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

A631.9.2.RB - Video Debrief of Team MA

Several attributes stood out in the video that Steve Jobs demonstrated leading the NeXT Team. These corresponded to the results of my MA and debrief. Achievement characteristics include stretch goals including the use of metrics to track progress. Leaders can summarize statistics on new products, customer base, competitors and milestones. For example, Jobs emphasis was on higher education with a simulation focus with a revolutionary impact on the PC market. Though it didn’t find a market, the NeXT "cube" PC had great industrial design and showed an incredible amount of creativity and innovation. Unfortunately, Jobs was very assertive and aggressive (including overinflated ego) which contributed to the downfall of the NeXT plan. Jobs was an entrepreneur (risk taker) both personal and business as he used most of his own financial resources to finance operations at NeXT. Jobs demonstrated a drive for goal setting, a desire for the challenge to his team along with being ambitious. Innovation is the balance of three attributes: problem-solving, process creativity and inventiveness which are essential in a leadership team. On the downside, Jobs need for recognition by the computer industry, business world and public customer base was overinflated with his ego. I scored similar in these MA areas: achievement, risk, innovation and recognition. (Labreque, 2014) And by coincidence, after taking the MBTI assessment a week ago, Steve Jobs is an example including natural born leadership of famous people with ENTJ (Extravert, iNtuitive, Thinking and Judging) personality traits which just happened to be my category too. During the brainstorming session with the NeXT Team, he demonstrated most of the characteristics of ENTJs. ENTJs thrive on challenges, possibilities, opportunities, challenges and want to be the ones driving and leading the path. They are "take charge" people. ENTJs have an incredible amount of personal power along with being domineering, forceful and decisive. ENTJs have little if any patience especially with inefficiencies. Other attributes include: self-confidence, assertive, creative, innovative, strategic thinkers, dominant personalities, a natural tendency to marshall and direct, are often "larger than life" in describing their projects, ideas and proposals (story-telling etc), are decisive and are not the one to be messed with. (The Myers-Briggs Foundation, 2014) (HumanMetrics, 2014) References Steve Jobs Brainstorms with NeXT Team: Entrepreneurs (2012). [On-Line] Available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loQhufxiorM&feature=youtu.be HumanMetrics (2014). [On-Line] Available http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp The Myers-Briggs Foundation (2014). [On-Line] Available http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/home.htm Labreque, Tom (2014). Management Assessment Profile (Candidate: Gregory Rutbell). Alexandria, Virginia: NextSteps Research.

A631.8.4.RB - Reflective Analysis

I completed the Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test TM on Sunday, December 14, 2014. My personality type according to Jung's and Briggs Myer's is ENTJ: Extravert (11%), iNtuitive (50%), Thinking (50%) and Judging (33%). Based on the results, I have: slight preference of Extraversion over Introversion, moderate preference of Intuition over Sensing, moderate preference of Thinking over Feeling and moderate preference of Judging over Perceiving. ENTJs: have a natural tendency to marshall and direct, are often "larger than life" in describing their projects, ideas and proposals (story-telling etc), are decisive and are not the one to be trifled with. (HumanMetrics, 2014) ENTJs are natural born leaders. They live in a world of numerous possibilities and challenges and want to be the ones responsible and leading the way. They have a drive and passion for leadership to grasp the details, tasks and develop a plan. They can absorb an incredible amount of information and can make quick and decisive judgments based on this. They are "take charge" people. ENTJs have a tremendous amount of personal power and are very forceful, decisive individuals. ENTJs do not like mistakes and have little patience with inefficiency. ENTJs are career-focused and fit into the corporate world naturally. ENTJs love to interact with people and as extroverts are energized and stimulated primarily externally. Other qualities include: self-confidence, assertive, creative, innovative, strategic thinkers and dominant personalities. (The Myers-Briggs Foundation, 2014) Who are some examples including leadership of famous people with ENTJ personality traits? Adolph Hitler, Bill Gates, Carl Sagan, Donald Trump, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harrison Ford, Jack Welch, Joseph Stalin, Julius Caesar, Margaret Thatcher, Oskar Schindler, Richard Nixon, Sean Connery, Warren Buffet and Winston Churchill. These are examples of political, business management and entertainment. It is important to emphasize that several of these examples demonstrated leadership of the wrong kind (Hitler and Stalin). (The Myers-Briggs Foundation, 2014) How can MBTI be useful to develop leadership capacity and capability? The MBTI is unique and different from other psychological and personality instruments tests. It sorts for preferences and does not measure traits, knowledge, skills, abilities or character. For example, it can identify critical leadership skills and improvement opportunities including: conceptual, critical thinking, research, creativity, reflection and experience. The best reason to choose MBTI and discover know yourself is that research and hundreds of studies over the last 40 years have proven MBTI to be both valid and reliable. In other words, it measures what it says it does (valid) and produces the same results when given several times (reliable).Develop a plan from MBTI results with the help of a mentor coach. (Quenk, 2009) References HumanMetrics (2014). [On-Line] Available http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp Quenk, Naomi L. (2009). Essentials of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment (2nd ed.). Hoboken New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. The Myers-Briggs Foundation (2014). [On-Line] Available http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/home.htm

