I love Southwest airlines. To borrow a phrase, “Southwest for life.” As just one illustration, several years ago I deplaned from a Southwest flight on my way to a connecting flight when I realized that I didn’t have my pocket planner which had my next boarding pass in it (not to mention what I was supposed to do for the next few months).
I ran back to my original aircraft which was about to board passengers for its next destination. I told the gate attendant my problem and she went on board to see if she could find my planner and boarding pass. Unfortunately, it wasn’t there. So, she sent me to the counter at the next gate.
The gate attendant there began to make phone calls and, in short order, she sent me on my way to my next departure gate. One of the flight attendants on my prior flight had found my planner and boarding pass and, even though this was her final destination (and I’m sure she was tired), she had walked my planner to another terminal and left it at my next departure gate.
I have many stories of customer service like this from Southwest airlines. I’ve also blogged about similar experiences while staying at a Ritz Carlton hotel. So, what does this have to do with Krulak’s Law and who is Krulak?
I first read about Krulak’s Law in Seth Godin’s book Linchpin: Are You Indispensible and was reminded of that in Seth’s recent blog post entitled The $50,000 An Hour Gate Attendant…take a minute and read the blog post. He further explains Krulak’s law in this earlier blog post.
Is Krulak’s Law inculcated in your shop? Does your culture empower $50,000 an hour frontline staff?
Photo by University of the Fraser Valley 
Bill Wilson
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Most organizations work like this. If you show iniative expect to be fiored for violating policy when the Yogi Berra moment arrives. You know the saying that goes it is never a problem until there is a problem then it is a problem and the answer is to shoot the employee.