A Thought Experiment In Change
By Dale Biron
In order to be just as sustainably profitable, imagine the senior management team at United Airlines deciding unilaterally to begin copying Southwest Airlines. Let's say they held a planning meeting and created a master list of Southwest traits to copy. The first memo goes out cold to all in-flight crewmembers announcing the new strategic direction and stipulating the first change to be put into practice. Starting the next day, every crewmember is to begin using humor and jokes, just like Southwest. The humor, the directive insists, will be witty, spontaneous and creative. Imagine the memo goes on to give examples: like the Southwest Flight Attendant that whispers “not yet” several times over the PA system just before the airplane gets to the gate, so that passengers would chuckle while being cleverly reminded to leave their seat belts fastened. Or what about copying that clever ploy of asking for volunteer “peanut-boys” to help pass out the snacks? Or what about creating your own clever little jingle, you know, a really funny one? So what do you think?
Great Idea. . Right?
How do you really feel this strategy would work for United? How do you suppose employees would perceive it? By passengers? Let's say they hired mystery filers to report on compliance? Imagine special tracking forms that crewmembers are required to complete stipulating how many jokes they told on each flight? What about making it an item on their performance review? Or what about rewarding crew members with a nickel per joke?
Of Course It's A Very Bad Idea
The main problem? It will likely be a grand flop and we know it. Like so many actual change efforts in the real world, this one also defies virtually every law of the change process. For example, there's no upfront buy-in of the problem, nor even a hint this change would improve profits. Of course there isn't any upfront collaboration with staff or customers. And while the change itself was made by executive decree, the internal psychological transition for the crewmembers was completely ignored. And what about the customers? Do they want a Southwest clone? Does the senior team have any supporting evidence for this change? Also, from having flown many times on both airlines, I can unequivocally say that fun and humor are obviously core values at Southwest, but certainly not at United. Now this is not to say that United couldn't potentially create changes that would provide better customer service, more value and ultimately improved profits. But like all organizations, it would need to obey the immutable laws of change and transition. Therefore any initiative for change and improvement would need to be derived in a collaborative way, born out of their own unique capacities, values and cultural background, combined of course with the desires of their customers.
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Democracy cannot thrive if ... day in and day out we go to a workplace that breeds helplessness and compliance.
— Peter Block |
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