Former Ford CEO Alan Mulally discusses corporate culture and lack of operational transparency upon his arrival at Ford.
Insight
Mulally: Leadership teams must include every discipline to prevent information silos
“I always have like maybe 12 or 13 people reporting to me, which a lot of people always wondered how I did that, but I had to have Every discipline need to be on that team, because if not, then if you have the haves and the have nots on the leadership team, you…”
Insight
Mulally: Organizations must have zero tolerance for violating operating processes and behavioral norms
“Now, there's one corollary to that, Shane, that's really important, and that is zero tolerance for violating this process of working, the business plan review, the creating value roadmap, including everybody all stakeholders on the leadership team. Zero tolera…”
Insight
Mulally celebrated employees reporting problems rather than penalizing them
“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 because you're not the, you're not red. It's your item's red.”
Insight
Requiring solutions before reporting problems prevents fast issue resolution
“Because a lot of cultures are you only bring an issue if you have an answer. That doesn't allow it working together the way we're talking about, where you can move quickly on the issues.”
Disclosure
Mulally maintained 13 direct reports to include every operational discipline
“I always have like maybe 12 or 13 people reporting to me, which a lot of people always wondered how I did that, but I had to have Every discipline need to be on that team, because if not, then if you have the haves and the have-nots on the leadership team, you…”
Insight
Enforcing organizational behaviors reshapes employees' internal values over time
“Once they join this environment and you have these expected behaviors, And they're the right expected behaviors, 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 mov…”