Maintaining a Strong Culture

C: That was a fun exercise. I never thought love was so complicated! But in many ways I think we’ve embedded those components in the Culture at Southwest.

K: Talking about culture, Colleen—to me, it is fragile. I’ve talked with people from organizations that had a strong culture at one time. These people often said that they witnessed how a little benign neglect was able to destroy that culture almost overnight.

This experience confirmed what I’ve always believed: Lip service can be a great danger. It’s easy to talk, speak, and brag about your culture; the hard work is living up to it every day. I know you all at Southwest don’t like to leave anything up to chance. As Peter Drucker said, “Nothing good happens by accident.” ...

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