Leading with Heart: Alan Mulally’s Masterclass in Life, Leadership, and Love

The Dareful Project

Regarded as one of the strongest corporate leaders of our time, Alan Mulally's legacy is marked by his transformative impact at Boeing and Ford. Under his leadership, Boeing thrived, and Ford not only returned to profitability but also emerged stronger from the Great Recession. This success was no accident; it was the result of Mulally's lifelong commitment to his “Working Together” Leadership & Management System. But as you'll discover, this approach extends far beyond the boardroom—encompassing family, community, and friendships, while addressing the critical challenge of work-life balance and how we show up for those we love.

This is not just a lesson in leadership; it’s a masterclass in living with purpose.

Here is the presentation Alan shares during his discussion: “Working Together”

Or ping me and I'll email the presentation to you: [e-mail]

Thanks for listening.

Debra

The Dareful Project podcast

Transcript:

Debra Hotaling (00:00:08):

Hello and welcome to the Dareful Project. I'm Debra Hotaling. I'm joined today for a very special conversation with business leader Alan Mulally. Now Alan is considered one of our strongest corporate leaders, and he has spent his entire professional life developing an approach called “Working Together Leadership and Management System.” And … I want to quote here, “and it's connected and collaborative culture of love by design to create value for all the stakeholders and the greater good.” He's going to coach us through all of this today.

In addition to Alan, we're also joined by Sarah MacArthur. She's editor in chief of Leader-to-Leader Journal, and she's an advisory member of the Francis Hesselbein Leadership Forum. She's going to keep us organized today because we're running this like a working session so that Alan can coach us through our approach. Welcome, Sarah.

Sarah MacArthur (00:01:08):

Nice to be here.

Debra (00:01:09):

Can we go to the first slide? So throughout his career, Alan has developed and nurtured the Working Together leadership and management system, and he's going to share with us how he developed this approach and as a result, how we can be better parents, leaders, friends, partners and community members. We're going to be sharing slides today, and I'm going to make sure that in our show notes that we share those slides so that you can go back and refer to them again. Sarah, let's go to slide two.

Debra (00:01:52):

So before we dive in a word or two about Alan's professional journey. So he served as president and CEO of Ford Motor Company from 2006 to 2014. And under his leadership, Ford transformed itself into one of the finest automotive companies in the world. And I had the pleasure of working under Alan's leadership during that time. Prior to joining Ford, Alan served as executive vice president for Boeing Company President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and president of Boeing Information Space and Defense Systems. From 1969 to 2006, he was named one of the world's most influential people by Time Magazine. He was named Chief and Executive of the Year by Chief Executive Magazine and he was named number three on Fortune's World's greatest leaders, number three. And he's going to explain to us why being number three is important. He currently serves on the board of directors of Google, carbon 3D and the Mayo Clinic, and he sits with global leaders like he's sitting with us today coaching them on how to embrace working together in their own lives. We're going to learn more about that right now. Alan, welcome.

Alan Mulally (00:03:11):

Well, Debra, thank you so much and a great introduction. I really liked the number three that you pointed out, and I like everybody to know that. I mean, a lot of people ask me, well, Alan, how do you feel about this being number three? And my answer to them always is, I'm really pleased and happy to be number three because number one was the Pope and the rest of us, I'm still trying to go to heaven, so I'm very happy for him.

Debra (00:03:44):

So we have something to aspire to there.

Alan (00:03:47):

We all do because God is really important. Your religion's really important because to serve is to live.

Debra (00:03:55):

So let's get into this. Let's go to slide three, Sarah. So these are the questions that we want to talk with you about today, Alan, hoping you can coach us through. So let's start at the beginning. Let's go with our number one question there. You've served your family, Boeing and Ford and our communities around the world in such a positive way over the years, and so many folks have noticed and have tried to be better leaders based on your example, share with us how you're working together, leadership formation, how it formed, how it developed, and your service journey.

Alan (00:04:37):

I'll be happy to do that, Debra. And also it was really fun to agree on these four questions. They really capture who a person is, their leadership, their principles of practices and their beliefs, their values, and especially their behaviors to create value and growth for everyone around the world. So Sarah, if we can go to the next slide, please. Okay. Now this might be the best answer to the number one question. And this is a book that Francis Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith and Sarah wrote. And as you described in the introduction, Sarah is a fantastic leader and she also was a best friend, dear friend Francis and a coeditor of the Leader-to-Leader Journal. And also both of them were implementing the Peter Drucker, a foundation, which between the two of them, they were the two most significant leaders moving from command and control with the industrial Revolution to working together leaders that are including all the stakeholders.

Alan (00:06:01):

And so you look at on the right hand side of the book, and you can see that it was a phenomenal book or is a phenomenal book because it had, I think Sarah maybe what, 35 different authors? That's right. And 35 different authors that were asked by the three of them to write their thoughts for everybody about how is the best way to find your purpose in life and live that way to accomplish that. And so they came, all three of 'em came to see me, Debra, and they said, okay, Alan, we would like you to write the forward to our new book. And they described the new book on the right. And I said, do you mind if I read it? And said, no, no. So that's fine. So I read it and then I met with them again and I said, all three of 'em, you guys, this is a phenomenal book and the authors have great points and I don't think you really need me to be doing the front end of the book. I said, and then Francis said to me, well, you need to know why we're asking you to do this. And I said, okay. And I said, she said, well, Alan, everyone knows who you are. They know what you have done, but they all want to know why you are who you are. Why do you smile all the time? Why do you love people? Why do you include them and respect 'em and align everybody on whatever the compelling vision is you're working on?

Alan (00:07:42):

And I said, well, Francis, I never talk about myself. I never have. That's just not who I am because I care about all of us working together and what we're going to do for service. And she said, exactly, Alan, we want you to describe why you are who you are. I said, well, how should we do that? And she said, well, we'd like you to tell a story that starts with and includes everything about how you were formed. I said, well, where do you want me to start on that? And she said, she got real close again. And she said, when you were born, okay, well I've never done that, Francis. And she said, okay, so we'd love you to do it. So I said, okay, I'll try. I sat down, I started writing it, Debra and I started having fun. I'd never said, it's kind of a neat thing for everybody that we're talking to today is it's just write down your whole life and how you became who you are with your beliefs, your values, and also your behaviors. So I did it and I thought, oh, I bet they're going to give me a lot of suggestions for improvement. It looks like it's written by an engineer. It's got bullets and stuff like that as you can see.

Alan (00:09:08):

And so they read it and they said, okay, Alan, we and Wiley do not want to change one word about what you said here. So this is the first page, Sarah, the next page. So it starts out with talking about Francis. Then it describes Alan story. This is my writing. And you can see the first one, it gets really, really specific, very clear. The purpose of life is to love and be loved in that order. Thanks mom. Thanks dad. Okay, next slide please. And then it goes on about the story and from my first work or service and all the things that I did and working our way up through high school and college and how I wanted to pair Levi jeans and we didn't have very many resources and maybe some loafers. And so next slide please. And then it moves into the principles and practices that I learned as I was growing up.

Alan (00:10:18):

And we're going to talk about those starting with people first. I'll be darn people first. And so next slide please. And then it describes the principles and practices and the elements of the working together leadership and management system that we actually then use to implement those principles and practices. Next slide please. And then I sign it at the top at the bottom. And Sarah has been a phenomenal business partner. She was a business partner with Francis for her whole life. She's a business partner with Marshall Goldsmith. And then I was very fortunate that she accepted my invitation to join me to help further develop the presentation of the working together leadership and management system and the content and to teach it to others as you mentioned in your introduction. And then Sarah suggested that I would add my signature onto each of the pages because that's how I used to sign all of the multi-billion dollar contracts when I was at Boeing and at Ford. And that's my airplane

Debra (00:11:32):

And at Ford it was a heart. And as we know, there are folks who have left Ford and they still have that heart that you would send back to them. It had so much meaning.

Alan (00:11:45):

That's true too. Also, I signed all my stuff at Ford with that airplane, and I could tell you since you brought that up, so when Bill Ford was recruiting me and I arrived, all the people started looking at all of the information they could find about me. I was the first CEO in the automobile industry that ever had come from outside of the automobile industry. So here I was coming from the aviation aerospace industry. And so that was my airplane. And so they all saw that and they said, okay, Alan, we'd like to get you off to a good start and we want to suggest a drawing for you that would be an automobile, maybe even the F-150, the number one vehicle for 50 years. And I said, okay. So they worked on it. They kept bringing me versions of it, but they're all so sophisticated that I couldn't do it in two nanoseconds.

Alan (00:12:43):

I could my airplane. So I said, no, that's okay. I'll just, I don't need to sign anything. And so they came back the next day. They said, okay, okay, Alan, they kept saying, Mr. Mulally, okay, so Mr. Mulally, we would like you to use that same signature for all your work at Ford. And I said, really? And they said Yes, because we are working on potentially a flying automobile in the future. So that looks just like a flying automobile. So this is you are both Boeing and Ford now. Okay, now Sarah, next slide please. Okay, now Debra, I summarized all of that in this one slide for all of us today. And this describes my formation as a human being and also as a leader. And on the left hand side are all of the things that I learned from my parents. And Reverend Dr. Turner who was the head of the congregational church that was right across the street from our home in Lawrence, Kansas, who was absolutely terrific.

Alan (00:13:57):

And this is the education and the service that I learned. And you look down the left hand and then on the right hand side as the rest of my life. To your question about how I started out with the learnings on the left, then I continually furthered my education and my service through all of the other aspects of my life. So this is my answer to your question. And what's interesting about this on the left is how I learned this because as I mentioned, we didn't have a lot of resources, but my mom and my dad absolutely loved us and they taught us all these principles and practices and the way they would do that there was unbelievable because I mean, it was fun, but it was held very accountable for learning them. So every morning on the way to school out the door, from the day that I can remember, my mom and my dad would ask me these questions on the lip. So my mom would say, so Alan, do you remember the purpose of life? It can be very important for you today. I said, oh mom, I sure remember what you told me about that the purpose of life is to love and be loved. And my mom would get close to me and say, and honey, remember in that order?

Alan (00:15:23):

Then the next day my dad would say, honey, remember to serve is to live. Oh, absolutely dad. And that was very interesting to me because without a lot of resources, and back to my comment about I just wanted a pair of Wenjun shoes and some Levi jeans that fit in with everybody, that going to work would be really important because I learned from my dad that you get compensated for that. And so that's how I loved doing that. And that became my service. I never thought about it as work. I was there serving because I was living and serving was enabling me to live in a great way. So then the next day, seek to understand before seeking to be understood, phenomenal by working together with others, whoa, we all knew what the word working together was. I'm putting these in quotes because they took working together to a whole other level is when you work together, others, you can make the most positive contribution to the most people, not just the people you're working with, but for all the other people that are benefiting from what you're doing with these people.

Alan (00:16:40):

Expect the unexpected and expect to deal with it really in a rapidly changing world. Holy cow, this is important. And do it in a positive way. Absolutely. Lifelong learning and continuous improvement, such a big deal because the data says that most people have to get past about 35 or 40, and they stop on their lifelong learning and their continuous improvement. They think they're there, they have it, but we want to be learning every day for the rest of our life and continuously improving respect. Everyone, such a powerful thing. We are all creatures of God and we're worthy to be loved. Develop one integrated life that is your life's work of service, which is a powerful, powerful concept. As we all know, most people think you have two lives, you have your work and life, and you have your rest of your life. Well, don't you just have one life?

Alan (00:17:44):

So what you're going to talk about that a little bit and work's just part of it, especially if that work is your service. And then I'll never forget this one, Debra, ever. It's nice to be important, honey, but it's more important to be nice all the time. Okay? Now you look over on the right hand side and every aspect of my life with that, with those mindsets there I was focused on continuing education, lifelong learning, continuous improvement and service, whatever I was doing by myself, but also everybody I was working with was all about service. What are we about to serve others all the way through all the different jobs I had from TV guide route and paper route and construction and farming and helping all of the professors. I didn't. I needed to make the money to pay for my education, which I did.

Alan (00:18:53):

So too, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, continuing education and service and wonderful appreciation. And then Nicki, I met Nicki at the University of Kansas, and we've been married for 54 years and we have five children and a rapidly growing set of grandchildren. And again, talk about education when you get married and you have children, a lot of education and really, really important. My thesis advisor when I was working on my advanced degrees was the previous leader of aerodynamics at the university, I mean at Boeing. And he had decided to come to University of Kansas because he wanted to teach everything about aerospace and aeronautical engineering and airplane design. And I was his first graduate student working on my master's and my doctorate. And he was just a phenomenal influence on me, again with education and service.

Alan (00:20:11):

And he actually, Debra, he was one of the first professors that we did programs where we included all the different disciplines in graduate school and in college to create airplanes for Cessna and Boeing and Learjet. And so, and on one of 'em, we always voted for a leader. And on the one that was the biggest airplane project that we did, everybody voted for me to be the leader. And so he kept saying me when he was telling me about Boeing, and he said this in an article when I was nominated to be the engineer of the year for the seven seven, he said, I told Alan in addition to his nautical and national engineering, that his working together leadership was going to make a big difference when he joined Boeing. And then I never thought I was going to leave Boeing. And then I got a call from Bill Ford, the great grandson of Henry Ford.

Alan (00:21:13):

And I mean, he was so neat and he was so authentic and he shared everything with me, and I just couldn't believe how serious the situation there was. I'll tell you a little bit more about that. And so I decided, I never thought I'd leave Boeing, but I decided that I was being asked to serve at a second American and global icon for the good of the world. And so I accepted his invitation and served. So I served Boeing for 37 years and I served forward for eight years. And now Debra, because of you, we are here sharing now our working together leadership and management system with others. And the bottom line of this is on the bottom of this slide. And between Sarah and Marshall and Francis, they had this conversation with me over and over again and they explained this to me with great detail.

Alan (00:22:16):

So Alan, we know you well. You've done a great job of sharing your formation all the way along, and this is the way we think that you live. This is who you are, it's what you do and it's how you do it. And now for the first time, we asked you this because you have now shared with everybody why you are who you are and who you are. And what you do is you believe so much in working together with others. That's why it has quotes on the word working together, because working together is pretty a pretty known expression, but it means including all of the stakeholders that you're working with and you're going to work with them to include all of their knowledge and all of their expertise and all their caring, but also you're going to create value and growth for all of them also. So you're going to be doing this leading and you're going to lead with the who you are, and that is you lead to live as a human being and to love and to serve with humility. So that is the answer to your wonderful first question, which is the first time that I've ever shown this much detail in my whole life when I did this, working together with Francis, Sarah, and Marshall.

Debra (00:23:47):

Alan, it seems that your parents are remarkable people. Tell us their names so that we can remember them.

Alan (00:23:55):

Oh my gosh, Richard and Lorraine.

Debra (00:23:58):

Richard and Lorraine, thank you. Thank you for your service. They seem like amazing people.

Alan (00:24:07):

Well, they were so pleased and so proud. They had pictures of me. My mom kept track of every article that was written about me throughout the years and I stopped by frequently to see both of 'em, just so you know. They would always mention a few things down the left hand side just to share with me, oh, they saw an example of me doing that. So they were always building on what I was doing, so that I really appreciate their appreciation for who I was and why I was that way. Okay, did you have a next question?

Debra (00:24:52):

Alright, so let's dig into working together. Let's talk about, tell us more about the principles, practices, and the connected culture of love by design. How do we get started?

Alan (00:25:05):

And next slide please. Now, one thing for all the participants today and all of the people that are listening to a podcast and they're not seeing the slides you're going to have, as Debra said, you're going to have these all available. And so I'm sharing everything that's exactly on the slides. So just know if you're listening and you're not a chance, not getting a chance to see the slides right now that you're hearing the very same points that I want to share with you. And then you can also see the slides later to make 'em come alive even more. Okay? So this slide, the title is Our Working Together Principles and Practices and our Connected and Collaborative Culture of Love by Design. And Debra, I have been told so many times, I mean originally not so much now that I was the first CEO that people ever heard use the word love.

Alan (00:26:05):

No, I'm not looking for a date. I'm thinking about humanity and doing the right thing for a humanity. And a lot more people, of course understand that now as they're adopting and working together and moving away from command and control from a leadership point of view. And so this culture includes the operating processes that we use and the expected behaviors of all the participants. And all the participants means all the stakeholders, all the people that are inside your organization, profit, nonprofit, but also all the people that you're working with to deliver the service together. And the most important thing about both of these things, that operating process that we follow day in and day out, expected behaviors is that we together are creating a skilled, healthy, and psychologically safe and motivated teams. A psychologically safe environment is so important because this is going to be about authenticity.

Alan (00:27:18):

Everybody's sharing what the situation is, sharing what the issues are, because we all know this is a creative process, so we're going to have lots of issues that we're going to want to deal with in a positive way. And so having an organization that people feel safe and excited, not just safe, but they're excited about sharing the greens, the yellows, and the reds is going to be very, very enabling for everybody to help move from the greens, the yellows, and the red items up to delivering the strategy and the vision. So the key elements that we have in both the operating process and the expected behaviors are the following. First, I'll be darn people first. Love 'em up. So I combine what my mom and dad said with what I learned along the way, love 'em up and big heart next to 'em. Second one, everyone's included, all the stakeholders.

Alan (00:28:26):

Next, what we're about is a compelling vision, a comprehensive strategy for achieving it and relentless positive implementation of that strategy to create that vision. You can see why it's both the operating process and the expected behaviors to create this value for all the stakeholders and the greater good a clear performance goals one plan. Most organizations have multiple plans and people are trying to figure out what the plan is. Another one that's key is we love what people think. We love their opinions, we love them sharing, but we also want to know the facts and data that they're looking at because if we do have an issue and we want to work it together with them, is knowing what they are looking at is going to help us all move forward together even faster to solve the yellows, turn to greens and the reds to turn 'em to yellows, to greens.

Alan (00:29:30):

Then on the right hand side, expect the unexpected and expect to deal with it. Thanks mom. Thanks dad. You can see how everything about me is in these and practices. Next one, everyone knows the plan, all the participants know the plan, the status, and the areas need special attention. This is very rare, Debra, as you know in companies because a lot of people feel like if they have issues and they have some reds and yellows that that's embarrassing to them. Everybody's going to be worried about their company and no. And just use an example, when I went to Ford, we had so many reds. The first thing that Bill Ford shared with me, we're going to lose 17 billion. That's a little red. I mean a lot of red. And so the important thing is to be able to share what the situations are with authenticity.

Alan (00:30:30):

And then you're sharing with everybody inside and outside the organization what you're doing to turn the reds, the yellows and greens. So they get really excited about that and their value goes up of who you are and what you're doing. Okay? Propose a plan, positive, find a way attitude. The positive is absolutely key. We don't operate on the negative side because our belief is that we know we're going to have issues because this is a creative process again. And so we are expecting them and we are expecting to deal with them in a positive way. And then use all of our talent that turn the reds, the yellows, the greens, very sophisticated words in these principles and practices. Look at that, respect each other, listen to each other, help each other and appreciate each other. And look how these are all behaviors. You can see everything about what people are doing and how they're doing it.

Alan (00:31:36):

And we're going to talk a lot about that later and how that aligns with your beliefs and your values. It makes a big difference on moving those in a very positive way. When you're successful at doing this and you realize that these kinds of behaviors are what allow you to become very authentic with your beliefs, your values and your behaviors, emotional resilience, a lot of people think about this and it is kind of tough stuff and it's all a hard thing. And working together, it's fun. All you do is believe in all of these principles and practices. So if you have an issue, trust the process, go right back up to the top, make sure you got everybody involved that needs to be involved. You're all working together and you're going to solve every issue that comes up. The last one, have fun. Enjoy the journey and each other, Debra, every day, every morning, every night, I say thank you.

Alan (00:32:41):

I have never enjoyed my life as much as I do every day by living and doing this, working together leadership and management system, the difference we've made for the outputs, the results, the performance, but also the difference in everybody's lives that they get a chance. We all get a chance to be and do this and appreciate how much that is in all people that we're working with. And there's one really important principle and practices that goes along with that psychological safety in a big way is never a joke ever at anybody else's expense. And we all know what that's like when we hear jokes or people are putting people down or they think they're being funny. That's never funny. And when you're creating a psychologically safe environment and you want everybody to share what's going on, if they think they're going to be made fun of, or they're worried that maybe they're going to lose a job because they actually have moved to a culture where it's expected to share what the situation is.

Alan (00:33:54):

And most cultures you're expected only share an issue if you have an answer already. So now you're managing a secret again. And so you don't know what the situation is and you can't work together on solving it, never a joke anyone else's expense. And I mean that takes the whole thing to another level. Now it's all positive. It's all dealing with the principles and the issues that you have and you're doing it in a positive way. And of course the bottom line of all of this for everybody is PGA now at the bottom with a big heart on it. Now, PGA here, Debra does not stand for Professional Golf Association. It stands for profitable growth for all. And if you're not growing your institution profit or nonprofit, if you're not growing it, then it's dying. And remember, I always use profit because it was so simple and so straightforward, and it's so meaningful to explain the purpose of a business because profits equals revenue times margins.

Alan (00:35:08):

And great companies make products and services that people want and they value 'em, and that makes the sales go up. And simultaneously, if you're profitably growing, then you're also working on the productivity, the margins, because revenue equals profit times. I mean, revenue times, margins and good companies, everybody on there is on both of those. And if you're growing, it's a lot of fun to work on productivity because if you're not growing, working on productivity usually results in having to lay people off. And so then you wonder why people aren't excited about working on productivity, the ones that are going to lose their job. No, if you're growing, then you are getting now all of the emotional and the cognitive intelligence of being applied to not only the products, but also how you do it. And when you're growing, that is really an opportunity to figure out how to do more with less time and less energy, and people are excited about that. So the PGA results in creating value at all the stakeholders and growth of all the stakeholders because growing the business, but they're also growing themselves and they're helping grow each other. It's incredible.

Debra (00:36:40):

So Alan, we talked, before we leave this slide, everyone knows the plan, the status, and what needs special attention, which sounds great, but it doesn't always end up being that smooth. And you have a great story I'd love you to tell of when you went to Ford and started leading there. And Ford was in a very bad way, and still everyone felt compelled to come in with green rosy solutions to everything. And what you did for the first brave person who came in with, “we have a problem.”

Alan (00:37:13):

Oh yes, absolutely. Well, as you implement any new culture or an improvement to a culture, the most important thing that I'd always do is to share everything that we're talking about today. So these are exactly the same slides and information that I took with me from Boeing that I used on every Boeing airplane from the 7 0 7 all the way up through the 7 87, and especially the triple seven airplane family. And so I shared all of these principles and practices plus the leadership and management system. I'm going to show you next with everybody. And they asked lots of great questions. I mean, the talent at Ford is phenomenal, and they were coming from all around the world. I'm going to show you that the real strategy was to create a one Ford, because Ford was set up by Henry Ford all around the world. So I selected all the leaders, they were fantastic leaders, every one of their disciplines, engineering, manufacturing, procurement, communications, HR, everything.

Alan (00:38:24):

And so I explained it to 'em and I thought, gosh, they thought this is going to be fun. We're going to do this every week. And I'd start out the meeting. They wanted me to start out the meeting and explain our vision, which I'm going to show you and the strategy and the plan and the status. And then each member of the team would then we go around the room and everyone would share their strategy, their status, and the areas need special attention and they'd color code 'em because that's a way to get everybody's attention about what the real set situation is. So we started the BPRs and a lot of 'em didn't know each other because from all around the world. So we started working on the relationship and that got to be really good. And we ended up having about 300 charts as they developed their charts.

Alan (00:39:22):

But it turned out that they were all green, to your point. And so I remember the first time that I'd leaned, leaned forward a little bit, and I looked at 'em because they're all connected all around the world too as we're doing the BPR, the business plan review every week for about two hours. And I go through the whole thing with everybody, and I said to them, now we've shared some data here you've never seen before by the finance leader, and that is we're going to lose 17 billion [dollars]. So I said to them, is there anything in your area responsibility that might not be going well? I mean eye contact went down to the floor and under the table and because again, like we talked about, this culture was new and heaven, this culture that was going to be transparent and you're expecting to share everything, and you're also supposed to share whether their reds or yellows are greens, and you're responsible for it, it more than anybody else. So it's accurate. So the next week they were all green again, and now people are looking a little bit more down underneath the table.

Alan (00:40:38):

And then Mark came in, Mark Fields, who was leading North America and including Canada, and they had an issue in Oakville, Canada with one of the new SUVs. And so we had agreed that we were going to make world-class quality and performance on all the vehicles, which we were doing. And so if we had an issue, then we wouldn't deliver those vehicles. So he stopped production. So he's having his meeting, his business plan review the night before we're doing ours, and up comes this chart that's about the launches of the new vehicles, that new product development. And usually we had 35, 40 vehicles around the world that we were creating. So up comes this vehicle and the three columns are the technical status, the schedule status, and also what it means to financial impact. And for this vehicle, it goes green, green, and green. And he says to his team, this looks like one of those red things Alan's talking about.

Alan (00:41:55):

And the team kind of listens and they go, yeah. And he said, so I think we should tell her this one red. And one of the senior vice presidents actually said to him, Debra, when we did this before, people sometimes just lost their job because you weren't supposed to bring up a problem if you didn't have a solution. And he said, well, I see why Alan's saying this. We all do. He wants us all to know so we all can work on it together and solve it. If we need help on this case, I think we'll solve it, but I see why he's asking this, so let's do it. And then another senior vice president says, John, nice to know you, mark, good luck. And so the next day we start the business plan review, green, green, green, and then up comes this red chart. Whoa. I mean it got so quiet, the eye contact went down to the floor again, they're kind of looking out of the side at me, they're looking at Mark. And I started to clap.

Alan (00:43:12):

And later on everybody told me that when they heard me clap that we were in the world headquarters of the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan on the 11th floor. And two large doors were behind me, and they thought that my clap was going to result in those two doors opening. Two large human beings were going to come in and extract Mark from the meeting. So I said, Mark, that is fabulous, and that's the kind of visibility that we need, and can you tell us a little bit more about it? And do you need any of our help? Do you want to put that on the special attention list or not? And he explained it and he said, we just have run into it. We have people working on it. I think we're going to be able to solve it, and I'll let you know next week.

Alan (00:44:17):

I'll give you a status and then if we think we need everybody's help, I'll mention that too. So I said, that's great. And I also said to everybody, any of the leaders have anything you want to say right away to get help to Mark? And three of 'em had a comment. This all lasted for about, gosh, 20 seconds. But one of 'em said, the head of engineering worldwide said, Mark, I've seen that issue before. I'll get you that data today. And the one that in the quality leader had the same kind of comment. And then the head of manufacturing worldwide said, okay, I know we're going to figure this out, and so you're going to need some manufacturing engineers up there to help do the transition from your new part, from your old part to your new part, and then get the vehicles flowing around the world.

Alan (00:45:09):

I'll get those to Canada right away. And then we went on and next week it was the only red. And everybody's looking at me, they're looking at Mark. And I had said to Mark during the week, he was sitting on the other side of the round table, and I said, Mark, I'd like you to sit next to me this next week, but I forgot to tell him why I said that. And so he thought that I was going to fire him in front of everybody because he didn't. He still had a red item. And so he shows a red again and still supportive of him. And then a couple weeks later, it turns to yellow, and then a couple of weeks later it turns to green. And the next week, Debra, the entire 300 charts looked like they looked like they were in front of a rainbow.

Alan (00:46:06):

And there are a number of reds, but there were still a lot of greens and just a few yellows and a few reds because you want to celebrate all of the greens at the same time. You're looking at the yellows and the reds because this is about the whole thing. And there's a lot of things that there's always so many things to feel good about, and it's inspirational so that you positively work together on the reds that require you together. And so once we did that, then from then on, I knew no matter what happened, including the economic crisis in 2007 and eight, which is the worst recession we've ever had since the depression in the twenties and the very same process, it had a huge impact on us. And we did our working together and we actually did not ask for money from the US government. We did not go through bankruptcy like GM and Chrysler because the working together enabled us to deal with all those issues in a positive way.

Debra (00:47:19):

And the butterfly effect of that, which you might not know because you weren't for those of us down in the trenches when that happened, that story was told among Ford around the world. That was our sort of cultural moment. Did you hear what happened at the meeting? And Mark Fields absolutely. And Alan applauded. And so we knew in our hearts that this was a different organization and then we could be brave and we could share with our leaders.

Alan (00:47:48):

That's such an important part of Working Together because that data, we actually share Debra all the way down to the organization like you said. And so because it goes to everybody, because they're the ones that are leading color, coding them the following week. So the data goes down through everybody along with the financial data. Baca comes up, and when you're looking at the charts, what you see is here was the color last week, here's the color this week. So I've missed maybe 10, 12 BPRs in my 47 years a servant. And no matter where I am, even with the kids and we're traveling and stuff, they all want to see it too. So we just call in because they want to see all of the colors changing and here comes some new reds. Woo. Wow, that's exciting. They want to know about that. Then boom, here's a red going to yellow and a yellow going to green. Well, everybody's so excited about this because we're just continually making progress to deliver this strategy and that compelling vision and Boeing's case that safe and efficient transportation for everybody around the world. In Ford's case, it's the open highways to all mankind around the world. And we're watching the yellows and the greens and the reds and the reds going to yellow and green and delivering on schedule our fabulous, compelling vision.

Alan (00:49:25):

Okay, your next slide, next question.

Debra (00:49:30):

We've been talking about working together and leadership. Share with us how we can adopt that, how we can get started ourselves.

Alan (00:49:40):

Okay, that's really important the way you asked that question because these are the principles and practices and the leadership and management system is the way we implement it. And everybody knows the principles and practices, and now they also know starting with the BPR, exactly what the management system is that we're going to implement this. Okay, next slide please. Sarah. Oh, I'm sorry. I have two. I said a summary of this, but I want to show you some data. It goes with it. I talked about Boeing and Florida, so I want to show you how exciting this is to have a compelling vision. So here's Boeing, and this is you look on the left hand side. Here's a handwritten agreement that we made with Boeing signed by the leaders of Boeing and the leaders of United Airlines. And you can see on the right hand side, this is what's on the handwritten one.

Alan (00:50:44):

In order to launch an on time and a truly great airplane, we have a responsibility to work together. As you can see, where we really adopted the working together because we knew with United Airlines, this is the only way we were going to make the finest airplane ever designed in the world with the 7, 7, 7 family to design, produce and introduce an airplane that exceeds the expectations of flight crews, cabin crews, maintenance and support teams, and ultimately our passengers and the shippers. And now look at these performance results from day one, the best dispatch reliability in the industry. That means it leaves on schedule within a few minutes of the schedule every day. Unbelievable quality, reliability, maintainability, the greatest customer appeal in the industry. Whoa mean it's preferred by all of the airlines over every choice they have and everything works. And that is on the day from first delivery, not later.

Alan (00:52:07):

Like most of the products, it takes a few years to work your way through all that. We've already done all that testing ahead of time. So on day one, it's going to fly halfway around the world safely and efficiently. No airplane ever, ever has accomplished these objectives. And we did it by quote, working together. Richard Albaugh was head of sales for Boeing. Phil Condit was the head of engineering product development, and I was his leader for engineering and the seven airplane. And so next slide please. And here it is. Here's the seven seven, and this is the rollout. And all the people down below are 110,000 people that came to the rollout. And when you look at the slide, you're going to see all the people holding up their children so they can touch the bottom of the airplane.

Alan (00:53:11):

Not that they necessarily made the wing or the bottom of the airplane, but they would say to their kids, we can listen to 'em. Okay, now if you go straight up, honey, you're going to see the seats. Are you going to see the cockpit? Are you going to see this? And so you also can see on the front of the airplane up by the cockpit windows have a red cursive there. You look over at the top of the slide, you can see working together. So that's written on the airplane. Whoa. Now that is very unique because on airplanes getting ready for first flight, you always put on the pilot's name. They are the only ones that are on the airplane. Okay, next slide, please. Here they are. And so here's John and Kenny. And so look at the airplane and you can see they're working together now.

Alan (00:54:07):

And so when we painted the airplane, we had their names underneath the windows and they came to see me and they said, Alan, this is the most phenomenal experiences that we have ever had. We've never been invited from day one to help with the creation of the airplane, and it's going to be the best airplane ever, ever designed, and we would like to celebrate everybody that contributed. And so we want to replace our names with working together for the first life. And I could tell by the way they're saying it that I had to agree. And so I had them for fun. I had them share this idea with the entire leadership team at the BPR. I mean, I've never seen so many tears. They're going to have their name on the airplane working together. They're part of the team. And you can see all of the launch airlines, all their symbols, their brands down the left hand side.

Alan (00:55:17):

And then we did this first flight. Usually they're like an hour, an hour and a half for our first flight. And so we've done everything, verification, validation, everything ahead of time. But it works so well that their flight was over four and a half hours long and they had a couple of just small issues. They actually started a flight test program to validate all the rest of the airplane. So it was the most fantastic first flight ever. Okay, and next slide please. Now moving to Ford. Here is Bill Ford, and I told you about how wonderful he is. He's just a phenomenal leader. He's the head of the Ford Family, great grandson of Henry Ford. His whole career, I loved working with him. Best partnership, one of the best partnerships I've ever had.

Alan (00:56:18):

He actually said to me, if you want to replace me as the chairman in addition to the CEO of Ford, I'll be happy to give you that responsibility too. And I said to him, Bill, I would only come if you stayed as a chairman because you represent the entire Ford family. You own the company, you have this wonderful history. And so I'll only come if you stay as the chairman and we have one of the best working together relationships ever. I shared everything about him with working together, and that's one of the reasons, one, the biggest reason he wanted me to come and my experience implementing it. So next slide, please. And I included this for everybody that's watching too.

Alan (00:57:19):

Here's a slide of opening the highways to all mankind, and this is Henry Ford's original vision, early 1920s. And you can see the factory in Dearborn right behind. And you can see all the vehicles and all the words down at the bottom of this slide are so fun to read because he described everything about their strategy to accomplish this vision. And that strategy is almost verbatim the same as our working together strategy and that we use at Boeing and at Ford, and especially the working together part. And then next slide please. I included this for you and all of the team, all of the people that are watching. And this slide is the one Ford plan. So here's our strategy, and this was on a card that everybody carried. It was also on the walls in every office around the world. And on the run, half of it was the one team, one plan, one goal. So it had the basic strategy and the plan and look at the backside, had the expected behaviors. And all of those behaviors include all the ones that I showed you earlier. But I did it with the 14 because I wanted them to be part of it, and I wanted to tap into all of their knowledge and expertise and experience and look at the way they organized it, “FORD.”

Alan (00:58:51):

So I mean this was adopted by all 400,000 people immediately. Plus it all went to all of the stakeholders also. And then you can see down at the bottom that five or six elements of the plan. And we were going to support, we're going to support the markets all around the world, not just the us. And you can see the size of the airplanes, small, medium, and large, where the small ones are really a big deal, which is what we really did. And which Ford's doing again now. And also they're going to be best in class and small, medium and large. And also the last element was a leadership team globally that is using, working together and all these expected behaviors. And that resulted in us moving from that $17 billion loss to 8, 7, 8, 9, 10 billion profits. And we became the number one brand in the United States the fastest growing around the world.

Alan (01:00:00):

We paid back all of our 23 and a half billion loan that we took out to help with the financing. Also, we moved from near the bottom on the automobile companies that the suppliers like to work with where we were number two, almost equal to Toyota, which is number one in the world. And the neatest, no, also on the profitable growth, we are intraday low on the stock price was a dollar one, and when I left, it was $18 and 37 cents. So we had appreciated approximately 1837%, which is why I get an email or a note every day from all of the people around the world about the value that we created as well as the growth for everybody. And then of course, the data that I just we all loved was the employee survey. And as we all know, the employee survey usually has all of the questions.

Alan (01:01:21):

And then they have a summary question and what do you think about the company and what they're about and what they're doing and their plan, their vision, their strategy and plan, and how well do you know it and how well do they respect you and how well are you being included? So all the things they ask in a survey, they summarize that, and then you fill out whether you agree with it or you don't, and what percent of the people you could see that believed in that. And so they did that, and at the first it was around 35% were positive. And what's interesting is that most companies are somewhere between 35 and 45% just in general everywhere around the world, which means what an opportunity, because that's saying that most people are not there to help build a cathedral. They're just here to make some money to try to live on.

Alan (01:02:24):

And so at Ford, we started out at 35%, and when I left, the percent positive on the employee survey was the 95%, and it was the highest in the world with this large phenomenal company. So again, this creating value and growth for all the stakeholders is just a very, very, very powerful concept where everybody, all the stakeholders benefit. Okay, now that leads me to your third question and next slide, Sarah. And here it is. And for everybody, this is a little bit more sophisticated slide, but it's really simple. And these are the five elements on the slide that make up the leadership and management working together system that creates this connected and collaborative culture of love by design that delivers creating value and growth for all the stakeholders and the greater good. So we covered the principles and practices. The governance process is really key that you have members of the board of directors that absolutely believe in this versus command and control and things like that, and they support selecting the CEO that operates this way and believes this along with the senior management team and then the leadership team.

Alan (01:04:02):

You can see all of the characteristics that are important. I mean, all the people that you recruit for, all the different jobs need to be world class at it, engineering, manufacturing, procurement, but also you're also including all the stakeholders. So stakeholder-centered leadership, if leaders are coaching and facilitating, not command and control, telling everybody what to do because you have all these hundreds of thousands of people that are really, really, really intelligent now with a very positive working together attitude and behaviors. And of course, cohesive, diverse, inclusive with everybody. Humility, love, service. Thank you, mom and dad, courage, discipline, resilience, ability, authenticity, which we're going to talk about integrity, positive mindsets, starting with growth and psychological safety. And also you can see the biggest one, one of the most important that we've talked about is that this leadership team is responsible and accountable for the leadership and management system with zero tolerance.

Alan (01:05:13):

To your question, Debra, that zero tolerance for violating the operating process or the expected behaviors, or you have that conversation with somebody and it's okay. I mean, it's okay if it doesn't work like we were talking about. Then you tell 'em it's okay because what they're doing is they're deciding to move on because they can't make it here and you love 'em up. Principals still love 'em up, but most of the people then will accept your opportunity to have a coach. The team's going to coach you and help you. And then of course when they move from wherever they are on command control or wherever their behaviors are to move in this way, it changes their life, which we're going to talk about your next question. And then using stakeholders that are coaching and which was embedded by Marshall Goldsmith, which starts with the team helping each one of us, including me, identify a couple of things a year that we're going to work on that'll further improve our leadership.

Alan (01:06:25):

And then of course, lifelong learning and continuous improvement. And then you won't go over on the left hand side and there's the creating value roadmap. Oh, I got to tell you about that underlying under leadership. So when Sarah and I were working on this, Sarah's phenomenal, I mean editor in chief, leader to leader journal on the best journals in the world on leadership and management. And so she sent me an update of this chart and it had an underline under the word leadership, and I called her up and I said, Sarah, somehow you got a mistake on her error on here. It added a line under leader. And she said, no, no. I was, I'm making a suggestion to you. I said, what's the suggestion? Well, leadership is really important and it's the whole team, and that's really important, but it starts with the leader.

Alan (01:07:16):

I went, oh, now I'm back to the same thing I ran into before. I don't talk about myself. She said, you're not talking about yourself. You're talking about the leader of the working together leadership and management system, and the leader is really important. Then the next element is creating value roadmap, and so the product, the process, the people, what the performance is, and then go out five years and what do those measures look like because why you're doing the strategy and what is the strategy for every one of those product process people and what the performance looks like, and you want to have a growth performance and you keep working on the strategy until you and all the stakeholders can determine this, you think is going to result, then profitable growth for all. Then the last one is the business plan review that we've talked about.

Alan (01:08:13):

Interesting. Once a week, like we talked about. Two, each of us starting with me and every other leader will go through the business environment from their perspective. So what's going on in engineering around the world, what's going on in manufacturing, what's going on with the environment, with the economy? And so that's why we were never surprised. That's why we could expect the unexpected and expect to deal with it because we knew what was going on. We were studying it even though it wasn't applicable to us maybe right then. And then our business strategy and plan the status and the forecast. We talked about the special attention for the areas that are red. And then also all during the year, we work on the better plan. So when we deliver this year's plan, we go out five years, we add another bar on profits where increasing that by like 10 to 15% at least. And we usually improve all of the performance in the interim years too. So this whole philosophy about growth, about the business, and also results and growth about all the people that are participating too. So it's all integrated to creating value and growth for all the stakeholders and all the participants.

Alan (01:09:38):

And so that's the leadership and management system. And so when you look at it in person, and also we have some references, it'll become really clear because it's really relatively simple and it's led, it all comes together. You can see how it comes together on every week in the business plan review. That's why everybody gets so knowledgeable about everything about it, starting with the vision, the strategy, and the plan. Also the operating processes and the expected behaviors. So I think you have one last question, Debra.

Debra (01:10:19):

Well, this is great. We've been mostly talking about work, but you're also known for your work life balance. So how do you do this? How do you balance all of this?

Alan (01:10:31):

Well, this is a very interesting question because back to where we started on sharing my life in my formation, I remember the first time I heard somebody say Work-life balance. Now, I wasn't an engineer yet, but I was developing those kind of characteristics. I thought to myself, what does that mean? Aren't you just alive? Isn't that one life? And what does it mean to have two different lives? And you have a lot more aspects about your life than just your work. And remember, I was moving to service. So even that word was kind of interesting to me. So next slide please. And if you look on this slide here, we had authentic. So Sarah and I were trying to think of what's the best word we could use to really capture what happens when you operate this way and you have behaviors this way, and then they start to change Who you are as a person and who you are is established with your beliefs and your values, what determines what your behaviors are.

Alan (01:11:52):

That's why people would always ask me, well, how do you find the beliefs and values and the people that you require that are needed to be a working together person? And I said, I'm not a psychiatrist, I'm not a psychologist. I don't know about all their mindsets, their beliefs and their values, but boy, I could sure see their behaviors. So everything that we've been talking about are about the behaviors, and then we're holding everybody starting with me accountable for these behaviors. And if we violate 'em, we'll just say we're sorry because now we have a list up there. We all know it. And so it's okay. Plus it creates this phenomenal culture that creates these phenomenal results. So Sarah and I decided to use the word authentic, looking through all the dictionary for one word, and we capture this, and it's the most straightforward definition in the entire dictionary.

Alan (01:12:47):

I think that is, it's an alignment between your beliefs, your values, and your behaviors. Oh, really? Now you think about everybody. Everybody think about your beliefs and your values and how many times, how different your behaviors are or what aspect of your life you're participating in. You go to work, you might act one way, you go to home, you might act another way. You might be even different on the way you think you behave when you're talking about yourself or your religion, whatever, what you believe in. And what happens with the working together is that you move in a very positive direction with your beliefs and values no matter where you start it out because you're so successful at these behaviors and they're so neat and they work so well and they're so fun, and you feel so good that now you even include everything that you're learning on beliefs, values, and behaviors to not only be aligned in one, but also now you are into lifelong learning and continuous improvement for the rest of your life. So what does that result? Then look at this next slide, please.

Alan (01:14:04):

Whoa. And here's another dynamite engineering drawing for you. One life and life's work of service. I didn't walk away from work. I know a lot of people that like to use that word, but I know that more people are going to start the more that they are associated with the working out of leadership and management system. Boy, that work turns into service. That's what you're doing. So it's your life's work of service and lifelong learning, and to look inside. This is a great exercise for everybody to do. Fill out the inside any way you want, all the aspects of your life, and then jot down what you think about each of those. And how's it going? How's your occupational life going? How's your family life doing? How's your spiritual life? How's your community life? How's your personal life? How was your life listening to Debra and joining her today?

Alan (01:15:11):

So everything, just jot down what you think and then also and think about what you might want to change about that because this working together culture is going to help you do that because everything that you're going to do, you're going to need working together to do it not just by yourself, but you're going to need to working together. And so this is what enables you to have an authentic and an integrated and one life of life's work of service. And by the way, now, this is your love made visible because you're leading with service, with humility and love. And now it's not just inside your head with your beliefs and your values. You are sharing this with everybody because that's what you love is what you're doing. So you can imagine the impact that has on people. If you look over on the right hand side, you can see the different ways that you can do the business plan, review for any aspect that you want on your life, like we've talked about.

Alan (01:16:27):

It's the key to working together, the business plan review or the working together leadership management system. Also, you can do this with your family. You can also do this for yourself. You're going to sit there, write down what your vision is, your strategy is, and your plan, assess it regularly, actually talk to other people, especially other stakeholders, to make sure that you're aligned with the way other people think of you and the way you're thinking about it. But you can use this process. But personally, family, small business, big business, always moving in a very positive direction to create value and growth for yourself. Okay, now next slide please. I'll show you one more.

Alan (01:17:22):

Here's another exercise. So Sarah and I put two exercises in here for you. One thing that really helps you do that previous assignment is fill out this chart. And for those who can't see it yet, here's a slide that you answer four questions. Who are you? Who are you? What are your beliefs and your values and your behaviors? Why are you who you are? And you guys, thank you Francis and Marshall and Sarah for taking me through that and sharing it with you all. And then what do you do? And then how do you do it? And I just filled this out for myself, and we've covered all this today. It's relatively simple. I checked with Nicki, I've checked with our kids, I've checked with Sarah Marshall, Sarah, I mean Francis, everybody. Because what you want to make sure of is that your awareness, your self-awareness is aligned with what other people think because then you can, and it's fun. You ask 'em, do you guys think I'm authentic? Do you think I love participating with everybody and I'm in service? I'm honest, I'm disciplined, I'm positive. And we always all have opportunities to improve. And then you use all your stakeholders to focus on those, and then you make improvement really fast. Okay, one more thing. Next slide please.

Alan (01:18:57):

This is phenomenal. We have included, and what we're looking at for everybody who is listening to the podcast is we have four pages of references. And there's so many things written about the working Together leadership management system because of Boeing and Ford and the size and to the largest corporations in the world, the largest exporter in the United States. I mean, it's just a big deal. And so a lot of people have captured the essence of the working together. And so we've included those references. And the way Sarah did it, it's phenomenal is that when you see the blue there, all you got to do is click on that and it actually goes to the reference so you don't have to wind around trying to figure it out. Although as a member of Google, I'm always welcoming you to Google anything because phenomenal. So we have a set of references for you to choose from. So that's all of the slides that we have that Debra's going to make available for everybody that has participated today. I think you're going to find this very interesting and help you with whatever you want to do on implementing whatever part of the working together that you'd like to do.

Debra (01:20:21):

Alan, thank you. Now, we had asked folks to share questions, and I remember when we would do media interviews with you, you would do what you called lightning round, which were fast answers to questions. So I want to ask a couple of questions that folks had submitted. Are you ready?

Alan (01:20:44):

I'm ready.

Debra (01:20:45):

Okay. So someone asked, how did you decide what's next after you retired from Ford?

Alan (01:20:52):

Well, I can see why they're asking me that because you, Debra, are phenomenal leader on helping people for the develop their mindsets. They have one life and life's work of service and love with humility. And so I think it's a great question and I love studying your work about it. I think you've phenomenal, and I know going to know what I'm going to say because that working together has included every aspect of my life or my entire life. So everything that I've been doing, I've been thinking about all those aspects all the way along. So it wasn't really just about my occupation on my family, what I think about myself, what I did for exercise, what I've done for continuing education, what I think about serving the greater good others. So I am just continuing that. And all I've done is I just modify a little bit, all the different ones because some of them I want to spend a little bit more time with. These grandchildren are phenomenal. I mean, it's just so much fun. And matter of fact, I wish I would've had them all a long time ago. I learned a lot from 'em and I learned some more about myself. And then of course, your physical activity, your diet, being on the board of Mayo has been phenomenal.

Alan (01:22:31):

And I still love tennis. I love golf. And so all of the love traveling. So all the things you get to think about and what's really neat if you've been practicing this all the way along, and boy, you get good at that, what you call that transition, but it really isn't a transition. You've just modified it a little bit to put an emphasis on the things you want. And so you'll be somebody that people will continue to call because maybe they haven't done that as much, or maybe they want to do it more now that they start thinking about all of it. They might be calling you away before they retire to ask you about your wonderful activities.

Debra (01:23:10):

That makes sense. Another question, how do you work through difficult decisions?

Alan (01:23:17):

Great question. And you can see it in the leadership management system, especially the BPR, because now, first of all, you know what they are. See, most people don't know what the issues are that they have. So the minute that one of your members knows what the issue is, they're sharing it with you. So now you know it, they're going to work on it because the vast majority of the time they solve it, their area of responsibility. And then if they want some help, then they just announce it and then we all apply to it in our special attention meeting, we solve it right away. And if it can't be solved following the same detail, then we actually work on a different little plan for that to make it work. And that's why everybody is excited about doing it. They know they're going to figure it out.

Debra (01:24:09):

Has the working together system ever not worked?

Alan (01:24:14):

Ooh, very straightforward question. No, it has always worked. And back to the last two questions is the issues. You work 'em in a timely manner, and if that issue you can't solve with what you thought the solution was ahead of it, then you know that you're going to use all your talents and figure out a new little part of the bigger compelling vision and the strategy with a better solution. And the fact that you're doing that all the way along, you're getting smarter. Just think about the five years of doing an airplane. You're getting smarter and smarter and smarter. So any issue that comes up, you're even a more able to come up with a solution.

Debra (01:25:01):

Someone asked, how do you address people who are not on board with your vision on how to move forward, which you've touched on, but can you role play a little bit with this? What are the words that you use when someone's not on board with you?

Alan (01:25:14):

Well, it's just a little bit more than what I shared is that we have it up on the walls, we have it everywhere. It's part of everybody's performance management. And so if somebody chooses, and I'll just use an example, somebody a couple of times, they'll in the business plan review, they'll go after somebody, they'll share something and they'll go after 'em in kind of an aggressive way, might have an opinion about what the answer is. And so they want to do that in an aggressive way and tell them, so we all watch this, and in my case, I'll just use my case, but everybody does the same thing. So I follow 'em up to their office. These are senior people, and I asked 'em how they thought the meeting went and they share. And I, what'd you think about the way you said that to so-and-So, well, I know it was a little bit much, but it was an important thing that I had to contribute.

Alan (01:26:10):

And I said, what did you think about everybody's response? The whole team was sitting there and he said, well, I thought they looked interested. Well, I think they looked scared. And they all said, do you notice they got really quiet? Well, I guess they did. Well, how do you think that's going to contribute to working together? The most important thing is that you have psychological safety and you're safe and you can share, and you're expected to share what the issues are. And it's not about you. You're not red, you're really green, and you are doing something no one else can do it. Showing insights that no one else can share so you can work together to solve 'em.

Alan (01:26:55):

And this person said, this leader said to me, Alan, I, I've had a great career. I've been promoted over and over again. I'm the senior person in this discipline. I'm very valuable. I don't know whether I can change my behaviors. And I usually would say to them, I understand. And they would say to me, Debra, oh, that's great, Alan, that's great because I just think it's so neat that I could just be me. I don't have to do this, chang[ing] my behaviors with everybody and it's okay with you, okay? And I respect you for that. That's great. Thank you very much.

Alan (01:27:49):

Well, not quite what I mean, what I mean is that it's okay because you're deciding to move on because we can't have what happened today because that'll destroy our working together culture. And so here's what I want you to do. I want you to go home tonight. I want you to talk to the people that you love and they love you. Tell 'em about what happened today. Then I want you to come back and tell me tomorrow what you're going to do. And if you want to stay, if you want to coach, I'll coach you personally too. And I'll admit for the team, we think the world of you because you're a human being and you're very, very talented.

Alan (01:28:38):

And if it doesn't work for you and you don't want to do it, then we'll see if we can find you a position that you don't have to interact with everybody this way. And also probably you might want to just go ahead and leave and do something else where you can be the way you want to be. And the reason I want you to come back and tell me is I don't want to guess. We all don't want to. If you come back and tell me you want to stay, then the first thing you're going to do in the next VPR is you're going to apologize for what you did in front of everybody in a nice way. That's not a big deal. I apologize every once in a while, and then you can tell 'em what you're going to do. And I guarantee you, if you say, I'd like to stay and I'd like you all to help me on my behaviors, work on a couple of 'em every year, I know you're going to feel really great and if you want to move on, I know you feel great too.

Alan (01:29:32):

So that's kind of the essence of your question. Very few people moved on that way, and that's the person I'm talking to you about eight years later. On the day that I left, he came over to see me and he said, Alan, do you remember the conversation we had where I chose to leave? I said, I sure do. And I also had stayed close to him through the eight years. I respected him so much I'd bother him by calling him and asking his thoughts on things which he loved. We stayed his good friends and he said, well, the one thing I want to tell you is of all the decisions I've made in my life, there's one I wish I had made that was just staying with you and move from commanding control to working together. So you can imagine when everybody knows that you're expect to held accountable, they know that if they operate, if they violate the process, they violate behaviors, then we're just going to talk to 'em about it, and then they can decide. And if they want to stay, we'll help. And of course, they're watching the smiles on everybody else's faces because they're all enjoying it. So it's a big decision you got to make. And it's okay. It's okay, Debra.

Debra (01:30:50):

That sort of relieves folks from having to feel like they have to be the bad guy because you've been clear all along. So it's a choice that you're making, right?

Alan (01:31:00):

It's that exactly. It's not the bad guy. And what's the other thing I just said? Oh, Debra, still love you. Yeah, you're a human being and I wish you the best.

Debra (01:31:13):

Alright, well that leads us to…I'm skipping to another question…So you were a leader and we all learned from you because you walked the halls and you stepped into meetings and we were able to see you in action all day long. Now we have hybrid work cultures where folks are working remote. How can leaders be good examples if they're not physically being good examples in front of their employees every day?

Alan (01:31:42):

Do what we're doing here today. I love Zoom, I love it. You know what people have told me, but they've also been learning themselves. Remember when the Zooms first start and we're all going, who is that person? Or I didn't understand, remember it wasn't as clear as it is right now. Look at the way we look right now. I mean Sarah and Debra and Alan, I mean, I don't care where we are. I mean we working together here. I mean, I can't think of anything that we could do if we're in person or on a Zoom that we'd be on top of what we did working on this subject that we decided to work on. So the technology's getting great. You can do it all around the world. What you want to do is whatever your versions of or a business plan review is, make sure you build in a very disciplined process where you go through the vision, the strategy, the plan, what the status is, the performance.

Alan (01:32:48):

You have everybody included and remember, and everybody that is in the organization where all of this is flowing around, all of the data and stuff. They can all do the same thing. And there's a lot of decisions that are going to be made about how we all really are going to work together. Some things. It really is something to be together, almost like you're not together physically. You better be together all the time on Zoom because you're going to be talking about something that you iterate it very fast. And so you're talking a lot about it. So I think that the key is to use the technology, but really use the work together leadership management system, tell you exactly what you have to do about seeing each other, having each other together and using all the technology that's available because you got to use everything as possible to enable this working together. You've got to tap into everybody's talent, gosh, and their behaviors and how fun they are. That's why we decided to do in this format today so that we could practice that together.

Debra (01:33:54):

Alright, last question, Alan. So you've worked, you've used the working together business plan review with your own family, you mentioned. Tell me how it works in a marriage. Tell me how it works with kids. We don't have to share secrets, but just how does that all work?

Alan (01:34:23):

I'll look around and see if any of the kids are, think he's here. No, they're not. They think it's so fun when people learn about this or we share it. Okay. So Nicki and our plan, our vision strategy was to have five children. And so we started the plan and then we started talking about it around the first one and then the second one for sure, when I came up to Nicki one time, I said, Nicki, with these children and having more of 'em, we need to have a business plan review every week so we can go over the vision, the strategy, and the plan and how it's going. And she said, honey, this is not Boeing and we don't need a business plan review. I said, so I just said, okay. And so I waited for a week and I came back next week.

Alan (01:35:23):

I said, okay, Nicki, I suggest that we need a family meeting every week. And she said, really? What would we do in a family meeting? I said, well, we come home from church and then the first thing we do is all of us, all seven of us would go around the house, pick up all of our stuff, take 'em back to the storage places, to our room, whatever. Because when you have a lot of people like this in a week, it looks like a bomb's gone off. I mean, it suffers everywhere. And you and I are doing it just like all the rest of the kids. We got stuff everywhere too. And then we go back to our rooms and including you and me, and we get our laundry and we bring it down to the laundry. And I think over time we'll have at least two washers and dryers because we know that we want to get all this done once a week when we doing the laundry every day. And so we do all the laundry together and then we all bring the laundry down to the kitchen, put it on the table, and then all seven of us sort the laundry because our compelling vision didn't include sort by yourself, the laundry of seven people. Holy cow, we have no idea where the socks are going. And we have three boys and two girls.

Alan (01:36:58):

And then that took you about, gosh, three minutes when you have seven people sorting the stuff and they know all their stuff. And then take the laundry back to their room, put it away, then bring their calendar down to the kitchen table, and we all sit around the table and they have their loose leaf notebook. And then we go around the table and every person goes through their schedule for next week and shares what they're doing and also any areas that they need help. You need some taxi cab service, some cheerleading support, parent teacher conference. And then we all look for opportunities to sign up to help each other. Then I'll go back, I'd go to Boeing and I'd sit down with my assistant and she built it into the schedule.

Alan (01:37:53):

And everybody knew where I, I'd disappear for an hour or two or whatever, but they knew I was back then. The next item was that along with that you needed to share anything that you're doing next week that could result in a very positive thing that would become public and we'd learn about, because we need to know about that. It's about our family, but also anything that'll be negative that you're going to choose to do, it'll impact our family. If you're going to steal something or do drugs or whatever, I mean, let us know ahead of time that we can be prepared to deal with this. Now, this didn't solve every issue as they're going through teenagers, but it sure helped if you're going to be accountable and responsible for what you're going to do.

Alan (01:38:48):

And then the follow on to that, or maybe right before that was that whatever you were doing, we go around the table and if you had any suggestions for improvement or questions about the working together or suggestion how to improve it, you would share that. I'll give one example where one of the girls asked said they're going to do a dance recital. And so they needed the driver because they weren't a driver yet. And so our oldest son has just gotten a driver's license and said, okay, I'd like to take you. That'd be great. And so she goes out and waits and he forgot her. So in this meeting on Sunday, she said, and this is how they learned to talk to each other and give feedback when you do this every week. So she said, okay, Chris, I'd like to tell you that just I could share with you that I really missed you last week, and I was really sorry that I missed my recital.

Alan (01:39:48):

I was so ready to do it and practice. And also I wanted you to see it. I wanted you to come. I wanted to share it with you because you're a dear friend and you forgot me. You forgot to pick me up. I have never seen him so white I and I never, ever saw him let her down again throughout her rest of her life. And so again, this process of working together allows you to have these conversations in such a civil way, in such a neat way. And you're not going after somebody else. They're talking about yourself, about what it meant to you and how that impacted you as opposed to saying somebody's this, that, whatever.

Alan (01:40:36):

And so people are very thoughtful and very sensitive. And then just one funny thing about it. So we are together two weeks or two times a year, somewhere around the world because they're everywhere. And every time they were together, especially after they could have a drink, they would start telling stories about their working together. And one time it didn't sound like they enjoyed that one very much. And I said, so why did you come or, and why didn't you say something? And they said, dad, do you remember what the last item was on the working together leadership and management system, our family meeting version of that? And I said, no, I don't know what to remember what the last item was. And they said, you passed out the allowances to all of us. Of course we needed to come and be and do working together.

Debra (01:41:41):

It all works together, right, Alan?

Alan (01:41:43):

It all works together.

Debra (01:41:46):

And we have all been working together today to learn. I am so appreciative of your insights and your sharing. Any last thoughts for us before we say goodbye?

Alan (01:41:59):

Well, it was a pleasure to see you again. Clearly, I'll always appreciate your service at Ford. Communication was unbelievably important, and it was so good. You can imagine with working together, sharing with everybody what the strategy is, what the vision is, what the strategy was, what the detailed plan was, sharing the reds, the yellows, the greens, including all the stakeholders, loving 'em up, communicating. That was incredible. And it's the best experience I've ever had of doing that. And then going through what we went through where our competitors were going bankrupt, and we didn't do that, and we created the best product line in the world at the time, and it was pretty phenomenal. So I'll always appreciate you and also, and everybody, I also appreciate what you're focused on after retirement too. I just think that's really cool. So I want to thank you. I want to thank Sarah Best partner, one of the best partners I've ever had, and thanks. Thank her for today too. And we're going to continue to serve the greater good by our activities with the leaders and stuff, but also with the work in the leadership management system. So I wish everybody, I wish everybody the very good fortune to just keep moving in a direction of service with love and with humility, because it's so good for all of mankind and it's so, so satisfying. It's so special.

Debra (01:43:54):

Alan, thank you so much for your generosity and for this masterclass in working together. Thanks again.

Alan (01:44:01):

You are welcome, and I'll hope to talk to you sooner rather than later. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Sarah.

Debra (01:44:06):

Thanks Sarah.

Alan (01:44:08):

Thank you.

Debra (01:44:10):

Thanks for listening to the Dareful Project. Please follow, like and leave a review. It really helps. We're on all your favorite platforms, Spotify, apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, audible, tune in Amazon Music, Stitcher, SoundCloud, and YouTube. And to connect, you can email me at [e-mail]. That's Debra, D-E-B-R-A at Dareful One. That's with the number one.com. Thanks for listening.