## Training approach - At Southwest, training programs cover industry economics, financial ratios, profitability drivers, and more. ([Location 1077](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=1077)) - Backing up this freedom is a concerted effort to ensure every team member has the information needed to think and act like an owner. At Southwest, training programs cover industry economics, financial ratios, profitability drivers, and more. ([Location 1077](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=1077)) ## Corporate culture - As Herb Kelleher, Southwest’s whiskey-loving, chain-smoking founder, put it: “The core of our success—that’s the most difficult thing for a competitor to imitate. They can buy all the physical things. ==The things you can’t buy are dedication, devotion, loyalty—the feeling that you are participating in a crusade.==” ([Location 3390](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3390)) - every job description includes the implicit injunction to do, in the words of a ramp manager, “==whatever else you need to do to enhance the overall operation==.” ([Location 3410](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3410)) - “We teach our people about where we came from and what we stand for, because that’s what families do. ==Families share their history with each other==.” ([Location 3436](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3436)) - every company has a mission statement, but most don’t have employees who believe they’re on a mission. ([Location 3438](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3438)) - In a bureaucracy, censorious managers often deter individuals from asking questions or admitting mistakes. ([Location 3443](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3443)) - Particular ==attention is given to four “magic numbers”: net income, margin, costs per available seat mile, and return on capital.== Employees can see how the airline is doing against its “prosperity goals,” and calculate the implications for their compensation. ([Location 3450](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3450)) - By being his unbridled, unedited self, Kelleher gave everyone at Southwest permission to be equally authentic. ([Location 3464](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3464)) - You have to be forgiving. We are very tolerant and forgiving when people make an honest mistake. You have to be very careful about how you approach that mistake, call it to the person’s attention, and how you discipline, if at all, and how you counsel, if at all. ([Location 3470](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3470)) - the most effective communities are self-managing. ([Location 3480](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3480)) - as Southwest’s COO, Barrett told employees ==“You are empowered to make decisions on behalf of the customer and to ignore and waive policy and procedure as long as by doing so you are not being illegal, immoral or unethical.”== ([Location 3480](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3480)) - there’s no such thing as a community of order takers. ([Location 3492](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3492)) - peer-to-peer accountability produces higher levels of collaboration and commitment than minion-to-manager accountability. ([Location 3497](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3497)) - Southwest has never used downsizing to shore up profits. As Kelleher often reminded his colleagues, “Nothing kills your culture like layoffs.” ([Location 3503](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3503)) - condescension is toxic to the spirit of collaboration. ([Location 3508](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3508)) - ==Southwest encourages employees to shadow one another at work==. A pilot, for example, might load luggage to better understand the work of baggage handlers. ([Location 3512](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3512)) - ==“Positions and titles mean absolutely nothing,”== he said. “They’re just adornments; they don’t represent the substance of anybody. Every person and every job is worth as much as any other person and any other job.” ([Location 3520](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3520)) - Empathy—the capacity to understand and respond to the feelings of others—is the essence of love. ([Location 3540](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3540)) - 1990, Barrett established the ==“Companywide Culture Committee”== and charged it with nurturing the company’s unique values. Today, the Culture Committee encompasses approximately 240 individuals drawn from across the airline. ([Location 3543](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3543)) - Throughout the year, there are numerous rewards, both local and corporate, for employees who’ve been ==recognized by their peers for living out the company’s values==. ([Location 3547](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3547)) - Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary: The main difference between love and power is that love aspires to a mutual dissolving of personal boundaries, leading to an egalitarian merging into a new whole, whereas power seeks a unilateral overcoming of boundaries, by which the will of the more powerful person becomes the will of both. ([Location 3558](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3558)) - Kelleher wasn’t afraid to use the L-word. “A company,” he said, “is stronger if it’s bound by love rather than fear.” ([Location 3563](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3563)) - Without vigilance, communities can become insular and clannish. ==Kelleher was always quick to head off tribalism==. ([Location 3567](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3567)) #### Toward Community - Gallup estimates that if this number was tripled, to six out of ten, the average company would increase its profitability by 12 percent.37 ([Location 3581](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3581)) - Note: On the number of people who have friends at work - Southwest and Nucor have remarkably similar cultures. Where Nucor claims to “build people not steel,” Southwest describes itself as a “company of people, not planes.” ([Location 3589](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07B9HFSHX&location=3589))