A630.3.3.RM_HallMike

Southwest Airlines really is a cool story surrounded by a bunch of bad ones within the airline industry, and you really can feel the difference when you fly them.  Sure you don’t get all of the extras that other airlines provide, but you also don’t get all of the extra fees associated with them either.  Additionally, I don’t think I have ever had a pilot joke over the intercom on any other airline other than Southwest.  As someone who does not necessarily enjoy flying (I have no problem going down to test depth on a submarine but I don’t like flying), a little humor goes a long way.  This type of service has resulted in Southwest growing from a small regional carrier to the 4^th largest in the US.  In addition to this no frills service, a large part of how they keep costs down is by the manner in which they employ their workers.  Southwest has one of the strongest company cultures out there and it greatly contributes to the company’s ability to do business.  Teamwork within the organization is a hallmark of the company.

Due to the fact that teamwork is such an important factor within Southwest, I would imagine that the Culture Committees are very effective in spreading the company’s cultural norms.  I know that if I was a flight crew member that was concentrating on getting the people off the plane so I could clean it when all of the sudden the Culture Committee comes around, gives me food, and tells me that they will do the cleaning, I would be both very grateful for their help and I would also feel very thankful to work for a company that does little things like that.  Sometimes it is not the magnitude of the gesture that is appreciated but the gesture itself, and in this case I think just the fact that Southwest is going out of its way to make its employees – or as they call them, their people – feel appreciated, that certainly does help spread the culture.

The literal purpose of the culture committee (or at least the example provided in the video) is to go out and help the flight crews get the plane turned around while the crew relaxes.  As I described above, a further purpose of these committees is to make the employees feel appreciated, which in turn makes them happier with their employer.  As many studies have shown, a happy employee is a good employee.  In this case, Southwest is ensuring that their people make the customers feel welcome while providing an enjoyable flight experience, in accordance with Southwest’s mission statement.

As a member of the US Navy, there is a pretty easy parallel – Flag officer tours.  As I mentioned above, the gesture is often more appreciated than the magnitude of the gesture, and in the case of the Navy, just having a Flag Officer come by, address me by my name (which means he took the time to learn the crew’s background), and tell me I am doing a great job and to keep it up really does make me feel much better.  Also, the USO is another organization within the military that is there solely to say thanks for your service, we appreciate it, and oh by the way here is some free stuff or a concert.  Knowing that you are actually appreciated really does increase the morale!  So, the idea of a culture committee is something that is not foreign to me and is something that I already try to perpetuate when I go around and talk to my sailors.  I want to know what is going on in their lives not to be nosey but so I can ask them how things are going when we are half way through the patrol, dog-tired, and just wanting to go home; showing that I care about them and their families, and them knowing that I will fight for them with the upper chain of command leads to a sailor that will go out of his way to help the entire organization.  As I learned very early in my life on a ship, morale is the largest contributing factor when it comes to success and the ability to meet and overcome obstacles.  A crew with good morale can accomplish almost anything whereas a crew with poor morale will do little more than get the job done.  The culture committees at Southwest are essentially a morale tool that ensures that their employees feel appreciated and have good morale, which in the end results in a better employee and a better product.

A630.2.4.RB_HallMike

I am going to go ahead and warn you up front, this blog is quite pessimistic – I get downright depressed when I think about what our society has become…

 This talk is titled 21^st century enlightenment to promote the author’s proposed change in the way we think, the magnitude of which would be on the scale of the great enlightenment.  The author proposes that we move away from the individualism that has been prevalent during the last couple of centuries and instead move towards a more conscious society that is self-aware of both societies’ needs as well as their own needs.  While I also wish we were a more conscious society (both within our country and the world), you must first believe that mankind is not a selfish creature – something that I am nowhere near ready to accept: one only needs to look at areas where western society breaks down to see that we are still animals when it all comes down to it (see New Orleans after Katrina).  Also, I think this enlightenment has already happened, just not in the west: many Asian countries are great examples of an empathetic society that is willing to sacrifice some of their own freedoms/comforts for the greater good of their society.

