Keystone Habits

Last updated on: April 20, 2022 at 1:33 pm by Richard E. Simmons III

Keystone Habits 2022-04-20T13:33:44-06:00 Richard E. Simmons III

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Back in 1987, Alcoa hired Paul O’Neil as its new CEO. Alcoa, which had been in business for over 100 years, was struggling and needed new leadership. O’Neil was a former government bureaucrat that no one had ever heard of.

The company scheduled an investor meeting in a large New York ballroom to introduce O’Neil for the first time. The room was packed as he began his remarks.

I want to talk to you about worker safety. Every year, numerous Alcoa workers are injured so badly that they miss a day of work. Our safety record is better than the general American workforce, especially considering that our employees work with metals that are 1,500 degrees and machines that can rip a man’s arm off. But it’s not good enough. I intend to make Alcoa the safest company in America. I intend to go for zero injuries.

O’Neil hadn’t said anything about profits. He didn’t mention taxes. There was no talk of “using alignment to achieve a win-win synergistic market advantage.” For all anyone in the audience knew, given his talk of worker safety, O’Neill might be pro-regulation, or worse, a liberal. It was a terrifying prospect.

Eventually, someone raised a hand and asked about inventories in the aerospace division. Another asked about the company’s capital ratios. O’Neill said:

I’m not certain you heard me. If you want to understand how Alcoa is doing, you need to look at our workplace safety figures. If we bring our injury rates down, it won’t be because of cheerleading or the nonsense you sometimes hear from other CEOs. It will be because the individuals at this company have agreed to become part of something important: They’ve devoted themselves to creating a habit of excellence. Safety will be an indicator that we’re making progress in changing our habits across the entire institution. That’s how we should be judged.

The investors in the room almost stampeded out the doors when the presentation ended. One jogged to the lobby, found a pay phone, and called his twenty largest clients.

“I said, ‘The board put a crazy hippie in charge and he’s going to kill the company,’” that investor told me. “‘I ordered them to sell their stock immediately, before everyone else in the room started calling their clients and telling them the same thing. “It was literally the worst piece of advice I gave in my entire career.’”

Within a year of O’Neill’s speech, Alcoa’s profits hit a record high. By the time O’Neill retired in 2000, the company’s annual net income was five times larger than before he arrived, and its market capitalization had risen by $27 billion. Someone who invested $1 million in Alcoa on the day O’Neill was hired would have earned another million in dividends while he headed the company, and the value of their stock would have been five times greater when he left.

What’s more, all the growth occurred while Alcoa became one of the safest companies in the world. Before O’Neill’s arrival, almost every Alcoa plant had at least one accident per week. Once his safety plan was implemented, some facilities would go years without a single employee losing a workday due to an accident. The company’s worker injury rate fell to one-twentieth of the US average.

So how did O’Neill make one of the largest, stodgiest, and most potentially dangerous companies into a profit machine and a bastion of safety? By attacking one habit and then watching the changes ripple through the organization.

“I knew I had to transform Alcoa, but you can’t order people to change. That’s not how the brain works. So I decided I was going to start by focusing on one thing. If I could start disrupting the habits around one thing, it would spread throughout the entire company.”

O’Neill believed that some habits have the power to start a chain reaction, changing other habits as they move through an organization. Some habits, in other words, matter more than others in remaking businesses and lives. These are “keystone habits,” and they can influence how people work, eat, play, live, spend, and communicate. Keystone habits start a process that, over time, transforms everything.

I believe there is one “keystone habit” that should override all others. It will change everything in your life. The habit I am thinking of is spending time with God. Seeking Him each day. It is the nurturing of the soul as we allow Him to speak to us through the Bible and as we develop an effective prayer life. I have witnessed the transformation of many people’s lives as they deepen their relationship with Him. Make this a habit and it will truly make an incredible difference in your life.

Richard E Simmons III is the founder and Executive Director of The Center for Executive Leadership and a best-selling author.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

April 15, 2022

The Humble Christ

Next Post

April 29, 2022 Understanding Vladimir Putin

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Character Development Inspiration Leadership Life Purpose Personal Growth Relationships Seeking God Spiritual Truth The Bible True Masculinity Uncategorized Wisdom

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: James teaches that pure religion before God is to visit orphans and widows in their trouble.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE