UPSIDE DOWN EXCELLENCE

Quality that's simple

I used to dislike safety systems. They felt like edicts: “Do it, or else.”

Quality standards (ISO) always seemed friendlier — more latitude, more room to shape the how.

Then I read Paul O’Neill’s story at Alcoa, and my thinking shifted. He turned safety into the company’s North Star and grew the business by 7x!

Paul joined Alcoa in 1987 and scared every investor by declaring he would focus only on safety. He used something no one could argue with to require process changes and improvements. And the results speak for themselves. When he joined in 1987, Alcoa had a market cap of $3.5M. When he left in 1999, the market cap was $27M.

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Here’s a quick summary of his playbook, which is definitely worth borrowing.

Common Ground → Measure → Make Visible → Align Incentives → Persist

Make a universal value the organizing principle. Safety worked at Alcoa because everyone — union and CEO alike — could agree it mattered. Pick a value in your shop that people can’t argue with. Customer success? Worker well-being? Pick one and center it.

Measure that value relentlessly. If you want people to act, show them the scoreboard. Make the metric obvious: pass/fail, parts per million, incidents per week — whatever makes success visible.

Make reporting fast and actionable. Require quick incident reports with recommended fixes. Short feedback loops force teams to get better at solving problems… and fast.

Align incentives to the value. Hire, promote, and let go based on whether people live the value. If leaders ignore the metric, nothing will change.

Stick with it. Culture change is a slow burn. Even when results dip, persistence wins.

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There’s a lot to unpack in Paul O’Neil’s strategy at Alcoa. Over the next few weeks, I’ll break down his strategy, explore examples, and find ways to implement his ideas in our quality systems.

If you’re in, reply with: “safety.”

Have a pressing challenge? Reply with: “Challenge” and I’ll schedule time to work through it and may feature your example in a future newsletter.

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Value for this week:

Examine your organization to identify a core value (and a way of presenting it) that no one can argue with.

We'll use this value over the coming weeks.