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By Chris Robbins, Senior Program Leader, Southwest Airlines University
Note:We have a unique way of writing at Southwest Airlines, and it’s related to our values. For example, we honor and appreciate everyone who works for us and everyone who trusts us to get them where they want to go, so, out of respect we capitalize the words Customer, People, Employee, Leader, and Team. Other words and terms, such as Spirit, Culture, and Customer Service, are capitalized to emphasize importance and impact.
No airline has done more to change the face of air travel than has Southwest Airlines. In 1971, the year we took our first flight, only 1 in 4 American adults had ever flown in an airplane. Today, that number is almost 9 in 10. Here’s the story of how we did it.
“ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead
A few thoughtful, committed People did, indeed, change the world of air travel! It didn’t start out as a quest to change the way Americans traveled; it actually started as a quest for legal advice. But from that quest, an airline was born and the skies were revolutionized.
The tale began on an afternoon in 1966 when Texas businessman Rollin King strolled into a San Antonio law firm for a meeting. His attorney, Herb Kelleher, had been helping him dispose of his small commuter airline, which was losing money flying to small towns such as Laredo and Eagle Pass. Rollin wanted to discuss a new business venture. He proposed to serve large cities in Texas instead of the small towns his commuter airline was serving.
Herb didn’t know much about airlines at the time, but he definitely knew a crackpot idea when he heard one! He decided it would be best to discuss this crazy idea elsewhere, so the two gentlemen headed to San Antonio’s elite St. Anthony’s Club. To illustrate his idea, Rollin drew a triangle on a cocktail napkin, with the corners representing the Texas cities of Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.
Rollin expounded on his new idea. “Herb,” he said, “just listen a minute. I know a lot of intrastate carriers have had a hard time, but they weren’t in the right states. You’ve got to have a commercially booming state with some really big cities far enough apart to make bus or car travel inconvenient. Offhand, I can think of only two states like that. California’s one, and that’s why Pacific Southwest Airlines and Air California are going great guns as intrastate carriers. The other state is Texas, Herb, and we don’t have an airline like that.”
“Where would we get the capital?” asked Herb. Stunned, Rollin replied, “Capital? Oh, I guess we’ll have to raise it.”
Herb shut his eyes for several seconds, and when he opened them, there was Rollin grinning at him like a crazed man filled with determination.
Herb exclaimed, “Rollin, you’re crazy. Let’s do it!”
The next five years were quite hectic for the two 35-year-olds. The path to changing the way America flew was full of roadblocks. Lawsuits, appeals, and temporary restraining orders brought by other air carriers and even the cities themselves were fought and won through the Texas Supreme Court and then through the United States Supreme Court.
A few thoughtful, committed People finally were successful in clearing many obstacles, and on June 18, 1971, that barroom dream became a reality when three Boeing 737s took to the skies over Texas. Little did anyone know that this struggling carrier would go on to change the face of aviation and become the most emulated airline in the world!
“I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” —Robert Frost
Our visionary Leaders chose a road less traveled—an airline that offered high-frequency, low-cost, and point-to-point service. It’s been said that if the other airlines had left us alone, Southwest might not have made it. But Herb once described the original 198 Employees as having “an indomitable Spirit, boundless energy, immense goodwill, and a burning desire to succeed.” Rollin added, “The public took our side as the underdogs, and the character and vehemence of the opposition gave us all kinds of esprit de corps. And that, finally, was what kept us from going under.”
This fighting Spirit was the root of the Culture. Southwest Airlines chose the road less traveled and emerged as a highly spirited airline with numerous innovations. Back then, those innovations were known as survival tactics. Since some of the tactics were so outrageous at the time, we believe this added to the belief held by many that we were, indeed, simply nuts!
Southwest entered the 1990s as the nation’s only major short-haul, low-fare, high-frequency, point-to-point carrier. Our greatest challenge was figuring out how to respond to a changing marketplace while keeping our unique corporate Culture intact. Companies around the world were knocking on our door wanting to know the secret to our success. We were experiencing the highest form of flattery—emulation—as organizations both inside and outside the airline industry strove to copy our Culture.
