Politics, schmolitics. It's the culture, stupid.

When I read this quote from Tom Davis, former Republican member of congress, I was certain I’d write about this week’s election:

"It is time to sit down practically and say where are we going to add pieces to our coalition. There just are not enough middle-aged white guys that we can scrape together to win. There's just not enough of them."

There is so much work to do for both sides – repairing the rift, averting the now infamous “fiscal cliff,” – that it seemed like a no-brainer. Add to that Washington and Colorado passing recreational marijuana laws, and so many states passing same-sex marriage laws.

So much fodder for a good post, but it was not to be.

Alas, I got settled into my seat on a Southwest flight to Chicago and my post about the election got hijacked (bad flying humor there). It’s the beginning of the month so there’s a new Spirit magazine, and if you read my posts with any regularity you know of my affinity for Southwest in general, and Spirit in particular.

Every issue is structured the same way:

1. The first feature is a letter from CEO Gary Kelly in which he inevitably talks about how great his Employees and Customers are (their idea to capitalize those two words – nicely done), and how well their Employee-first attitude has served them over the years – 39 consecutive years of profitability!
2. Next, it’s an article highlighting an outstanding Employee that oftentimes features that person’s involvement in some philanthropic endeavor. Nothing like a pat on the back in front of millions of people, huh?
3. Then there’s an article featuring one of their great Customers. These usually feature enough information about the person that if you were inclined to contact them, you probably wouldn’t have much trouble. (These are not your boilerplate testimonials signed by “Rebecca H., Tucson, AZ.” How would you ever find that person to see if their passion was true?)
4. Blah, blah, blah. The rest of the magazine – which I really do like, but isn’t anywhere near as compelling for me as numbers 1-3.

So here’s my thing about Southwest’s approach. It’s deliberate to the point of being relentless, and that’s what it takes to be successful with anything. You can’t just expect good accounting, marketing, customer service or sales practices to evolve, you have to be deliberate and relentless in your implementation and follow up.

None of these disciplines has a “check the box and it’s done” approach to success. Each of them requires daily attention to the details.

It’s the same with culture (and internal communications); you can’t just say, “This is what I want” and expect it to happen. Developing the type of corporate culture you want requires a deliberate, concerted and relentless effort daily. Otherwise, what will develop is a kind of ad hoc, whomever-speaks-the-loudest-or-longest kind of culture – it won’t be carried through the organization with any degree of success because you’ll always be starting over.

You have to live it all day, every day. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I like Southwest founder Herb Kelleher’s quote (that’s why I use it every third sentence!) about culture:

“Culture is one of the most precious things a company has, so you must work harder on it than anything else.”

It’s important to remember that it does require effort; it doesn’t just happen.

There’s an old axiom in sales – besides Blake’s ABCs from Glengarry Glen Ross – that in order to get the sale, you must ask for the sale. The same thing holds true in other facets of business: If there’s a specific outcome desired, you must ask for it.

What kind of culture do you want? Be deliberate. Be relentless.

By the way, did you see what voters in New Hampshire did? They elected a female governor, two female congresswomen and two female senators (the first all-female congressional delegation from any state). That’s cool.

Talk about a deliberate culture change!