Alan Mulally: The Power Of Working Together

0:00 When you meet somebody, you always have You always have three questions. One. Who are you? As a person.

0:07 Is this about you? Is about I versus we, is about me versus service. The second question is You're the leader. Where are we going?

0:17 Where are we going? What's that strategy? What's the what's the BPR? What's the creating value roadmap? Then you know what the third question is, Shame? Do you see me? Do you see me? Welcome to the Knowledge Project. I'm your host, Shane Parrish.

0:47 This podcast is about mastering the best of what other people have already figured out. If you're listening to this, you're missing out. If you'd like special member only episodes, access before anyone else, hand edited transcripts and other member only content. You can join at FS.blog slash membership. Check out the show notes for link. Today I'm speaking with Alan Malali.

1:10 Allen has an aeronautical engineering degree from the University of Kansas. His accomplishments at both Boeing and Ford are legendary. He took over Ford in 2006 when Ford was in a downward spiral. The stock was$1 and the company was on pace to lose$17 billion. Which is the worst year in its one hundred and three year history. I wanted to speak to Alan because I wanted to know how he turned the company around. We discuss

1:38 Where his formation of leadership comes from, his working together principles, the working together management system, creating a culture of love by design, the role of the leader. What happens when people choose not to be a part of the working together system and how those conversations go. and how he uses this system in his family and so much more. This is one of my favorite conversations ever. It's time to listen.

2:04 and learn. Allen. Let's just dive right into this. You've served your family, Boeing, Ford, and communities around the world in such a positive way over the years. How did you end up with this formation of leadership? And can you share your service journey with us? Absolutely. Well first of all it's a pleasure to to uh be with you. I think that it really is a

2:32 A good way to start. I grew up in the Midwest in uh Lawrence, Kansas, also where the University of Kansas is. We were had pretty modest means. Uh, but we had a lot of love in our family from our starting with our parents' love of us. Over the years I can remember

2:49 Um very clearly the lessons that they shared with me. And who they were as a person in addition to what they But they did. And so every morning

2:58 And the same. I for one my parents will say this. These lessons to me, just to make sure that I was uh remembering them and understanding them. So one day my mom would say, Now remember, honey. The purpose of life is to uh love and be loved.

3:11 I'd say, Oh Mom, that's great. Uh I remember. I think that's good. And she said, But remember, in that order. Okay, thank you. Then next day my

3:20 Mom or my dad would say again when I was getting ready to go to school. Well now To serve is to live. Thank you, Dad. That's great. Then next day one would say

3:30 Seek to understand before you seek to be understood. I'd go. That's good too. I remember that. And one that really stuck with me over the years is uh it's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice. Thanks, Dan.

3:43 And then the one that probably impacted me the most, Shane. was when they said by working together with others. You can make the most positive contribution to the most people. And then of course uh they would discuss lifelong learning and continuous improvement.

4:01 And Respect. Everyone. We're all creatures of God and we're worthy to be loved. And then

4:08 Uh really. uh was meaningful to me as I got married and start our family stuff is a develop one integrated life. to deliver your life's work. So those are the things that

4:19 my formation was was based on and Of course I was a a normal child growing up. And so I wanted to fit in. I

4:28 Really being must means I really wanted a pair of Levi's and some Oigen shoes. So I decided that And I can remember deciding this that Uh if I were going to um Be like yep.

4:42 Those genes or in go maybe get a car and go to the URC, Kansas someday. Yeah. to servers to live was gonna be My strategy.

4:51 So I started my service work. With the T V guide routes, newspaper routes, a lawnmowing business. I was a bagger, a checker. And then the night manager at the At the Dillon's grocery store.

5:05 I was a carpenter and a ranch hand and a farm hand. And then when I started school at the University of Kansas, I also for the The entire time I was there working on my When degrees in aeronautical aeronautical engineering, I would continue to work and serve the

5:20 engineering department at the University of Kansas. I followed that with joining Boeing and then also uh later at forward. The thing Shame that

5:29 really uh I learned was that I just love the serving. I love that looks on that. on the people's face I was serving. I like I'd ask them for the suggestions for improvement. And somebody told me I was the only person as a checker in the Dillas grocery store that actually got a tip.

5:46 And I remember asking the person that was coming through the line. Why are you tipping me? I I could understand that when I was a bad boy. And they said, Well First of all, you took care of us. You asked us if we found everything that we needed. Did we have the coupons for the the uh items are discounted?

6:02 Work was always a service. And it was just fabulous. I felt good about it. I wanted to be uh better at it. And I of course I I I also included all of the stakeholders.

6:14 'Cause I knew that if I did that, including my parents and family and And uh Leaders in the in the areas that I was serving. That we would actually

6:23 come up with a a even a better plan to serve our customers and serve each other and all the stakeholders. That's uh my formation than my Further development. A Boeing at Fort and especially a Boeing initially.

6:35 What's I was joining a a company that was world class at project and program and business management. So I combined those personal uh values and beliefs and

6:47 And behaviors. But the learnings of of uh large scale uh system integration and and business. creating businesses or profitably growing for the good of all the stakeholders. So

6:57 That's how I came became who I w I was. I took the same I'm like I took the same uh lessons to uh when I was asked by Bill Ford to join Ford. They helped work.

7:07 I want to talk a little bit more about uh the story of how you ended up at Ford in a second. One of the things that you said that stood out to me was You have to build an integrated life. to deliver your life's work. What does an integrated life mean? I found that to be so uh useful and

7:26 One day my My parents made a drawing. And I have the circle. And inside the circle. It have uh smaller circles.

7:35 In the circles would be Uh your work life. Uh your family life. Your spiritual life. Uh your community live.

7:44 Uh all your different lives. You could have put as many lives in there as We chap. And then on the top of the circle. If said one life. And then underneath the bottom of the circle.

7:56 It said Life's work. And remember work. to me and my parents was the same as service. So

8:03 My life's work as service. And I'm gonna integrate all of those components. And People ask me a lot of times, Well, how do you how do you do that? I said, Well You first of all, you you decide what's really important to you in each one of those circles.

8:18 And then also Look at your calendar in the morning. Look at your calendar at night. when people are managing their work life balance. They might think that, Oh, well I have something planned with the family and next year. Um so I got that one covered.

8:31 No, I think you're gonna have to think about that every day. So The idea of an integrated life is that you decide what's really important to you and very honest with yourself. And also you're looking at your calendar near and longer term.

8:44 And are you paying attention to the things that you really believe are important. in your life to serve. I I like the term integrated because so often we sort of um forget about these other components, right? And then we sacrifice our relationship with our community or you know, part of integration could be your overall health, and we sacrifice that in pursuit of a myopic sort of focus on one part and then inevitably it crumbles. Exactly, uh Shane and I I think that

9:13 You can see how fast you would get this would be a discipline process. If you look at that drawing And you look what you have put down there is what's important to you. And you look at that uh each day and just reflect on how it's going. Near and long term.

9:28 you get to the place where you really get clear about your activities and having them integrated. set of activities. I I remember when we uh when the kids were young and we'd have our family meeting.

