"The Southwest Airlines Way: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance"

Paperback

By Jody Hoffer Gittell

Publised by McGraw Hill, 2005--ISBN 0-07-145827-1

Reviewed by Matt M. Starcevich, Ph.D.

This book examines how Southwest Airlines, the largest carrier of passengers in the largest market in the world has become the envy of financial performance, customer, and employee satisfaction for the airline industry.  For those of us who are involved in Organization Development or Human Resources and toil under the belief that people make a bottom line difference, this is our book.  For leaders this is also your book, the lessons learned at Southwest are transferable not only to the airline industry but to any industry.  A word of caution, the book is based on an academic/statistical study of the airline industry and reported more as an academic treatise than a captivating book.  Don't let the style of writing get in the way of the important message: 

Southwest's most powerful organizational competency--the "secret ingredient" that

makes it so distinctive--is its ability to build and sustained high performance relationships among managers, employees,

unions, and suppliers.  These relationships are characterized by shared goals, shared knowledge,

and mutual respect.

Over time Southwest Airlines has developed 10 organizational practices to facilitate coordination among 12 distinct functions: pilots, flights attendants, gate agents, ticketing agents, operations agents, ramp agents, baggage transfer agents, cargo agents, mechanics, fuelers, aircraft cleaners, and caters by building relationships of shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect.  The heart of this book is the description of these 10 practices and how managers in any setting can implement them to improve their business performance.

Ten Southwest Practices for Building High Performance Relationships

 1. Lead with Credibility and Caring  The top management team has built trust over time by being up

front and consistent in their message.  They have also made themselves available to frontline employees, demonstrating a

level of caring that is beyond the norm in large companies2. Invest in Frontline Leadership

 

Southwest has more supervisors per frontline employee than any other airline in the country.  They are "player coaches" having managerial authority but also performing the work of frontline workers.  The supervisors spend more time than their counterparts engaged in coaching in the form of problem solving and advising the frontline employees.

3. Hire and Train for Relational Competence

 

Southwest places a great deal of importance on hiring people with the right attitude--people with relational competence--you can't be an elitist.  Through training and "job exchange or "Walk a Mile" employees become familiar with other aspects of the work process or jobs they aspire to move into.

4. Use Conflict to Build Relationships

 

At Southwest, managers are expected to take an active role in resolving cross-functional conflicts.  When conflicts arise and are not resolved by the parties themselves, a conflict resolutions process is used: informational-gathering, or "Come to Jesus" meetings, suggesting that conflicting parties were expected to bare their souls to achieve reconciliation.

5. Bridge the Work/Family Divide

 

Employees are encouraged to be themselves at work and to openly recognize major events in the lives of employees and their families.  Each individual station has a Culture Committee to maintain and strengthen Southwest's culture and to plan social and charitable events.  The Ronald McDonald House, a residence provided to families while their children are undergoing treatment for cancer, is supported by each of the local Culture Committees.

6. Create Boundary Spanners

 

Operations Agents are the boundary spanners, moving in the opposite direction of the rest of the industry Southwest has increased the staffing levels nor relied on computer interfaces to gather the information required to dispatch a flight.

7. Avoid Finger Pointing--Measure Performance Broadly

 

Southwest uses cross-functional, not functional, performance measures to encourages participants to focus on learning rather than blaming when things go wrong. e.g., "Team delay" which allowed less precise reporting of the cause of delays, with the goal of diffusing blame and encouraging learning.

8. Keep Jobs Flexible at the Boundaries

 Southwest has successfully negotiated flexible job descriptions in all of its union contracts.  Every job description ends with this statement:  Whatever it takes to get the plane out.

9. Make Unions Your Partners, Not Adversaries

 

Southwest is the most highly unionized airline the the U.S. airline industry and in contrast to other airlines has emphasized the importance of labor/management partnerships. Respectful relationships between company management and the unions chosen by frontline employees appear to set the tone for respectful relationships throughout the company.

10. Build Relationships with Your Suppliers

 

External parties are treated to the same kind of relationship building efforts that exist throughout Southwest Airlines.  Southwest stands apart from the rest of the airline industry in the emphasis it places on building partnerships with the airports it serves, air traffic controllers, and aircraft manufacturers.  Southwest effectively extends its sphere of influence beyond its employees to encompass its entire value chain.

Southwest's success is not due to one particular organization practice or another, but rather to the overwhelming consistency among them, a configuration of mutually consistent practices rather than a single key practice, while imitating organizations tend to adopt only some of these practices.

Perhaps the most impressive characteristic of Southwest is the sheer sustainability of its success, year after year.  The response to the 9-11 is illustrative crisis, the other major airlines cut their flights by 20 percent and laid off 16 percent of their workforces.  Southwest had its own unique approach for responding to this crisis.  Southwest demonstrated caring by avoiding layoffs altogether, and by couching its decision in terms of "taking care of our people."  Southwest saw these difficult times as an opportunity to increase its presence and expand the availability of its product to the flying public. This was based on Southwest's long standing policy of maintaining low debt levels and relatively high levels of cash on hand.

The last chapter, is the best:  Implementing High Performance Relationships in Your Organization.  I will save this for your own reading enjoyment.  Suffice it to say that much of what has been done at Southwest is counter to modern management and leadership theory, but it works.  As a frequent Southwest flyer the experience and personal satisfaction with their service speaks to the value of these organizational practices.