In the mid-1990s, several major airlines commenced a full-scale assault when they each launched a “low-fare” division to try to run Southwest out of the top spot as THE low-fare carrier. They attempted to copy Southwest’s operation and its business philosophy. Southwest fought back by providing superior Customer Service and by keeping its costs substantially lower than those of its competitors. Each battle was fought and won via our greatest weapon—our People. We continued to win over our valued Customers the best way we knew how—with our incomparable Hospitality and Teamwork.
“We’re in the Customer Service business. We just happen to fly airplanes.” —Colleen Barrett
It was during this period of success that Southwest started feeling some growing pains. Our spirited Culture was alive and thriving, our Boeing 737 fleet was growing, and our route structure was steadily expanding. However, as Herb said, “You can never rest on your laurels or you’ll get a thorn in your !#$@.”
Even with all our success, we still had many battles to fight, both externally (with other airlines) and internally (within our growing ranks of Employees). Two internal battles were forming across generational and organizational lines, and 1996 proved to be a turning point. Our Companywide Culture Committee, founded by Colleen Barrett in 1990, was helping frontline Employees keep the Southwest Spirit alive, but we needed more, and our Leaders had to be on the same page.
Generationally, we had the Traditionalists (those born before 1945), who started Southwest Airlines; the Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964), many of whom had worked their way up through the ranks and now occupied Senior Leadership positions; and Generation X (born 1965–1980), who composed most of our frontline workforce and were trying to make a name for themselves. Traditionalists grew up believing that People had to put in their time and earn their place in the hierarchy. Baby Boomers had a different view on how HR policies and training could take care of People in the organization. And Gen-Xers were coming up with fresh new ideas on how technology could help Southwest grow. Change, embraced by some, was discomforting to others. And we wouldn’t be welcoming our first Generation Y “Millennial” into the SWA Family for another 3–4 years!
Organizationally, Southwest had five distinct work groups: Flight Operations (Pilots); Maintenance & Engineering (Mechanics); Inflight Services (Flight Attendants); Ground Operations (Employees working on the ramp and ticket counters at airports across the country); and Corporate Services (all other support functions, such as Reservations, Customer Relations, Marketing, Finance, Legal, etc.). When things were tough, these groups pulled together to fight off the competition and get the job done. When things were going well, we acted like most families and started getting on each other’s nerves! Our differences, often our greatest strength, were becoming a great obstacle as “tribalism” started to rear its ugly head.
When we began to recognize that our internal struggles were real, we developed a comprehensive new Leadership development program. This new program included the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® assessment, to help us learn to appreciate our differences and improve our communication and Teamwork. This move proved invaluable and was a real boost to our Culture! We began by administering the MBTI® assessment and using the Introduction to Type® booklet (now we use the MBTI® Step I™ Profile) in our Leadership courses, but we quickly started receiving requests to deliver the Step II™ assessment and In The Grip sessions to intact work groups for Teambuilding. Today, after 20 years of using the Myers-Briggs® framework, Southwest Airlines is finding that the Step II™ Interpretive Report is helping the MBTI tool make a resurgence as the most requested program for Southwest Airlines University to deliver to Leaders, Employees, and Teams.
Our focus on taking care of our wonderful Employees is what empowers them to provide such wonderful, caring Service to our Customers. Hospitality keeps Customers coming back, which helps our profits, which in turn makes our Shareholders happy, and it comes back to our Employees as profit sharing. It’s an unusual cycle to some, but it has worked to perpetually make us the most admired airline and one of the best places to work in the country. And the Myers-Briggs assessment has been integral in making that a reality for our Employees.
Maybe we didn’t set out to change the world of aviation when feisty little Southwest Airlines took to the skies 45 years ago. We were only trying to keep our airline in the air. But look where steadfast determination and a focus on Employee and Customer satisfaction got us!
We started with 198 tenacious Employees and three Boeing 737s serving three Texas cities. Today, with over 50,000 caring, engaged Employees and 700 Boeing 737s, we serve 100+ US and near-international destinations and transport over 120 million fanatical Customers annually. We are on our way to achieving our vision of becoming the world’s most loved, most flown, and most profitable airline.
