In the Beginning, Travel Agents Weren't Fans of Southwest
At the beginning of Southwest Airlines (LUV), the only thing that travel agents could think of were that the commissions they received from the airline would be smaller than their counterparts.
With Southwest Airlines being a disruptor in the industry, those that were now having to deal with them had no idea how to handle an airline company that was based upon low cost fares.
In what was a typical response by those who didn't understand how to deal what was going on, they were the most problematic. So to fact that reality, Kelleher had to go around the country in various cities and talk to those who most opposed them.
He would have to sit down with the agents and explain to them exactly how things would work, why and how it would benefit them in the long run. Eventually he won 
them over and maintained strong relations with them for years, even when they eventually had to stop using them for competitive reasons.
Like anything else, they had to learn the benefit of making more money doing high volume and lower prices. They had to change their operations to learn how to efficiently handle it.
What we have to understand in anything we do new in our businesses, is that there will be a learning curve involved by those that it will have an impact upon. That means that the communications channels have to be continuously opened until what has been introduced is understood from all angles.
Whenever something new is put into play in any aspect of a business, it will have a negative impact on a lot of people right away. To minimize that, we need to identify the points of contact the changes will impact and make concerted efforts to communicate to those connecting points until it's completely understood.
Communication is only part talking, it's also talking to the right people, at the right time, about what the changes will mean in connection to what their jobs are. Time after time Kelleher went after these crucial points and crucial times and was able to eliminate a lot of potential long-term frustrations that could have had a strong, negative impact upon the company.
Communication needs to go beyond only openness, to targeted openness; that's where it makes the biggest difference.
Other Herb Kelleher Sources:
Herb Kelleher on the Record, Part 1
Belief Model for The Leadership of Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines)
Herb Kelleher, Chairman, CEO and President, Southwest Airlines
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