Why is Alcoa worth a mention when it comes to good corporate habits?
Paul O’Neill, former CEO, picked the issue of worker safety to change how people worked companywide. Alcoa became a top Dow Jones performer a year later. Good habits can transform billion-dollar corporations.
And bad habits can ruin them – as in the London King’s Cross subway fire when 31 people died?
That’s a dramatic example of how dysfunctional habit can be dangerous – and what can happen when there aren’t strong processes in place for taking responsibility in organizations.
You say Starbucks turned self-discipline into an organizational habit. How?
Willpower has become routine there. By choosing certain behaviors ahead of time, employees know how to handle difficulties with customers or equipment. Good service is built into the business model.
Companies can’t perfect everything, though.
No, so they should choose priorities that set off chain reactions. When O’Neill said nothing mattered more than worker safety, that was a huge cultural statement and it drove choices on a day-to-day basis.
How can this thinking lead to ‘small wins’?
Clear habits offer opportunities for victory. There’s momentum plus room for experimentation, and most companies need serendipity to have breakthroughs. The point is to plan and think very deliberately about habits.