A630.3.3.RB - A Day in the Life of the Culture Committee

Yes, the culture committee at Southwest Airlines is effective in establishing cultural norms. What is "Hokey Day"? When I first heard this phrase I thought about dancing, singing or some other type of sound or body movements. After watching the video I understood that the "Hokey Team" or "Culture Committee" at LAX was there to show deep appreciation and recognition for coworkers including pilots and flight attendants on "Hokey Day". Southwest serves millions of bags of snacks (peanuts, pretzels etc) each year and unfortunately some of the snackies end up on the floor carpet of the airplane. The flight attendants use a small portable manual sweeper cleaner called a "Hokey" to clean the aircraft in between flights. This is where the name "Hokey" came from. The Hokey Team travels around the Southwest Airlines system routes which gives flight crews a break in between flights and leaves the Hokey Team the responsibility of cleaning the aircraft and preparing it for the next flight. In addition, this is an important employee appreciation and recognition opportunity for flight crews. The video was an example at LAX where the Hokey Team grabbed snack bags in one hand and a Hokey in the other. The team waited for the aircraft to pull up and once the main cabin door opened the team would yell out (and maybe sing) "We're here to appreciate you! It's Hokey Day". The flight crew was in initial shock and maybe stunned by having the team standing and greeting them by yelling at them, however, realized that they were the recipients of Hokey Day. And there were lots of smiling happy faces! The team then jumped into action by "Hokeying" (sweeping) the aircraft. They cleaned the floor carpet, newspapers, magazines and straightening seatbelts. And if they found a cell phone or books what would they do? They would make the extra effort to reunite a customer with the cell phone. Great customer service and focus too! Another big thing and impact. The t-shirts of the culture committee had several great points of emphasis: 1. the logo motto: "whatever it takes" 2. warrior spirit 3. servant's heart 4. fun-loving attitude. Yes, culture in action! What is the supporting infrastructure for all of this? Southwest leadership has developed a set of ten company guidelines and operating principles that apply the principle of "relationships" and "relationship-building" to its operations, strategy and culture. These are the foundation and pillar of Southwest: 1. Be a leader who cares. 2. Place more supervisors at the front line. 3. Look for the right qualities in prospective employees. 4. Confront conflict and use it to your advantage. 5. Realize that employees have a life. 6. Utilize "boundary spanners". 7. Look for improvement rather than blame. 8. Don't get hung up on job descriptions. 9. Reach out to the unions. 10. Reach out to suppliers. (Gittell, 2003) What are the learning points and application from all this? Southwest's success, secret ingredient and pivotal factor is "relationships" and "relationship building" both internally and externally. Effective relationships and effective communication come together and form the concept of relational coordination. Southwest's reliance on relational coordination is the secret ingredient to Southwest's success story. The importance of rewards, recognition and appreciation is another learning point. Everyone likes this based on good performance. From a personal and professional perspective, my (and company) success is rooted in relationships and relationship building. My goals, projects, focus and direction is all based on having and building relationships. References Southwest Airlines "A Day in the Life of Culture Committee" (2008). [On-Line] Available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7P0T9IbYKU&feature=player_embedded Gittell, Jody Hoffer (2003). The Southwest Airlines Way: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance. New York City: McGraw-Hill.

A630.2.4.RB - 21st Century Enlightenment

Why do I think the talk is titled 21st Century Enlightenment? RSA has a new initiative: 21sr century enlightenment. This is in recognition and appreciation to the eighteenth century founders of the society and to the pioneering spirit and passion which inspired them. It is also a tribute to Copernicus, Galileo and Newton for their research and contribution to society: astronomy, physics, science, social science and philosophy. It is a testimony to the role and responsibility RSA has played more than 250 years ago believing that the best days are yet to come. At the center of research and debates is the question "can we go on like this?" Will the ideas, norms, and values which have transformed the world in the last several centuries be the foundation and standard for solutions we now have globally or do we need a new ways of thinking? The focus will be on the core principles of autonomy, universalism and humanism by exploring and understanding dimensions and new ways to implement these principles. What does Matthew Taylor mean when he says "to live differently, you have to think differently"? We need to live differently in the 21st century. Living differently requires us to think differently. It involves seeing the world and ourselves from a new perspective. Most of our behavior is the result of responding to the world around us instead of reflection and critical thinking with decision making. Paradigms also known as mental models and ways of thinking need to be identified and addressed. The easy part is new ideas, however, the hard part is removing the old the paradigms. We need to have an open and positive attitude to change, new ideas, opportunities and approaches. Reengineering, starting new with a clean sheet of paper for ideas and approaches can be used too. At one point in the video (4:10), Taylor argues that we need "to resist our tendencies to make right or true that which is merely familiar and wrong or false that which is only strange". What is he talking about? What is an example within my company or life that supports this point? Taylor argues that our society should eschew elements of pop culture that degrade people and that we should spend more time looking into what develops empathetic citizens. Would this be possible? There are signposts, trends and practices which indicate alignment to twenty-first century enlightenment: 1. emphasis toward early years in a child's life when their personality along with capacity for empathy is developed 2. developed societies are taking mental health as important 3. additional human motivation and behavior academic research including neuroscience, economics, anthropology and sociology to better understand human nature 4. big business "entrepreneurism" focus shifting to include "social businesses" with a commitment to social purpose 5. there is a greater emphasis and focus on religion faiths fostering inter-faith dialogue and creating a space to respectfully talk about this to develop collaborative humanitarian projects 6. increase in recreation activities (along with eating habits) and reducing times spent in front of television, big screens and being a coach potato 7. within governments and global institutions there is a shift toward policies with well-being in addition to standard models for economic growth. At the end of the video, Taylor talks about atomizing people from collaborative environments and the destructive effect on their growth. What is the implication of these comments for organizational change efforts? Creative people who want to make changes and differences along with being people of impact have a million and one opportunities and distractions. To engage them means a culture and ethic which does not accept negativity, rigid thinking and self-promotion. :Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed employees and citizens can change the world. It is the only thing that ever has." What can you take away from this exercise to immediately use in your career? I can ask and answer the question "what is progress?". I have an open attitude and mind to new ideas and perspectives. For example, focus on health and emotional intelligence (EI) well being including diet, exercise, sleep and medical dental check-ups. In addition, Boeing sponsors "Boeing On The Move" with similar focus. Turn off the television and do it! In addition, a better understanding of peoples cultural diversity (background, experience, beliefs, values etc). In addition, Boeing and several of my former employers (Lockheed Martin and GE) have "partnerships" including design, manufacturing and technology transfer agreements programs to countries including Russia, China, Japan, South Korea etc to build and develop "win-win" economic, education, political, research and development changes. Pursuing progress is the same as improving human welfare. And President JFK challenging Americans in his inaugural address speech "ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country." References RSA Animate - 21st Century Enlightenment (2010). [On-Line] Available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC7ANGMy0yo&feature=youtu.be

A630.1.4.RB - Board of Directors_RutbellGreg

I worked for McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach, California from 1987 to 2001. Unfortunately, McDonnell Douglas was behind trailing Boeing as far as sales and airplane product base but more importantly lacking a vision and strategy for the commercial global market. In addition, global competition including the rise of European Airbus which is an aerospace cartel consortium of England, France, Germany and Spain added more fuel to the fire. In addition to this, launching a new airplane product could cost billions of dollars with huge risks. Large amounts of capital and investments are required in: land, equipment, tooling, machinery, computers, software, manpower, research, development, materials, processes and methods. Management and business tools and processes must be in place too. Leadership understood that a transformational change was needed in the way we designed and built airplanes but what could it be? A strategic and visionary executive decision was made by leadership in the mid 1990's to develop and implement a new strategy known as "Japan Visits" to benchmark the automotive world leader Toyota including "The Toyota Production System" of people, process, philosophy and problem-solving also called the 4P's. This is known as lean manufacturing which is the elimination of waste and the effective utilization of resources. A plan was put together over a one year time frame schedule to send teams of six or so senior managers and directors for one week benchmark visits to Japan to benchmark Toyota and several other companies. In addition, there would be several trainers, facilitators and project leaders who were included in the visits. A lean manufacturing implementation plan and schedule was put together for Long Beach including: training, projects etc. What was my part in all this transformational, strategic and visionary change? I was one of the project leaders responsible for the MD-11 Program in Final Assembly. The MD-11 is a "stretched" follow-on version of the DC-10 jumbo trijet available in passenger and freighter. Final Assembly included joining the barrel sections, tail. wings, interiors, engines and function tests. There were about 500 employees (managers, mechanics and support) in Final Assembly. The two main parts of the plan included training and improvement projects with a focus on process and cost reduction. All employees were trained in lean manufacturing and then each of the teams identified team leaders and focals for their improvement projects which included workshops for several days and outbriefs to leadership. Training included text, lecture, videos and guest speakers from Japan. Outbriefs included improvement proposals, tasks, schedule and action items. Many employees were excited about the new process but there naysayers and doubters too including hearing phrases "we have always done it this way", "this is stupid and dumb", "who dreamed up this idea" etc. How did I work with this? I had to be patient, listen to them and ask for their ideas, feedback and help. In addition, showing them videos of how it works makes a huge difference to as seeing is believing and a picture is worth a thousand words. Once people see their ideas implemented and in action their approach and attitude change too. Unfortunately, this was too little and late as McDonnell Douglas could not survive the competitive pressures from Boeing and Airbus, lacking leadership and vision and poor union labor relations. Boeing purchased McDonnell Douglas in 1997 and shut down the commercial operations in Long Beach leaving only the military side in St Louis and Southern California. As far as my learning and experience from this, I have been very fortunate and able to apply build on this as a foundation during my aerospace career. References A Tale of Power and Vision (2007). [On-Line] Available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZVIWZGheXY