Southwest

Southwest is one of the original “low-cost carriers”. After growing from its base (originally Texas and the southwest of the US), Southwest became one of the US’s largest air carriers (the largest based on domestic originating passengers boarded). During peak season, Southwest operates 4,000+ weekday departures across 99 destinations in the US and 9 additional countries. Southwest has 55,000+ employees and a customer base of 115 million passengers annually.

Challenge

Southwest Airlines is a highly respected business, known as progressive and innovative in their business model and people development. However, although progress had been made in terms of gender diversity, they saw an opportunity to focus on inclusion. In 2011, Southwest had acquired another airline (AirTran), which meant they were expanding into more global markets. They needed to understand their new, wider-reaching, customer base and boost collaboration in the newly merged organisation, especially among mid-level managers.

Solution

We needed to reach all levels of the organization with the message so we designed a learning journey for all of the tiers of the organization, from ICs to the CEO. We got SWA thinking about the much broader conversation that needed to happen internally and the need to build belief throughout the company in the cultural shift. We versioned and branded all sessions and materials, which really captured the Southwest culture.

Impact

• 63,575 digital courses were started. 91% of these were completed (57,627)
• 19,921 participants in total engaged with the digital courses
• Participants engaged with 3.2 digital courses on average
• Participants engaged with the digital courses for 2 hours on average (totaling 47,985 learning hours)

Results

• 99% felt actively involved in the session
• 99% felt the content was relevant to them
• 99% will use what they’ve learned
• 97% would recommend this workout to others
• 94% would rate the workouts as very good or excellent

Feedback

“The session helped me think differently”. “[The session] wasn’t what I expected; [the] instructor was awesome and made D&I a positive instead of beating us up on what we are not doing.” “I’ve been provided tools to share the narrative in a relevant and meaningful way.” “The MindGym coach…created a very safe and inclusive environment for learning.”