9:41 And uh we'd sign up for the different things we're gonna do to help each other. And I would take my items back to Boeing and my assistant would I put that on my calendar. And

9:51 uh some days I would just disappear in the middle of the day for an hour or two to go to a parent teacher conference or something else. And everybody knew Uh where I was. And they knew I'd be back. I think that

10:02 It's a it's a very uh reliable process, but you have to follow the process, uh is my would be my advice on that. I want to talk about the decision to join Ford because when we talked before, you said you originally were actually not going to join Ford. So can you walk us through that decision, how you ended up joining Ford? And sort of some of the immediate cultural differences that you felt between Ford and Boeing. And then after that we'll dive into some of the principles uh and working together management system. Oh, sure. Clearly I love it. Uh I love four I love Boeing and and I always have. I was on

10:35 The design team of every Boeing airplane. And I r I realise very uh quickly that At the time and the airplanes We're the first internet'cause we were actually connecting people around the world. And

10:47 people could find out that we had more in common than we're different and And uh we could then choose to work together for the greater good. And so I never thought I was gonna Uh ever leave Boeing. And I had a lot of opportunities along the way.

10:59 One day Bill Ford called. I'm going. Bills forward. The great grandson of Henry Ford? And uh I had a

11:07 uh Ford Vehicle when I was growing up and I just I've followed sport a lot because As I learn more about history and World War Two and Ford and Boeing working together. I I'm just always very interested in it. So I I knew I was in trouble.

11:23 When I was talking to Bill because I wanted to know more. I kept asking him all these questions about Why they're in the situation they're in and He shared the whole story with me and they've become a house of brands and and purchased Ason Martin and Jaguar and Land Rover and Balbo. And

11:39 uh still seventy eighty percent of the business was forward. And which as you No, you can't be world class at too many things at the same time. And so they uh they're gonna lose seventeen billion dollars.

11:51 And he said the the biggest issue he had was Uh getting people to work together. Around the world. to use all these fantastic As smart and talented people.

12:01 I you know, thought about it and talked about it as a family and And I initially I called him back and said I was gonna stay at Boeing. And

12:09 A couple of the kids, we have five kids and Nicky and I've been married for fifty two years and And Nicki and two or three of the kids were outside. My little office listening to this. 'Cause they really Well, they were encouraged me to go. Come on, they had me.

12:22 We know about airplanes, we know all your friends here and You wanna drive a Mustang. See everybody out. And so They walked in the room.

12:31 And one of them said So Dad, we listen to this and We're going to Ford, aren't we? And I said We are.

12:38 And The lesson learned out of that that I've learned over the years on UF too is You think about it, you look at it from every possible angle and At the end of the day you decide, but the most important thing is Yeah.

12:50 when you say it and you start to act on it. You really need to think about But how you feel about it. And when I went through that process. I knew.

12:59 that this is where I wanted to serve next. People ask me. A lot. Why would you choose Lee Bowen? You're the you're the uh A CEO of Boy Commercial Airplanes, you've been on the defense side.

13:10 Uh, you love your work, you're an airplane designer. Uh you love the business. And at the end of the day I felt like I was serving a second American and global icon. Two really important companies.

13:23 That have made such a difference, uh, to the United States and the people around our world. And I felt like it was the all time I was being asked to serve. to save this second American and global icon. It's incredible. I mean what you did at Ford was no short. Uh like it was one of the biggest turnarounds in history. I think they were on pace to lose seventeen billion when you took over.

13:47 uh and nearly bankrupt. And then the transformation over the next decade was just astonishing. And in researching and talking to people who worked with you You're known for these working together principles, practices, and a culture of Uh I hope I get this right. Love by design.

14:05 What specifically are those principles and practices? Super, super question, and and it's the essence of uh working together in in my life and service. There are a few of them and I'll Uh I I want to touch on On on each other. So these are

14:22 to your point, these are principles and practices That create. uh a culture of love. By design. Meaning.

14:31 That It's Is demonstrating your love. For w what you're doing as an organization. It's also demonstrating your love.

14:39 And how you feel about all the participants. And their contribution. And it's also by design. So you're creating not only the principles and practices, but also a reliable process. and expect the behaviors of all the participants.

14:54 as you work together to deliver your compelling vision, whether it's Boeing or Ford or A specific airplane or specific car. And so the first one And these are written down.

15:05 Um Uh people have'em uh on the card. they they carry around they're in the offices Uh and one of them, the first one is Uh people first.

15:16 Love'em up. And the reason is that these are talented people. that are that are working. on these programs. I'll just use the Triple Seven airplane as a as an example of a of a

15:29 A major program project. In business. hundreds of thousands of people that are working on this airplane to design it. All around the world. They're talented.

15:39 They're motivated. They believe in the vision of getting people together. So they can work together around the world. So appreciating them as a human being and appreciating their talent. And thanking them and including them. So every one of these things I'm gonna share with you.

15:54 it to your point is a demonstration or an element of showing your love. For all the participants. So The second one is including everybody. So when you're designing the airplane, we include not only the airlines

16:08 Will we include, of course, all the employees, all the suppliers. all the certification agencies around the world. all the cities in which the airplane is going to be uh used. And all of the investors. And all the bankers.

16:21 All the people that are participant they're actually represented. on the leadership team. So their voice And their thoughts. Uh and their suggestions.

16:31 are included. Uh in the development of the strategy and the plan. And the accomplishment of the objectives. So include Everybody.

16:39 Uh the next one. Is coming together around a compelling vision, a comprehensive strategy. and a relentless implementation plan. So

16:48 The power of that vision was as we all know, is really, really important. Is it meaningful? Is it have purpose? Is it gonna serve? uh not only the stakeholders, but the greater good. And you can imagine how That's

17:01 That was at Mowing Fort'cause Why because is dedicated to safe and efficient transportation. than having a comprehensive strategy for the product.

17:12 for the process for uh delivering it. For all of the people. Including the working together. A strategy. than a relentless implementation plan. And that's the business plan review, which we'll talk about.

17:23 Which gets a lot of uh attention over the years where every week We meet with all of the stakeholders. And we go through in an hour and a half, two hours. We go through every element of the strategy.

17:34 For accomplished in our objectives. Also the status of that. We actually color code all of the team members color code. their strategy plan on how it's going, red. Or bring the head.

17:46 It's on plan yellow, they have an issue, but they have a solution. And red. Uh they have a new issue. But uh there are They're still working on the solution for it.

17:56 And the next one is having clear performance goals and one plan. Most companies have many plans and most people are trying to figure out what the plan is, as as we all know. Vaccine data. Really important. We care what you think. Uh but we also want to know what's what are the facts and data that you're looking at.

18:15 To draw your conclusions. Because as we go forward, especially on working on a yellower red, we all wanna know Those back some data so that we Together. can turn the reds to yellows to greens.

18:27 I think we move to the some more. Demonstrations a lot. So expect the unexpected. expect to deal with it. And so we're gonna share the reality of our situation every week. So that everybody knows.

18:40 what the opportunities are, but also what are the issues that we need to to deal with. And that everybody knows the plan. The product, the process, the people that working together plant. They know what the status of it is. And also Shane, they know the areas that need special attention.

18:56 So think about what that respect for people means when you share these things. I mean many people, many leaders If they have a red item, first of all that embarrasses them. They think they're not doing their job. as opposed to that red item is a gem. We I clap when you have a red.

19:13 Because You're not the r you're not red. It's your items red. Thanks for sharing that. Now we all can work together. To help you

19:21 And that's turned the red C L's green. And then the attitudes. are really the attitudes, the beliefs and the values are really important. And what we really look at are the behaviors. Because that's what we can see. And

19:33 So we have these expected behaviors. Yeah. That uh we have zero tolerance for violating them. So Proposing a plan, being positive, having a find a way attitude. uh respecting each other.

19:46 Uh listen to each other, help each other. appreciate each other. You can see very sophisticated words shape. Very sophisticated. But we can see this. And we can help each other. in our personal development plans always be moving forward and growing in all of these uh behaviors the way we treat each other.

20:02 Then emotional resilience. This is a a creative process, it's an ovation. Uh, we're gonna have issues along the way. And so we're gonna trust this process of working together.

20:12 and we're gonna trust the process of turning the reds to yellows and green. And the last one. That everybody's absolutely loves is have fun. And enjoy the journey.

20:22 And each other. Yeah. As I mentioned, uh every day Uh we We'd wake up and

20:29 Every every business partner you would get together and we say, No, thank you Uh How can I help? Uh. And then enjoy each other.

20:38 And also enjoy the journey of creating these phenomenal Products and services. Now there's one corollary to that, Shane. That's really important. And that is

20:49 Zero tolerance. For violating. This process of working The business plan review, the creating value roadmap, including everybody. Uh all the stakeholders on the leadership team.

21:00 Zero tolerance for violating that operating process. In zero tolerance. for violating these expected behaviors'cause we all can see at each other. We're together every week and you can imagine How seriously.

21:13 Everybody takes uh the process and the behaviors. And as we As we continue our discussion, I'm sure you're gonna Wanna know well. What do you do, Alan when

21:22 When when people are not committed to following the process And the expected behaviors are working together. But we can talk about that as you wish. You said trust the process, and that sounds great, but you're coming into Ford and You're implementing it a completely different process than the culture has had before. Sure. How much resistance did you get? How do you get the buy-in for people to actually trust the process? You're an outsider coming in.

21:47 Right. How how do you corral the people Um to trust the process and then follow the process. This is a really good question and and everything you said, there's truth in that. Uh absolutely. And so

22:00 What do you think the one piece of paper That I brought with me. From Boeing to Ford. was this piece of paper I just described to you. And I and when

22:10 In the first meeting. When Bill introduced me to the team I shared with them this one piece of paper. And the looks on their faces? were phenomenal. They'd never seen words like this.

22:22 Uh peep people first love'em up. If you You know, if you make a mistake and you violate the process of the use, just say you're sorry. And so I could tell by the looks on their faces and they're from all around the world. They

22:33 And I could tell in their faces that Wow, I'm gonna have to it's gonna be really important. I spend a lot of time. Sharing with them what these mean. And

22:42 About that zero tolerance uh policy. in the commitment to uh commit to them. So I spent A couple of hours a day.

22:50 For the first uh few weeks. Uh Oh. Making myself available. uh to the entire team and individually

22:58 As they w they wish. To answer their questions about these principles and practices. And then I said okay. Uh here we go. And we're gonna learn about it because we're gonna start. So we

23:09 Pull together on the On the uh business plan. We yep. updated the creating value roadmap to restructure ourselves to match our production to the real demand. And

23:19 Um Mm. uh develop a competitive cost structure. At the same time, we committed to develop a new product line. uh small, medium, large cars, utilities and trucks, everyone being best in class.

23:31 in terms of quality and fuel efficiency and safety and smart design and affordability. And then also uh taking out a small home improvement loan of twenty three and a half million dollars to finance the restructuring, but also we finance the product development plan to support The customers and our growth.

23:48 Then the last one. was work together. as one team worldwide on our one four plan. Of course. The way Ford was set up at the time.

23:59 Uh Every Ford was different in every country around the world. So For no the Henry Ford never thought

24:07 that that would be the way it would end up. But You can clear that we would never be competitive if we were trying to compete with all these different Fords against these global powerhouses that that we all knew. So the biggest

24:20 part of that strategy was we were gonna pull together, work together as one team. And We're gonna use all all of our talents. to work together to create this one One Ford Plant.

24:31 So We uh We develop the the strategy. Uh we Uh, started the business plan review.

24:39 Oh selected. Uh The team from all around the world'cause Which is relative relatively easy because Everybody knows who

24:47 the leaders are in each of the disciplines, whether it's engineering and manufacturing or procurement. So I talked to everybody Looked at their performance managements. Three sixties is that. And so we had the best of the talent all around the world, some of which had never worked together. Started our business plan review. I'd always start the meeting.

25:03 And then each of the members And not go through the the vision, strategy, and the plan status. At the at the company level. that every member would go to their area of responsibility. And

25:15 uh and share their contribution on the strategy and the plan. And then also as we mentioned Um they also uh show the status. with their colored coating. So Uh now here's the here's the essence of your question.

25:29 We start our process, the behaviors are are getting really good. We have about three hundred charts with the entire team. And Uh and that we've also shared with them Now for the first time they've been losing seventeen billion dollars.

25:42 And all three hundred charts. Shane. Or color green. All three hundred charts.

25:50 Why should so this is the essence of your point. So here's this new person. Yeah. We shared a new culture. of working together and transparency and timeliness and supporting each other.

26:02 Respecting each other. Uh And All three hundred charts are green. So I

26:08 I stopped the meeting a few weeks in in a row and Said, is there anything in any any of your areas responsible that's not going well? We are losing seventeen billion dollars. course the eye contact goes down to the floor. Because they don't know me.

26:22 And they know that the culture that they were in Is it you? Br like a lot of companies, if you brought an issue to your supervisor or your boss, the CEO Uh and you didn't have it. A a solution?

26:35 Then you seem to disappear. Because A lot of a lot of cultures are you only bring an issue if you have an answer. That doesn't allow working together the way we're talking about, where you can move quickly and On the it on the issues.

26:48 So They didn't know what would happen. But they should have read. So Fine.

26:53 Um the leader of North America. uh they have an issue uh with the launch of the The Ford Edge in Oakville Canada. with the actuator and lift gate. And so he's having his meeting, his BPR before ours the night before.

27:08 And up comes the the the launch chart saying that it has three columns for a Uh But Technical readiness, uh schedule.

27:17 a compliance. And Um And financial impact. And all of them were color green.

27:23 And they just stop production. One of the biggest things you could ever do is to cause it. cause a lot of a lot of issues. And so He's he says to the team, he says, I think this is one of those red things Alan's talking about.

27:35 And the and one of the members, one of the s vice presidents said to him Well Good luck. Uh Because you know what happens when you have a problem, you don't have a solution at for it.

27:45 And Uh, he finally said, Well, I think we need to trust the process and we need to trust Alan. And then another vice president said uh Shane. Well It's nice knowing ya.

27:56 Take care. So red, red, red. So the next day We started the business plan review. Green, green, green, green. And up comes this red chart.

28:08 on something really important, a launch of a new vehicle. And so Uh he Explains it very uh And succinctly that

28:17 Here's an issue that came up. Uh, we're working on it. We don't have a solution yet. And at that point. I started to clap. And I mean

28:26 No. All the eye contact. With went to the floor, I could feel the air dissipating and and they're they're kinda looking at me and they're looking at the floor. And they're looking at

28:37 At the at Mark the speaker and And then later they told me that they got that sign. I clap net. the two large doors behind us in the Thunderbird room with the world headquarters were gonna open up Two large human beings are gonna come in. They're gonna extract Mark from the meeting.

28:53 That would take care of that. So But So I said So

28:58 A any any initial thoughts from from the team on how we can help Mark? And there Kusak was leading engineering worldwide sub yeah, I've seen a problem like that before. We'll get you that data. Uh, Benny Fowler, who's leading quality worldwide, had a similar comment. And Joe Henriks, who is leading manufacturing worldwide

29:15 Said. You know, we're gonna figure this out. You're gonna need some manufacturer engineers up in Oakville, Canada. I'll get'em identified and get'em up there. So when we have a solution, we can switch out the parts and get the production going in a timely manner. That took

29:29 You know Ten seconds. Twelve seconds. We were on to the next chart. Green, green, green, green. Next week. Only one red shark.

29:38 That was Mark's again. And I was looking around the room and they're all looking at me and they're looking at Mark and they can't believe that Mark's still there. And then Had the same comment. Thank you very much. And then uh finally

29:50 Two week two or three weeks later it Uh they have a solution that turned to yellow. Uh Two weeks later, I think. uh it turned to green and all the vehicles start flowing around the world.

29:59 So shame. Guess what? The colours. of the slides look like that following week. Not all red.

30:07 But they look like a rainbow. And everybody then Decided. They answer your question. That's

30:14 Not only were we gonna trust the process Prah. Wow, mistrusting the process. Would allow us To

30:22 Remove all the stress out of our individual lives. be able to share what the real situation is. And also be able to count on this working together process to trust it. That we if we know what's going on.

30:34 And we know that our behaviors and our process allow us to deal with it. That we can turn. Reds to yellows to greens. And at that point

30:43 Shane, I knew. That no matter what happened at Ford. whether it was Jim and Chrysler going bankrupt, or whether it was the tsunamis around the world. The competition, whatever. I knew.

30:55 that we could use this working together process. And create a near term and longer term value. for all the stakeholders in the Green Get. What stood out to me as you were saying that is just the consistency.

31:08 And if you were if you were if you had a lot of variation in your approach or how you handled it, I don't think you would have got the same results you did. Shane that is really Critical and when we talk about the reliable process, the system for doing that. One of the biggest single

31:25 uh principles. is the discipline. Where just em just imagine you're on the team. And every week. Seven AM.

31:33 Seven and nine AM. Everybody's connected around the world. And We're gonna go through this. I've gone through my introduction to the vision strategy and plan for forty five years. Every week.

31:46 I think I maybe missed ten meetings. Because wherever you are Uh You phone in or you link in. And

31:53 The kids used to link in with me if we're somewhere because they just love watching the colours and watching them all change and watching everybody try to help each other and Uh and so that discipline of following the process. And also to your question. Or your comment.

32:07 The discipline of the behaviors. See if somebody would go after somebody Or act like they knew what the answer was or be rhetorical questions or Whatever. Anything that would

32:18 I cause an unsafe A culture of love by design. Where people felt like they're gonna be Uh a victim or be made fun of. Then their

32:28 Commitment. to share in everything is gonna go down. And so It's a commitment and a discipline to the process and a commitment and a discipline. To the behaviors on how to do it.

32:38 We're gonna treat each other how we're gonna be treated. I think that's what creates the psychological safety, right? Not only the commitment, but the consistency and then the discipline to keep following it up. And to let's go to your question now, which is how do you deal with people who either don't commit to the implementation of the working together system or Or choose uh behaviors that don't align with Um what's expected. Great. Great great question.

33:05 And just one comment about your last comment, which uh is very important. Is it What happens? So quickly. Is the confidence

33:15 That's built. Yeah. With all of the participants on the team? Cause you can imagine when you start solving issue after issue because this is a creative process. You're creating something out of nothing.

33:28 Uh and So you're expecting the unexpected, you're expecting to deal with it. And it's working. And so you can imagine the confidence that you get in the team plus Their stress levels go way down now. They sleep at night.

33:41 Should they know that They know they're gonna make progress and so I think that's really an important point because the minute that that's not a safe organization that you're not going to be able to have this phenomenal

33:52 uh working together a success. Okay, now At the first Everybody's trying. Um I also told them

34:00 Um You know, if you if you violate this or you go after somebody or You don't respect what they said or Just say you're sorry. Well, they'd never heard the love word.

34:10 I got the Ford, but they also had never word the sorry word. Hadn't heard that either. So just tell you you're sorry and then jump back on to the Under the expected behavior. So

34:21 Uh every once in a while. I'd have somebody that would go after somebody or Or thought they knew more than The person. and kinda tack'em in an aggressive way as opposed to asking for a a question for clarification or whatever.

34:34 So I follow up to their office. And In one version or the other, this is What would happen. Let's say now.

34:42 Uh Would you think about? Uh your behavior. Today in the meeting. Whatever the situation was.

34:49 And they make a comment that well You know, I wasn't Probably the best that I could be. And I said, Well No kidding.

34:56 And What do you think that meant to the team? Did you watch what happened when people started to be a lot more careful to share? And Uh yes I did. And so

35:06 Um Remember uh look at the same piece of paper on the principles and practices. The reason we're doing this is that we need the hearts and the minds. Uh every participant every As sh a stakeholder.

35:18 And then the person would say, um, Oh, I know, but Mm. I don't know whether I can do that, Alan. This is not The way I grew up, that's not who I am. I'm

35:29 I know I'm command and control and I can be a little bit of a bully and But I've done very well. And Fort's paid me well and And more and more responsibility. And I said, I I know and

35:40 Uh And Yeah, but Yeah, if you Don't want to commit.

35:45 What you can't commit. to these principles and practices, it's okay. And I look at their face. And shame. I could see what they were thinking.

35:54 They thought I met O. I mean, because I'm so important. that I can start to treat people like I always um A freedom and not move in this direction. And so and they even say that sometimes. Well, thank you very much, Alan I said.

36:08 No. Well okay. What I mean by okay is it really is okay because you're making a decision to move on. And And it's okay. And remember that first principle. We still love you. You're a human being. You're a creature of God.

36:22 And if this doesn't work for you. Uh respecting people. Listening to each other, helping each other. Um Then it's okay and you're making a decision.

36:30 And If you want it. Uh commit to it. We can get you help. We can get you a coach, your dynamite person, very knowledgeable. Um but if not Uh, we wish you uh the very best, um and also

36:43 We all need to know what you're gonna do. And so Like you to go home tonight. Think about it. Talk about it with The people that you love and trust and

36:52 And let me know tomorrow whether you're going to commit. to move in this direction. I know it's gonna be different. Yep. And long career. And Um

37:01 And we'll Uh Why have you tell the all the rest of the team? Well agree on the two or three things that

37:07 that if you improve those will move you a very positive direction into working together. And then we'll be supporting you and we'll help you. So they'd come back the next day and one person Would say. I've thought about it and I don't think I can do it. And we we say we we wish you the very best.

37:23 had an another person that Always like to do rhetorical questions. Which is not very healthy for working together. Like you're trying to You ask a question, you know the answer so that you can show everybody how smart you are. Not working together.

37:36 And so I had the same co conversation with her. She went home. Came back and said, Alan I'd like to I'd like to move in this direction. And

37:44 uh because this is really who I am. I I feel like I've been violating my true self. For a lot of years. And She became one of the most fantastic leaders I've ever worked with.

37:56 'Cause once you say that and you say that to the team now and you say it to me,'cause remember, they're not looking for me now. They're working for that vision. of the company. in the service that we're providing. And they're working for all of the of their colleagues.

38:09 And so Uh She just became one of the most fantastic at working together leaders. Uh That I work with. So

38:16 And again. It's their decision,'cause it is their decision. Eighty percent of the of the At the time that it happened. They moved in the direction of stain.

38:26 and making a commitment and making great progress on working together. Because it goes back to the They just basic fundamental human values that are that are that are powerful. Two rabbit holes there.

38:39 After I I love how you phrase it, you're choosing this behavior, and if you're choosing that behavior, you're choosing to opt out. The people that stayed, how quickly Did that behavior change? Like was the the I can't imagine in my head it's this overnight thing. Oh yeah, because Remember that just keep remember, you're on the team. And every Thursday

39:01 You're sitting around a round table. And you're also looking at monitors inside the table of all the people that are around the world. And now every member of the team's there. You've just gone through all your reds and yellows and greens the week before. You would never You wouldn't

39:16 possibly be able to to Uh Having a red. And say to the team. Can you imagine saying I know I was really busy this week, you all.

39:26 They didn't have time to work on that to hell with all of you. I don't think so. Can you imagine what that conversation would be like out on the playground? Because They're not working for me now, they're working for what we're trying to accomplish. And so what we'd see

39:38 Is when a person made a decision to move in this positive direction. They'd be first of all, they'd be a little More hesitant. for offering their thoughts or questions, which is understandable, because they're thinking this through.

39:51 How do I How do I do this? But I do it in a respectful No way. And then pretty soon. After two or three weeks.

39:59 They they're watching now. the behaviors of other people. Uh they're doing this. They're getting comfortable with it. And then they just start moving in that direction.

40:07 And every once in a while. Because of the sorry thing. They'll say can you imagine what happens when when a person would say Yeah. That's not the way I really meant to say this. I know that was a little abusive.

40:19 I'm really sorry. And then we all look at'em and and they know we're saying. One. Start again. And so

40:26 So you get this unbelievable support. that you can really move in this direction uh pretty decisively. Of the people who decided to leave. Did anybody ever at any point come back to you? After they left.

40:41 And said, You know what, I really want to get on this boat. I wanna get on this ship with you. We had a we had a few that as we were growing Um we had opportunities. That could use their skills. And they approached

40:54 Maybe. Or One of the senior people. And People tell me that.

40:59 Those are some of the most phenomenal conversations they've ever had. Because If somebody d comes and does that. then we know it's gonna be okay. And it and yeah, ninety nine percent of the time it was. Because when somebody gets to that place, they have really

41:13 Thought about it. And reflected. on who they are as a person. Mm-hmm. And what they do. And

41:20 You know what really happens in this, uh Shane, you're really getting at it is Who you are as a person. is gonna have more to do. With your success. uh in whatever you're choosing to do.

41:33 than anything else. Maryland just um Who I work. Asked me to work with her on her A nominal book.

41:40 of the extraordinary power of leader humility. And she actually wanted it. Uh have a a couple of chapters in there about Uh working together. And how you melt the

41:50 That really supports that. And in her book. She really did a phenomenal job of laying out a simple model. For humility.

42:00 What does that really mean? And and one of the things that she uh said was When you meet somebody, you always have You always have three questions. One. Who are you?

42:11 As a person. Is this about you? This is about I versus we, is about me versus service. Are are you about what we're trying to accomplish here, this compelling vision for the organization? Or is it about you?

42:24 The second question is You're the leader. Where are we going? Where are we going? What's that strategy? What's the what's the VPR? What's the creating value roadmap? Then you know what the third question is, Shane?

42:35 Do you see me? Do you see me? And how many times have you been in a line? Meeting somebody. And by the time that they have

42:45 Reached out to shake your hand or eye contact. has moved on. Even before they looked at you. They don't see you. And I run C means

42:56 That I respect you. I care about you. I'm interested in you. I wanna thank you. Because we're gonna do this together. And together we're gonna we're gonna create a lot of value for the greater good. It's a almost like a presence feeling, right? You can tell when people are present in a conversation and when they're not. Like if you have your phone sitting on the table and you're talking to somebody.

43:16 You're not fully present that conversation because at any moment if that phone dings, you know that I'm just gonna pick it up and And read it. People feel it when you're present and they feel respected and they feel listened to and they feel heard. All of these things that go into your culture of safety as well, right? Where what does everybody want? They w they want to be loved, they wanna be respected, they wanna be listened to, they wanna contribute to something larger than themselves. And to do that we have to be consistent. Absolutely. Listen to what you just said.

43:47 You just described A working together culture of love. By design. It was designed this way. I mean I'm the airplane designer.

43:57 It was designed Because we wanted that culture where people felt everything that you just described. And also to your point. Uh when we're doing a business plan review. There are no devices.

44:10 If you if you pull out your device or you're looking at your your computer We just stop the meeting and look at you. Can you imagine? How quickly you stop that? Because

44:20 Everybody knows the principles and practices are on the piece of paper, they're sitting up there in front. And you're choosing Not to respect this organization and each other and you're not present. Because we need you.

44:32 We need everybody. So it's really cool you said that because It doesn't see you don't tell you don't need to stop. very many times for everybody to understand. That doesn't work.

44:43 That you need to be present. Within two months When I arrive at Ford. We were on our way. The colors were all showing up, the behaviors were getting just

44:52 Fantastic. The stress was going down. The The issues we're dealing with are considered gems. And we're gonna solve them together, and we did.

45:01 the clarity on the behaviors and the clarity on the process are gonna follow. And then backing that up for zero tolerance. And then And then appreciating it. With banking people.

45:13 Absolutely. uh accelerates the implementation of the working together system. It also and from the outside not working at Ford or never working at Boeing with you, uh, it strikes me that it almost creates Like a transplant. You either take it Yeah, it either takes or it doesn't.

45:31 But the body becomes the reinforcing mechanism, or in this case the uh your fellow your peers, your colleagues. become the reinforcing mechanism. And so the role of HR in my head, I would say the role of HR is changing, right? It's less about grievances and complaining. Now it's about hiring and attracting talent and unleashing them because people know when they're not fitting in And the culture is such that it just forces you out. Absolutely. Just another uh point about what you just said.

46:00 Part of the The working together Um system that we'll talk a little bit more about. is continuous improvement.

46:09 and like lifelong learning and continuous improvement. So Our performance R three sixty process. You you now know exactly what that's about.

46:18 You're gonna use all the stakeholders, all your colleagues around that round table. And every year. We asked them about how we're doing, including me. And what would be one or two things that if I If I could improve that.

46:32 Behavior. That character or that skill. They would help us. Help. uh me individually and also help our team and our business

46:40 If I need Improvement on that. So every year. Every member of the team had their one or two items. That everybody else knew about. Yeah.

46:48 To your point. Everybody else is now supporting. And so Very easy then to say. You give somebody feedback.

46:55 Uh because it we know what they're working on. And we can give him an example. And so people What the feedback now. Because they can

47:03 They know it's it's facts that they're looking at. So To your point. Stakeholders that are coaching. Well, you know up from Marshall. Uh, I didn't know what those words meant until I

47:12 I met Marshall but I knew we were doing stakeholder start coaching. with our work we have the management. And he thought that was the coolest thing. is that we had a whole company. led by the leadership team.

47:24 That would not only was leading with Stakeholder Center. leadership because they're including all the stakeholders. But also we were leading with stakeholder center coaching meaning

47:34 Yeah. We were helping our colleagues. further develop themselves individually. And as a team. And as a business. You feel good about you feel good about it and you're

47:43 You're you're getting more and more effective. People are are benefiting from it. And you're feeling that satisfaction of meaningful accomplishment. and smiles on their faces. It just builds on itself. It strikes me that we

47:55 Only receive Or we only really want feedback when we feel safe. And we only offer real feedback when we feel safe. And the reason that I I think that is not only from our conversation right now today.

48:10 But I'm thinking most people at a workplace, you know what's holding your colleagues back. You know the one behavior they do that undermines them every time or self sabota self sabotages them. But you don't tell them. And I think you don't tell them in part because it's not because you don't love them or you don't want them to succeed. It's because you don't feel safe telling them, you don't feel safe in that relationship.

48:33 Absolutely. Shane, think Think about how this system deals with that because When you are this clear

48:41 About the expected behaviors. Well you have set everybody free, right? Yeah.'Cause if you're gonna provide behavior somebody and you don't have clear expectations about what the behaviors are. Expected? Well

48:54 It's just that's really hard. They don't know why you're saying it to'em. They don't know how that fits in. That's why When I look when we look at those the expected behaviors that we just we described in the principles and practices Yeah. The reason they

49:09 That's okay for us to take a stand that way, is that those are so fundamental. Mm. All the religions of the world. Everyone has tried to describe these, right?

49:20 And so And the reason it works is you're respecting people's dignity as a human being, as a contributor. And Uh Everybody knows that that results

49:30 And that satisfaction a meaningful accomplishment. with individually and as a team. And so We've never I we look at those behaviors all the time and we just to check when make sure we're not where that we think they're absolutely the right thing.

49:44 But I think it's because Thousands of years. Uh We've been try we we're all been trying to one way work to

49:53 Work to create this kind of environment. And that's what we're doing with the working together management system. So talk to me a little bit more about the working together management system. I think we've come at it through a couple of different angles. W w piece it together for me in the sense of like the whole and then break down the parts that we haven't talked about. That's a really neat way you said it too. Uh same because

50:12 Their their elements. of a system. And uh you know, as an engineer I my whole life is is uh around systems because There are lots of different

50:23 uh pieces of a system. And they all work together. To contribute to the Do the yeah. Ready to get.

50:30 And think about A a Venn diagram. Another circle. Just like the one life life's work. So you draw a circle. And that's the working together management system. Is what's inside the circle.

50:40 So at the top. Put a circle. That's his principles and practices. Then put another. Circle going around to the right. And put another circle and put governance.

50:51 process in there. Then put go down a little further and put another circle. It put leadership team. Then go Start going back up, put another circle and it says creating value roadmap. Then go one more.

51:07 Your last circle, then, is business plan rebuke. In the Bottom of the circle. Put Our culture.

51:15 And we'll we'll put this diagram on the website for the show notes so everybody can just pop up and see it. Yeah. That's great that you're gonna do that because uh It's a it's a gift. And we worked on it forever. to describe it like this. And so again When you look at these five elements

51:31 And you can see how they work together to create this this environment. So we covered the principles and practices. in the manag in the governance process, that's the way we manage the overall business. So that includes our our Uh All the shareholders, the stakeholders.

51:45 the board of directors, the leadership team. Uh And then the process of the creating value roadmap and the business plan review. Then when you look at The leadership team

51:55 Remember The word leader. is inside leadership. So it starts with the leader. 'Cause you can imagine if you don't have a leader

52:03 that is actually committed. the this uh character and scales. That It's gonna be very hard to

52:10 have this operating system. And these expected behaviors. So The things that y that are clear there is you're gonna include all of the stakeholders. you're gonna coach and facilitate

52:20 As opposed to telling everybody what to do. You're gonna be leading with humility and love. And service. And courage. And discipline.

52:29 And resilience and civility. Authenticity. Meaning That your behaviors are aligned with your beliefs. And your values.

52:38 And also positive mindsets. And you're gotta be responsible. For the working in the management system with zero tolerance.

52:46 for violing it. So everybody's that's that's our job are these things. And then your performance and your continuous improvement. uh in your lifelong learning. Then when you move over to the Crane Valley Roadmap. That's the

52:58 Strat for example, the strategy of Boeing was to make A complete family of vehicles that uh can go point to point nonstop all around the world safely and efficiently. to get people together or afford uh Henry Ford was opening the highways to all mankind.

53:13 Two compelling visions. And now what's the strategy? for accomplishing that. That's that so that deals with the product. The process of doing it.

53:22 The people And the working together. A strategy. Then going up to the business plan review. Okay, well we have the strategy now, we have the plan.

53:29 Now every week. We're gonna go over. The vision, the strategy, and the plan. The red yellows agrees and the hairs need special attention. Then we're right back up to

53:39 operating with those principles and practices. I love it. It's it's self reinforcing, uh, and there's natural feedback loops in it. What What's the leader's role in that system? The most important thing. is to hold the team themselves and the team uh responsible and ca and accountable for following this process. All five of those elements.

54:00 We just gotta follow the process. And so holding ourselves accountable for that. On the other is leading by example. I mean I started out as a engineer working on on commercial airplanes.

54:13 And As you Uh, are asked to take more and more uh service. As you move in that direction, what I've

54:20 when I found just'cause of who I am and what I learned at Boeing on on Large scale. Um projects and systems integration is Is that

54:28 You're gonna move to the place. where you're facilitating And you're coaching. Because somebody Has to keep getting us aligned.

54:35 Like if we have a new issue on the strategy, well, we need our special attention meeting to deal with that. And so As you get to the place where you're on this leadership team at this level Yeah, responsibility for a large portion of the organization like engineering and manufacturing procurement. But you're really

54:51 leading. with aligning with the rest of the team. And you're facilitating and your coaching. with your team. I always have like maybe

54:59 twelve or thirteen people reporting to me, which a lot of people Always wondered how I did that. Yeah. I had to have Every discipline

55:07 Need to be on that team. Because if not. if you have the haves and the have nots on the leadership team, they gotta keep explaining to the people you haven't around the meeting that what's going on. As opposed to

55:17 Everybody's being there. And Now everybody is leading with an example. where everybody in the entire organization reports to one of those people. So you're not leaving anybody.

55:28 Yeah. And if you follow this discipline. it really doesn't make any difference how many people you have there because When you do a business plan review, you run it on a very tight schedule. And you'cause you're gonna be there again next week. So you're looking for the changes. Offers to help.

55:42 And you can be back together next week. So that's the most important thing about the leadership team. Yes, uh Is the B And the do.

55:51 Who you are. And What you do. You don't know the neat thing about that. Uh Shane is that

55:56 Because this is so visible. On the behaviors. And the process is so reliable. Everybody keeps moving forward with their beliefs and their values, the things you can't see.

56:09 You can't see those, you see their behaviors. And and everybody tells me this that no matter how they arrived However they grew up, what their training was that The things that went well, the things that We're horrible.

56:21 Uh in their live. That once they join this environment N U A. And you have these expected behaviors. And they're the right expected Yeagres.

56:29 And you start acting this way. then you start being this way. So gradually your mindsets and your beliefs and your values They all start to move this direction. That's why that authenticity word is so big.

56:44 Because if you look up the definition of authenticity Three circles again. Yes. Yes, the alignment. Of who you are and what you do.

56:53 Between your beliefs your values and your behaviors. Now we can see the we can see the the behaviors. But when I c when We see those behaviors. And you're doing that over and over again and you're living that way.

57:06 Well, what happened to those values and beliefs? They move in a really positive direction. And that's what Uh people tell tell me saying that Like w the We They're off a program where they they they're they've moved on to something else.

57:18 And when I see'em they say that wherever they have gone If they can't see The fundamentals. Um working together. A system, the process and the behaviors.

57:29 Then They make a judgment call really quickly. And and if they don't see a way it's gonna happen. They move on. Because once you it's like you said earlier

57:38 Once you felt this way. And once you are appreciated this way, you're never gonna go back. It's like Uh y you're never gonna tolerate Grendel's mother or Grendel's extended family down there in the the swamp. Once you once you've seen the light Once you felt the heat the warmth.

57:56 Uh you're never gonna go back. Make sense. Yeah, totally. Uh and to your point about the actions becoming who we are. I mean we are what we repeatedly do. Exactly. There's something that you said earlier I want to come back to, which is you said everyone is a leader just by being who they are. What did you mean by that?

58:15 Well It gets back to the be and the do, but especially You the R you see that with their behaviors. Like a let's just take humility for example. Like so three questions that that we asked.

58:27 So you can see that. You you know. When you ask those three questions of yourself about who you're meeting. Right away that tells you Who that person really is.

58:37 And how they and how they operate. That's why we've always started Oh, we started. Uh with the behaviors. And

58:45 But having a process That you're following where you have to You have to exhibit those. You can't hide from'em. You can't just not participate. So You have a mechanism now where you have to participate.

58:56 And now your decision is Are you gonna do it with these behaviors or not? And if you don't Um you're gonna meet some interesting people. And you'll get a chance to decide again.

59:06 So I think it's The working in the management system pulls together the B part. And the do part.

59:13 And everybody eventually gets to see both of those either aligned. Or not. And the working together management system isn't just for organizations. I believe you and your wife use a version of this at home. Can you can you tell me more about this? H how does it apply at home?

59:33 And that But she walked by, so I They all they all the kids, they all um They all think this is so So fun, but uh

59:42 Nikki and I have been married, I mentioned, for fifty two years and we have uh five darling children. And when They started to come along. I was at Bull, you know. Um

59:53 program management and And lots of people. And I'm watching these Seven people now. Yeah.

1:00:00 And so I said to Nicky Uh I mean. Yeah, we this is In very uh More complicated with our

1:00:07 size of our family, we need to do a business plan review every week. Yeah, she goes. Alan, this is not Boeing. This is our family. I waited for a week to to

1:00:19 Reflect on this. And that all made sense. And then That's why I said the next week. Okay.

1:00:26 What if we have a family meeting every week? What you said. Well What would we do in a family meeting? I said, Well

1:00:35 My suggestions and I welcome yours. Would be after we come back from mass. Uh on Sunday morning. That we have an agenda. Uh for our family meeting.

1:00:45 The first agenda I would propose is that All of us, including you and me. We go around the house, we pick up all of our stuff. We take'em back to our cubby. Or back to our room.

1:00:55 With seven people. They've been lives. It looks like a bomb's gone off in that house. Mm-hmm. And I didn't sign up for a compelling vision of picking up the house every every week.

1:01:06 And neither did it. Any of the participants. Which is okay. Like makes sense. I said. She said, What next? I said, Well then everybody ought Excuse me we'll go back to our room.

1:01:17 And we'll pick up the laundry. And we'll take it down to the laundry room. And with five children we usually always had uh two washers and dryers'cause you want to get that stuff done. Or that's all you're doing the whole week. And that's not a compelling vision again for our family. Yeah.

1:01:30 So We'd do all the laundry together, then everybody would bring the laundry down. Double down on the kitchen table. And they would all sort. The socks and everything else.

1:01:39 Because It's not a compelling vision to sit there by yourself and try to sort all these things for everybody. I mean, it's impossible. Plus it takes a long time. So That's done in like five minutes now.

1:01:48 And they take their laundry back to their room. And then they come down with their calendar. Saying the calendar. Little loose slip notebook or wires down the end. They're in kindergarten, Shane.

1:01:59 They're in kindergarten. And they got the calendar and they sit around the round table. And then Uh we go around the room. And every member of the family

1:02:08 uh describes what they're going to do this next week. And also identify Uh any things that they need our help with. So they do they need uh taxicab service, do they need cheerleading service? Um

1:02:20 Are they Uh got T shirt. Pare teacher conferences, whatever. And so we all write down things that we can do to help. I'd take it back.

1:02:30 uh the things I'd sign up for. I would take it back and give it to my assistant at B she'd build it into the counter like we mentioned. And so it's just my integrated life. I've just integrated my life, right? Um, along with the rest of those circles in the integrated lie. And then uh the

1:02:45 So that was great. And then the next agenda item was We would Just reflect. On Uh the behaviors.

1:02:52 that we've agreed to. 'Cause we agreed to a compelling vision for the family that had us all growing and contributing and making a difference in service, kinda like what my parents did to me. And so Uh we go through those. Any suggestions for improvement, including the behaviors. That was really interesting at the first because

1:03:08 They were they got they were pretty aggressive when they were younger about Uh well you you You said that you were gonna pick me up after football or Or pretty soon they we also uh worked on the how you do how you say that and how you give that feedback, it's'cause you want to do it in a positive way. And so they got really good

1:03:24 At that. But we went through that and clarification there. That was a family meeting. And so every Every time we're together, and they're all grown now.

1:03:32 We'll get together. Once or twice a year. And every time we're together Uh especially after a drink or two. Most of them will bring up things that happen in the family meetings.

1:03:42 And I mean they're so funny. When you look back at the things that were going on Oh. One one of the family meeting uh principles was that if you're gonna do something That could embarrass

1:03:53 The family. Or Make us really proud. Either way. You have to tell us ahead of time.

1:04:00 Can you imagine that saying? So Uh They didn't s share everything that they would do that would embarrass us. But they sure thought about it because that was a principle in practice.

1:04:12 And so when we reflect on these when they got older. Oh my gosh, it was so fun and it was so funny. Yeah, th sometimes I couldn't tell whether they really enjoyed it or whether they thought this was a hassle and So

1:04:24 I would say to them. You guys. If you didn't really enjoy the family meeting, why did you Why did you always keep coming to it? You never missed one. Never, never. And one of them says, Nad, do you remember what the last agenda item was?

1:04:37 On our family meeting. I said, No, I don't. I said You handed out the allowances. Of course. Of course we had to come to the family meeting. And now every one of them.

1:04:50 Sane. Every one of'em. is running their version. of a family meeting, a business plan review. Uh every week.

1:05:00 I love this. I wanna follow up with two specific questions. One, what are the other family principles you had? Uh one was sort of like if you're gonna humiliate anybody we knew in advance. W what else? What are the other values and principles that you had together as a family that you held people to? Now now this is gonna come as a news flash. The same ones. Yeah. Absolutely the same ones.

1:05:23 Like on the chart that you see the two slides that I sent you that you're gonna share with everybody. Uh it has Boeing as a logo for Boeing and Ford. You can also put on there. A family reunion photo.

1:05:36 Because It's the very same ones. The kids I was talking with Uh

1:05:41 uh peer the other day and he's in the office. And I was doing a Zoom call. I look behind him. He had the working of the principles and practices that we just went th that everybody's gonna get a chance to see. That was on his desk. Right in front of me.

1:05:53 Our lives. having a having a vision, a compelling vision for what we're gonna do to serve, to make a difference, a purpose. than having a strategy to achieve it. But then also having a A plan to reflect on the progress against that.

1:06:06 So that we can Either make modifications to the strategy. Uh or not. but know how it's going and be able to make decisions. back to your your first questions on on an integrated life.

1:06:17 Or m am I paying attention? to the things that I think are important. uh in my life in the life of the Of the people I'm I'm serving. The other thing I wanted to follow up with was uh y you gave the example of sort of like you're supposed to pick somebody up at football, you didn't do it, but you you said that you sort of coached your kids.

1:06:37 on how to give that feedback. I'm curious as if you can take me behind the scenes, how do I say that in a nice way? What does that look like? How do I teach my kids this? Shane, great job. Okay, here's an example. One of our our girls that was on the uh dance team. in high school. I was gonna be somewhere and Nicki was gonna be somewhere.

1:06:57 And so the weak Ahead of one of their Most important performances. uh at school. before one of the events.

1:07:07 uh one of the older kids that was driving then. Agreed to get her from uh the school to this event. And he forgot about it. Unbelievable.

1:07:18 So we start at the family meeting, we go around And our daughter Says Well I just like to Bring up one thing.

1:07:26 Yeah, I think we all can Learn from but Do you remember rather That you were gonna pick me up. And you're gonna take me to the

1:07:34 Might have been. And then you know that that event and what I do. is really, really important to me. And I can just see the

1:07:45 White. And I just want you to know that That I know you care about me. I know you love me.

1:07:54 You are Very reliable. I just want you to know. I think that might be uh might be an opportunity opportunity to learn. And the weight

1:08:04 The apology that he made. And his commitment. in the with the sorry and the policy he made and then his commitment uh to learn from this and be even better. It wasn't just between those two.

1:08:16 I mean, all seven of us were listening to this. And so it affected everybody. So when they were at first starting out, they'd be a little bit more aggressive'cause they just didn't know how to do it. But we but one of the principles and practices is you treat people with respect.

1:08:29 You listen to them, you Yeah, they're human beings. So you don't you don't yell at people, you don't go after'em and stuff. And And if you just share how you feel.

1:08:38 Share how you feel. No one can argue with that. So she was sharing Exactly what was important to her. What the commitment she thought she had.

1:08:48 And how she felt about that. And being and and not Uh And being violated. And so And they're and they're they're exactly that way today. And you think of the people that you work with or are you with?

1:09:00 That operate that way? Yeah, telling you what to do or Not saying they're sorry or whatever. It's incredibly impactful, right?

1:09:08 Because We make commitments to each other and if if we're not gonna do it. It's gonna grow and feel like we're really letting people down. So We're gonna develop the discipline where we're not gonna let people down. I like that a lot. I think I'm gonna try to implement this after my kids uh

1:09:22 But what part of what I like about it is that Um, you're all learning from each other. And your role as a parent then Co goes from Do this, don't do this, to coaching almost and

1:09:36 And facilitating. And facilitating. Exactly. See It's all coming together. Shane, look at that. That's what's on the that's what's on the On the working other system.

1:09:46 You're coaching and patellity. It doesn't mean that You're not leading. You're Somebody someone said to me one time. I love uh coaching uh CEOs and their teams on 'Cause they all want to know about

1:09:56 This working together. And Um And one of them said to me one time Ellen, are you telling me that

1:10:05 The board of directors and the shareholders are gonna Pay me these big bucks as a as a CEO. To facilitate And coach? And my answer was

1:10:17 They're gonna pay you twice that. If you're a good facilitator and a coach, you're the leader now. You're the leader now. You have all All of this talent. All of which knows more than you do.

1:10:28 About their given subject? This is this is Peter Drucker's knowledge workers. And so We need the hearts and minds of all the knowledge workers in a safe and a healthy environment. And so the biggest contribution you're gonna make and the reason you should be compensated for it.

1:10:45 Yes, if you can Create this Culture of love. By design. Yeah.

1:10:52 This so has a reliable process and behaviors to create value for the later good. That that's your unique contribution. With zero tolerance for violating either. I love that. Uh I wanna end with a specific question that we we ask a lot of guests, or I ask a lot of guests, I guess, but what is success for you? How would you define that?

1:11:11 How do you want to be remembered? That integrated life. Of service. I And you know, you had a lot of great

1:11:21 A lot of great leaders and And people on your on your show, which is I just like the comments, this is fantastic. I've I've listened to many of'em, especially one of the latest ones with Mars Goldsmith, who's a dear dear friend. At the end, and Marshall loves to say this and analogy you're you know, you get towards the end of your life and

1:11:38 You're looking back on what you've done and Not done and And And Marshall Ned's latest book. Uh

1:11:45 tried to share with everybody that You don't want to get to that place and have a bunch of regrets. But you can you can deal with that now. By the decisions you make. It needs to be about something bigger than yourself.

1:11:56 It's gonna be the best that you can do as it As opposed to it's always gonna be Anomally successful. 'Cause you'll keep just getting better and better and better. When I look at that

1:12:06 That integrated life. Drawing? I look at it every day. I'm gonna just sit there. It's it's in front of me. I don't like it sitting there studying again. I I kinda know what that means. But when I look at that

1:12:18 I just touch on all of those different pieces of my life. And am I Doing the things. That I really I believe in.

1:12:27 That I can really make a difference. And and sir. And so And then

1:12:32 Think about the work one. Looking at the work one. I mean I I've been on the design team for every Boeing airplane.

1:12:40 Seven oh seven, two seven, three seven, four seven, five seven, six, seven. I was asked to serve as the chief engineer for the Triple Seven airplane and then the seven eight seven. And seventy percent of the C are flying around the world or on these Fabulous Boeing Airplanes.

1:12:53 Safe and efficient transportation. And the same thing at at Ford. When I look at those plus the things in the community and stuff. Can you go around your diagram like that? I w I wanna I wanna keep doing it. I wanna keep doing the same thing.

1:13:05 I wanna keep I wanna keep Helping out and Filling in all the aspects of all those circles of an integrated life. Uh What an incredible impact you've had. Millions, if not billions, of people have been impacted by you.

1:13:24 Um And I really appreciate you taking the time today to have this amazing, phenomenal conversation. Uh thank you so much, Alan. Shane I I've just liked the Say one thank you.

1:13:37 And thank you for the opportunity. And I've joined your organization. I love I love your work and I'm very um I'm very pl proud to be able to uh uh support you and You really about something really important.

1:13:52 Cause there's so many people in our world. in a very uh complex, rapidly changing world. There's so many people. That are really working the serve. And so the fact that you're capturing that for people.

1:14:05 I think is absolutely fantastic. So I'd just like to thank you for That's very generous of you, thank you. Thanks for listening and learning with us. For a complete list of episodes.

1:14:19 Show notes. Transcripts and more. Go to fs.blog slash podcast. Or just Google the Knowledge Project. Until next time.

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