UPSIDE DOWN EXCELLENCE

Quality that's simple

We're continuing looking at Paul O'Neil's story at Alcoa.

One of the first things he did was to find Common Ground that everyone, from VPs to Union stewards, would agree with.

When Paul O’Neill became CEO of Alcoa, he opened his first press conference with a line that surprised everyone: “I intend to make Alcoa the safest company in America.”

Analysts expected talk of profits and efficiency, but O’Neill understood something deeper.

Safety.

Safety was a universal value. “Because no one can argue with safety,” he later said. Everyone could rally behind it.

That’s how he built alignment.

​

The principle: If you want commitment, start where people already agree.

When you look for improvement opportunities (reducing defects, speeding up response time, or building culture), first find the value everyone shares. Then design your improvement around that.

​

Here’s how it played out for me.

In one organization, I spent my first month learning, not fixing. I asked questions, shadowed processes, and mapped out frustrations. The loudest pain point? Feedback. Everyone claimed to value it, but no one trusted the process. Employees felt ignored; managers said they never saw input fast enough.

So, we built a lightweight project management system to track feedback. It took effort and patience, but the alignment was already there. People wanted it to work. That’s why it succeeded.

This one change opened the door for more. We've gone on to revamp Management Review, Customer Complaints, Audits, and APQP all with this same project management software. All because I started with Common Ground.

If you start with Common Ground, you're improvement efforts will be much smoother.

​

What you can do this week:

1. Learn what your organization values. Identify those key values (e.g., safety, customer success, teamwork)
2. Find a recurring pain point linked to that value.
3. Make your improvement fix that problem.

You’ll find resistance fades when people see their values reflected in the change.

That’s the quiet power of starting with common ground.

Start where agreement already exists, and watch your systems evolve with you.

​

Here's the full Paul O'Neil Story:

​