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By Bob Hurst
The Southwest Airlines Systems Information Design Team is just that… a Team… a Team with a desire to make a difference… a Team with a goal to make a difference… and a Team with an evolving plan to make a difference.
The presentation consists of four parts:
Where We Were—this is a brief review of how our Team was doing things up until a year or so ago. This includes a description of our approach to a typical project, as well as what our goals and criteria for success were.
Why We Are Changing—somewhere along the line, we began to realize that we weren't accomplishing everything we really wanted to. And we realized that although our goals, processes, and standards were all good, we weren't going far enough in some areas. These realizations can be summarized in four simple truths:
As a result of these realizations and truths, we decided to add three new goals to our existing goals:
These might seem simple, or even obvious, but they have had a profound effect on how we work and how we think of ourselves.
Where We Are Now—to illustrate where we are now, we'll present a case history of an ongoing project that is focused on seven new key concepts (in addition to all the things we did before). These new concepts are:
We'll also talk about other projects where we weren't able to apply all these new concepts, but were able to increase our success and effectiveness by applying our new way of thinking.
And finally, we'll honestly discuss the challenges we face, as individuals and as a Team, in making these changes.
Our Vision for the Future—our vision is to continually refine our new processes, concepts, and goals, and to permanently embed these in our Company's overall product development processes. We'll talk about our plan for doing this and for identifying and developing the new skills required to continue making a difference.
NOTE: More information about the efforts of the Southwest Airlines System Information Design Team will be available in a paper to be presented at the 50th Annual Conference.— Editor
Even though not all twelve Team members will be on stage for this presentation, each one has had an important part in developing the presentation.
The following three people will be on-stage for our presentation, but don't be surprised if the rest of the Team doesn't find a way to get into the act. (I got ya thinkin' now, huh?)
Sherri Harte is a Senior member of STC. She has worked in the Technical Communication field since 1995 and served as a judge for the Lone Star online competition in 1998. She worked in Localization for more than a year but went back into Technical Communication to satisfy her passion for writing. Her professional interests include international technical writing and interface design.
Kerry Newberry is a Senior member of STC. She has worked in the Technical Communication field since 1987 and has played both writing and editing roles. Her professional interests include performance improvement and knowledge management.
Bob Hurst is an Associate Fellow of STC and a member of STC's Lone Star Chapter. He has been active in STC since 1987. His primary professional goal is to combine common sense with the latest technologies and techniques to build successful, productive, and respected technical communication teams.