A631.7.4.RB - Future of OD

Together, MSLD 630 and MSLD 631 provide an overview of Organizational Development (OD). The courses present an OD view of managing change and organizational transformation. In this final chapter of your textbook, Brown presents two opposing ideas: OD is viewed by some as a rapidly changing field keeping up with the times and by others as a fad that will become irrelevant. Given what you have learned over the past two courses, what do you see as the future of the OD discipline? What do I see as the future of OD discipline? Based on what I have learned over the past two courses and my 20 plus years experience with high powered players in the defense and commercial aerospace industry, I see OD as a rapidly changing field keeping up with the times. For example, Lockheed Martin and Boeing are both big OD users practitioners along with being business industry leaders. Lockheed Martin uses an OD process is known as LM21 Operating Excellence (Lockheed Martin 21st Century) for process, lean manufacturing and six sigma. LM trains and certifies black belts and master black belts in process tools: teams, facilitation, problem-solving, lean manufacturing, six sigma, root cause analysis, value stream mapping, etc. These "process experts and consultants" lead, coach and mentor teams in these tools for productivity, quality, supply chain constraints, bottlenecks and inefficiencies. The Pentagon, Department of Defense and American taxpayer focus is on "affordability" and "producibility" process improvements which in turn lower the cost of the product and service. (Lockheed Martin, 2014) Boeing uses an OD process known as "Working Together" promoting one team working together. This is also a strategy in the vision. There are many self-directed and high-performance employee-involvement teams (EIT's) in engineering, supply chain, manufacturing etc that focus on productivity, quality and supply chain issues. Additional tools and processes include: lean manufacturing, kaizen, value stream mapping, root cause analysis, etc. Today airline customers are faced with cost and operating issues and want an affordable high quality product and service. Customer orders and build assembly rates are expanding due to the customer need for new aircraft over the next twenty years. In addition, competition especially from European Airbus is stiff. The Boeing and Airbus rivalry is the biggest in the business world. (Boeing, 2014) I am actively involved in both the LM21 and "Working Together" philosophies since 2002. I was a certified LM21 Black Belt during my career at Lockheed Martin. Presently, I am working on kaizen certification. The OD tools and processes that I use and apply focus on change from the operating environment both internal and external. Build rates are growing and expanding. New programs such as the 777X are being introduced. New plants and facilities are being built. New and advanced technologies such as composite wing are being introduced. Customer requirements are changing. Teams are being introduced in all organizational areas to become high-performance and self-directed. To survive in the 21st century there is a motto: "Nothing endures but change." References Boeing (2014). [On-Line] Available http://www.boeing.com/boeing/ Lockheed Martin (2014). [On-Line] Available http://www.lockheedmartin.com/

A631.6.4.RB - Transformational Strategies

General Stanley McChrystal, a West Point graduate, four-star army general and Green Beret, has a fascinating and incredible performance record of achievements including creating a revolution in warfare that integrated intelligence and operations. He is credited with leading the US and international forces in Afghanistan and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) which in 2003 captured Saddam Husein. McChrystal is respected for his candor. Some of the key points he shares and discusses in the TED.com video include what he learned about leadership over his decades in the military. How do you build a sense of shared purpose among people with many skill sets and ages? By listening and learning and addressing the possibility of failure. Some of his key points include: 1. If your people do everything you taught them to do, and they do those things properly, you led them well. People follow leaders. 2. Leaders can let you fail, and yet not let you be a failure. 3. Leaders build confidence and trust in their people. Those you are leading have to have failth and trust in the leader. Leaders have to build faith, trust and confidence. 4. In failure, the leader must reach out to his force and rebuild trust and confidence. Rebuilt confidence in the force, leader and in the seniors of the leader and the force. 5. A leader must build consensus and a sense of shared purpose with his force. 6. How does a leader stay credible and legitimate when they haven't done what the people their leading are doing? Leaders must be more transparent and willing to listen. 7. Keep your promises and live up to your obligations to subordinates, peers and superiors. Be ready to support them when they need you most. 8. A leader isn't good because he is right. They're good because their willing to learn, and to trust. If you are a leader, the people, you've counted on will help you out. If you're a leader, the people who count on you need you on your feet. What is the Ranger creed? It says "I'll never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy." It's not a saying or poem. It's a promise. Every Ranger promises every other Ranger, "No matter what happens, no matter what it costs me, if you need me, I'm coming." And every Ranger gets that same promise from every other Ranger. Think about it. It's extraordinarily powerful. It's probably more powerful than marriage vows. And they've lived up to it, which gives it special power. And so the organizational relationship that bonds them is just amazing. I was raised to believe that soldiers were strong and wise and brave and faithful; they didn't lie, cheat, steal or abandon their comrades. (McChrystal, Mar 2011) As Brown states, "Organization transformation is more revolution than evolution." Transformations focus for organizational survival in a competitive environment. In General McChrystal's example, the relative strength of the corporate culture (army and Ranger) is strong culture as the member commitment to values and number of members sharing values are both high. As far as the strategy-culture mix, he managed the change because there was a high need for strategic change (including creating a revolution in warfare that integrated intelligence and operations) with a high need for compatibility of change within existing culture. He shared and implemented the vision. (Brown, 2011) Gallery Furniture in Houston, Texas is a national leader in sales among independent furniture retailers. Gallery Furniture prides itself on furniture delivery the same day a customer purchases. The "today" philosophy includes all aspects of the business from the customer shopping experience to deep-rooted community service commitments. As the housing real estate market expanded over the last thirty years, Gallery Furniture experienced years of profits and business growth. However, the 2007 and 2008 burst impacted sales hard for the furniture retailer. There was a big decline in the customer base and according to Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, owner of Gallery Furniture, "in order to grow during the recession, we had to innovate or else we were going to evaporate." In other words, they had to do something revolutionary. It was this need to innovate and take a larger share of the declining furniture market that caused McIngvale to go looking for a model to change behavior at his 150 employee business. He was looking for a process that would motivate his employees to want to change their behavior and act in ways that give the customers what they're looking for. He did not want to pursue Theory X techniques including directives, yelling and screaming. (Gallery Furniture, 2014) The solution was to use an organizational change model from Influencer Training including six different initiatives to innovate the way they do business: revamping their sales approach, reducing delivery reworks, improving safety and employee wellness and reducing inventory. There were two vital behaviors the sales team needed to adopt: 1. They needed to not change their demeanor from "Can I help you?" to "I'm disappointed you're not going to buy" when a customer was not ready to purchase. 2. Becoming prospectors rather than salespeople the moment a customer wanted to leave and getting the customer's contact information so they could follow up. The change plan included six different sources of influence with the following examples: personal motivation, personal ability, social motivation and structural ability (iPad). The bottom line results was that all six of the influencer initiatives have contributed to tremendous results for Gallery Furniture. (Gallery Furniture, 2014) As Brown states, "Organization transformation is more revolution than evolution." Transformations focus for organizational survival in a competitive environment. In Gallery Furniture example, the relative strength of the corporate culture is moderate culture (stable) as the member commitment to values was average and number of members sharing values is high. As far as the strategy-culture mix, he managed the change because there was a high need for strategic change (including creating a revolution due to the decline in housing market) with a high need for compatibility of change within existing culture. He shared and implemented the vision. (Brown, 2011) References Brown, Donald R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. Gallery Furniture (2014). Retrieved from https://www.vitalsmarts.com/casestudies/gallery-furniture/ McChrystal, Stanley: Listen, learn ... then lead (Mar 2011) (TED Talks: Ideas worth spreading). Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrysta