Three Strategies for a Cohesive Culture
The secret to holding things together, even when times are rough
“I don’t want to live in a city where the only cultural advantage is you can make a right turn on a red light.” — Woody Allen, 1977
I’ll never forget July 24, 2008.
It was 6:30 a.m. on that Thursday morning — exactly ten days after I walked in the doors of Ford’s World Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.
Members of Ford’s communications team, selected members of the business press, and Ford’s CFO Don Leclair were gathered in a briefing room to deliver Q2 earnings for the company.
I had started my journey leading global digital communications and social media for this Fortune 10 company just ten days before — on July 14.
I had joined after being recruited as an executive after extensive interviews, background checks, and discussions about the One Ford vision (One Team. One Plan. One Goal.) to return this automotive behemoth to profitability by 2009.
A Little Background
Under CEO Alan Mulally, in September 2006, the company took out what he called “a home improvement loan” of about $26 billion to finance its plan.
The financial lifeline allowed Ford employees to align all product engineering, design, and marketing around the world as it strove toward its goal: “An exciting and viable Ford, delivering profitable growth for all.”
The recruitment process began in late 2007, but my interest had waned, as I was reluctant to move from Boston to Detroit. The phone calls had been informative, but they didn’t convey the excitement and morale that were rising at Ford.
As such, I politely declined to move through the process at the time.
What a mistake.
But being predisposed to hearing about Ford, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the company posted a $100 million profit for its Q1 earnings in April 2008.
We reconnected, leading to in-person interviews in Dearborn that consisted of many talented and motivated Ford team members who seemed to be filled with joy and excitement about the work they were doing.
Discussions happened fairly quickly after that and I shipped off to Southeast Michigan, leaving my family to finalize things in Boston.
Start Your Engines
So that Thursday morning in July in the WHQ briefing room was set to be another straightforward earnings call. It was my first, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
I don’t think the press was, either.
Wall Street analysts were preparing for an underperforming quarter from Ford, predicting a loss of 27 cents per share. They were wrong.
That morning, Ford posted a historic loss for the second quarter: $3.88 per share, or $8.7 billion.
Contributing to this total: one-time charges and write-offs associated with Ford Credit, gas prices at over $4 a gallon, and a shift away from trucks and SUVs to fuel-efficient cars.
The market felt this shockwave, GM and Chrysler were in the headlines for possible bankruptcies, and the global carpocaplyse was on. My stomach was in knots. What had I gotten myself into?
I called my wife back in Boston and half-jokingly said, “Don’t finish packing. I may be back before the summer is over.”
But that’s not at all how things turned out.
The secret to how Ford survived and thrived — certainly on the Corporate Communications team, but also beyond — was rooted Ford’s culture.
Three Realizations
On my first visit to the World Headquarters in Dearborn, I was struck by a number of observations and realizations.
1. Humbled by History
First, the sheer scale and history of the building itself. Built in the mid-1950s, the sleek glass and steel structure known as the Glass House accommodated 3,000 employees in its 12 floors and nearly 1,000,000 square feet.
Walking up to and into that building reminded me that I was about to serve a historic and iconic company that had a storied place in American and world history.
2. Surrounded by Talent
Second, the talent and intelligence of the people who interviewed me were evident from the start. They were insightful, asked probing questions, and were clearly a highly skilled and motivated team.
3. An Intangible Secret Weapon
But the final thing that I noticed was something that I would later realize was the secret weapon behind Ford’s success: excitement, enthusiasm, and high morale, even amid the state of the industry.
There was something special going on.
And it started with culture.
The Culture Code
Daniel Coyle covers this succinctly in his book The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups.
The idea behind the book is simple: great groups don’t happen by chance. Three rules guide how groups are built.
Start With Safety
Great group chemistry isn’t luck; it’s about sending super-clear, continuous signals: we share a future, you have a voice.
At Ford, the One Ford plan was the clear vision that united the entire company. It was communicated consistently and repeatedly, and part of it was Working Together, which has become Alan Mulally’s life’s work.
With that system, it allowed people to feel supported, included, and part of a team that was able to be transparent, honest, and accountable. Everyone understood the plan and knew how they contributed to it.
The lesson: We all need to feel as if we belong.
Get Vulnerable and Stay Vulnerable
Strong cultures don’t hide their weaknesses; they make a habit of sharing them, so they can improve together.
One of the things we practiced every week in the BPR — Business Plan Review — was complete transparency on the state of the business. Everyone shared the progress of their area of responsibility, coded red, yellow or green.
If items were red, the entire team leapt into action to see how they might help out the executive whose team had an issue. It was a practice of vulnerability in concert with accountability.
The lesson: None of this works unless we’re willing to participate and collaborate.
Roadmap Your Story
It’s not about nice-sounding value statements — it’s about flooding the zone with vivid narratives that work like GPS signals, guiding your group toward its goal.
One of the beautiful things about the BPR is that we were able to identify and share our strategic priorities. Those, tied to the vision, became our North Star. And we’d share them every week without fail.
We used phrases taken directly from our One Ford plan and behaviors that kept us unified in how we talked about our challenges and at any give time, we knew where we were with respect to the plan.
The lesson: A clear and compelling vision, consistently communicated, is essential.
How It Worked Out
Ford eventually turned things around in 2009 after its stock hit a low of $1.35 in March 2009. The stock rose 400% between then and January 2010, with new products hitting the market, social media adoption on the rise, and Ford in the center of the conversation.
Our team notched many firsts: Ford became the first company to host a Q&A with its CEO on Twitter, the first company to reveal a vehicle on Facebook, and a case study in influencer marketing with its groundbreaking Fiesta Movement.
You’ve heard the phrase “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Well, it also swallowed marketing, engineering, design, communications, HR, and every other conceivable nook within Ford.
A clear and compelling vision, relentless execution, and consistent communication helped every team member contribute to and drive that culture.
Can I help your team create a more cohesive culture? I work with executives and their teams to identify and grow character strengths that lead to a strong culture and help teams work together.
There’s so much to learn,
I always feel so proud when you recount your time at Ford under Alan Mulally because I worked as a temp all around pre-Mulally Ford 1988-1992 —including a year on 12 at WHQ. So I had a 360 degree view of the old culture. Plus I experienced its impact our family (my Dad was a product development engineer there 1963-1993). The default thinking was, "the company is too big, the culture is too ingrained, no one can change it, it is what it is." Mulally destroyed that myth with his leadership and proved anything is possible—if you have the will to do it. 😉