When he states, "to resist our tendencies to make right or true that which is merely familiar and wrong or false that which is only strange” he is referring to people’s desire to resist change within their lives.  If something is new to someone or upsets their rhythm, they tend to think that it is not correct, even though it can be shown to be 100% correct.  I completely agree with this statement and actively think about this when change is introduced into my world.  I discussed an experience with this last week.  When my new CO came on board and decided to hold people accountable to using the procedure, many people where very reluctant to do so, even though they knew he was right – using the procedure wasn’t familiar which meant it wasn’t right.  You could further generalize this with every change of command – every time a new CO comes in and shakes the boat, people are quick to say the new CO is wrong when in reality they are just upset that he is changing the status quo.

I think it would be great (marvelous would probably be a better word) if we could move away from pop culture as it stands now, however that would require society to completely change and that’s not going to happen anytime soon.  I am not sure how to really go about explaining it however I do have an example of it:  on the YouTube column to the right of this video – a political commentary – there was a road rage video showing 2 guys fighting on the side of the highway.  People want to see that sort of thing – train wrecks – it is the same reason why people slow down to 10mph when they pass a car crash… they just want to see what is going on.  As long as channels are owned by businesses, the channel will always move towards things that draw in the viewers and the sad fact is that shows like The Jersey Shore gets rating whereas shows like Modern Marvels do not.  I picture our society moving towards what the populous was like in the movie Idiocracy instead of the enlightened one that the author wants us to move towards.

Towards the end he discusses moving society towards one that is more creative and intolerant of negativity, rigid thinking, and self-promotion.  I think that these again are great goals and are goals that are achievable in the small groups and businesses, however applying them to the population writ large is not possible as the world stands today – people are way to self-centered.

As I just said above, there are some things that can be taken away from this video and instantly applied to current life.  First and foremost is the discussion that not all things that are new are wrong – actively keeping an open mind about change is instrumental in today’s world that is always changing.  Secondly, applying the empathetic ideals to your business is achievable and would result in an efficient company.

On a side note, I am not sure where he gets the statement that our history is one of diminishing person to person violence – the 20^th century saw the 2 most destructive wars ever known to man and the invention of the most deadly weapons ever created.  One could argue it is precisely the fact that we can kill each other so efficiently that has reduced the war casualties over the last 50 years however millions of people die annually due to violence throughout the world, and will continue to do so – us killing each other is one of the only things that has been constant throughout human history.

A630.1.4.RB_HallMike

If there is one thing the Navy has provided me with, it is a plethora of stories that can be applied to many different situations.  I could probably think about several bridging the gap scenarios that have happened in my short time as an officer; however the first one that comes to mind is how my second CO turned my boat from a good ship into a great one. 

My first ship, the USS ALASKA, was coming out of a refueling when I joined her towards the end of 2008.  It was immediately apparent that the crew was something special – after almost 2 years in the yards, they still had incredible morale and great spirit-de-corps – 2 things not normally found in a boat that had been in dry-dock for that amount of time.  The CO at the time was able to get the ship out of the yards and back to deployments under both time and budget.  He was a great man but he did have some weaknesses, mainly that procedural compliance was not nearly stressed enough.  Following our recertification as a strategic asset, he was relieved by my second CO.  This CO immediately recognized that we did not have near as much experience as we thought we did and demanded (rightfully so) that we will use the procedures during all evolutions.  At first, many old timers on the boat complained about how using the procedures slowed them down while others said it wasn’t required, but anyone that was against the change was wrong.  The first several months of his command was summarized by the struggle to get the entire crew onboard with his message of procedural compliance, but he had a dedicated wardroom and chiefs mess that was ready to enforce the standard.  Eventually, using the procedure turned into second nature for the crew.

The results of this were amazing.  First off, the vast majority of the crew had a drastic increase in knowledge of the boat.  This was due to the residual effect of reading the procedure.  Secondly, and most importantly, we cut down on our mistakes and went about our business knowing that rework would be limited to unexpected outcomes of procedures (as it turns out the guys that wrote the proverbial “book” really do know what they are doing).  Inspection after inspection commented on how judicial we were with our procedures.  First, some divisions won squadron awards; the next year the boat won the battle “E”; and just last year the ALASKA was awarded the Omaha Trophy as the best strategic asset in the fleet – the apex of the community.  I truly believe that this can all be traced to the gap between not always using the procedure and using the procedure.  We had pessimists and pragmatists that said it couldn’t or shouldn’t be done, but in the end the CO with his vision and his senior leadership bridging the gap, we were able to turn the boat around into the envy of the fleet.