Recently, Neil Foster, president of GCG Marketing and Kelsey Mize, director of GCG’s sister agency, Zag IMC, joined me on a trek to Dallas to discuss best practices with the corporate communications team at Southwest Airlines - a familiar journey for me as while completing my undergraduate degree at TCU I was fortunate enough to hold an internship with Southwest Airlines.
As an intern, I worked on public relations efforts that included planning for the airline’s 35th anniversary and media relations for inaugural boarding procedure tests, as well as a HUGE peanut butter drive and writing an article for Spirit magazine. (I also got a peck on the cheek from the legendary Herb Kelleher, who somehow knew without prompting that I was a newby.)
Yes, it was an incredible opportunity to work on projects that look dang good on a resume. More than that, though, I learned an awful lot about the value of working as a team and the importance of keeping work as lighthearted and fun as possible.
To this day, I’m inspired by the helpful attitude everyone has at Southwest. No request is too big or too small. Creative expression and goofiness are highly encouraged. Everyone matters. Brainstorming sessions are an opportunity to turn mediocre ideas into fantastic ones.
So, as part of GCG’s continuing education, I called up some of my Southwest peeps and asked if we could pay them a visit. Of course, they said, “sure!”
On the day of our meeting, we were psyched to sit with more than a dozen members of the Southwest team, each with unique insights and experiences to share. It was great to hear Christi Day, a fellow Horned Frog, discuss how Southwest gave its new social media team the freedom to discover “return on engagement” through online dialogue with customers. We soaked up feedback on how to prepare for crisis communications. And we were motivated by the group’s insistence on remaining nimble to accommodate new technology and modes of communication – quite impressive coming from a company that has tens of thousands of employees.
We topped off our visit with a tour of the Southwest headquarters, followed by a brewski at the company’s weekly deck party, where we had a chance to sip a Shiner with a great view of Love Field’s runways. Quite a way to end the week.
