves out of its union and were insecure about their future.

In response Kelleher gave them a personal contract signed by him, providing grievance and arbitration procedures. Here's how he explains it after he offered it to his people:

"Several labor lawyers and professors called me and asked if that was legal. (I thought it was their job to tell me.) But they missed the point. Our agreement with those employees was a matter of good faith; it didn't need to be legally enforceable. We didn't set up an iota of the structure that the experts recommended, and a year later we had no grievances pending. They were all handled informally, by people with good will getting together and talking to each other."

What made this work, was the culture of commitment and trust that Kelleher had worked on for so long. These types of things couldn't be done with people that didn't already have a history of trust and working together to solve problems.

Kelleher makes a good point when he says that "they missed the point." It was a good faith agreement, not a legal document. What the unions and law professors missed was that this wasn't an adversarial business that struggled with huge issues between the management and its people. They were assuming a lack of trust and integrity that had long been resolved in the Southwest organizational structure.

The fact that Kelleher understood the need to take action to ease the minds of his people, again shows that his concerns and care for them was real. Building bridges and taking these kinds of actions were the reason there was such a flow and success at the company.

Other Herb Kelleher Sources:

Herbert David Kelleher

Herb Kelleher: Losing Control

ENTREPRENEURS: BORN OR MADE? A CONVERSATION WITH HERB KELLEHER OF SOUTHWEST AIRLINES

Herb Kelleher An Entrepreneur For All Seasons

Herb Kelleher quotes

Herb Kelleher: The Thought Leader Interview

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