I have always loved Southwest Airlines.

I love the story of how they started. In 1967, two friends, Herb Keller and Rollin King, sat in a bar in San Antonio, Texas and drew a triangle on a napkin between three Texas cities. They envisioned an airline that would offer low cost flights between those three cities. From that initial vision, Southwest has grown to become one of America’s favorite airlines, and an inspirational success story.

I not only love the story of how Southwest started, I also love the way they operate. From the beginning, Southwest’s leadership has always questioned conventional wisdom, and made a strategic decision to operate differently from most of their industry peers. Most of their practices are still considered revolutionary: they offer no pre-assigned seating; they use smaller cities as their hubs; they only fly one type of plane; they offer no in-flight meals, and they (STILL) let you check two bags for free. And yet despite these contrarian practices, the company reported a profit for 48 consecutive years (until COVID hit in 2020).

I not only love the story of how they started and how they operate, but I also love their culture. Southwest is family friendly and fun. They are especially welcoming to children and seniors. As someone who has had to push strollers and wheelchairs through airports, I know how spectacularly unhelpful and downright cruel some airlines can be. In addition, Southwest deliberately chooses people, especially flight attendants, who have a keen and quirky sense of humor. There is a legendary story that best captures their amazing ethos. Apparently a senior executive from another company hopped on a Southwest flight and was not amused by one of the jokes that a flight attendant told. The executive personally wrote the CEO of Southwest (who was a close friend of his) demanding that corrective and disciplinary action be taken against the offending flight attendant, or else the executive would take his business elsewhere. A response was immediately sent. It read: “We’ll be sorry to see you go.”

From how they started, to how they operate, to who and what they valued I have always loved everything about Southwest. Well, everything except those colors. LOL.

So you can imagine my shock and surprise at how poorly Southwest weathered the recent winter storm that pummeled our country. The storm presented each airline with the same set of challenges: unpredictable weather, freezing temperatures, frozen planes, ramps, and fuel, and the challenge of recruiting and rerouting crew. However, no other airlines had the massive operational failures that Southwest experienced. Between December 22 and January 1, Southwest cancelled 16,000 flights, more than any other airline, and more than all of the other airlines combined. This year, I spent most of my Christmas in an airport waiting for my Southwest flight to take off. I arrived minutes before midnight, just enough time to give my frustrated but understanding wife her gift. But I must confess that eating Christmas dinner at 1:30AM the morning after Christmas watching SportsCenter on ESPN was not how I had imagined things. And I am glad that I never check bags. Otherwise, I still might not have my luggage. Needless to say, my love for Southwest is being deeply tested LOL.

What happened? Most observers have pointed out that at the heart of Southwest’s operational failure are outdated systems, especially the computer software program that is responsible for scheduling its crew members. One observer said “the company has had its head buried in the sand when it comes to its operational processes and IT.” Another pointed out the company made the fateful “decision to continue to expand and grow without the technology needed to handle it,” Even their Chief Executive Office Bob Jordan had to admit that they failed to “modernize and invest” in better systems.

What happened to Southwest will eventually happen to all of us. Sooner or later, life is going to hit each of us with a storm. A famous preacher once said that everyone you know is either “coming through a storm, in a storm, or headed into a storm.” Storms are not optional. At the conclusion of his famous “Sermon On The Mount” in Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus gave this warning:

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”

The difference between the two houses was not the impact of the storm. The rain, floodwaters and the wind were equally unleashed on each house. The difference between the two houses was the foundation on which each were built. Storms, pandemics and other crises only accelerate or reveal. A crises shows us what was already there, or what was going to eventually reveal itself. What a foundation is to a house, systems are to an organization or an organism. This crisis at Southwest revealed a profound underinvestment in the systems necessary to mange their operation.

My friend, you are going to face some storms in 2023. So here’s the question that I want you to think about as we move into the New Year:

Do I have any outdated systems?

And that question raises several others:

Am I equipped for the coming storm?

What is the status of my current systems?

Where have I underinvested?

James Clear has written that we do not rise to the level of our goals, but we fall to the level of our systems. Your system is how you do what you do: how you relate to people; how you think; how you acquire and process information; how you make decisions; how you function in the world.

Take a strong, hard look at your current systems. Are they outdated?

Are my relationship systems outdated?
Are my parenting systems outdated?
Are my money management systems outdated?
Are my career development systems outdated?
Are my spiritual growth systems outdated?
Am I investing enough in my health, in my marriage, in my children, in my walk with God?

Don’t wait until the storm comes to fix your foundation. Don’t wait until the crisis hits to upgrade your systems.

By then, it’s always too late.

Start now.

Outdated Systems