In a candid admission, AT&T's top executive John Stankey has revealed he made a significant error in managing the telecom giant's cultural overhaul. However, his regret is not about the content of his now-famous blunt memo to employees, but about the timing.
The Viral Memo and the CEO's Admission
Speaking at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit, Stankey was asked to name a professional misstep. He acknowledged that he should have prioritised the company's cultural evolution much earlier in his tenure, rather than treating it as one of several competing priorities. "I should have put it at the forefront and forced specific actions to make it happen," Stankey stated, clarifying that his mistake was waiting too long to send the August memo that later went viral.
The lengthy internal document, first reported by Business Insider, outlined AT&T's decisive shift to a "more market-based culture." It sent a clear message to the workforce: embrace the new direction or consider finding work elsewhere. This directive ignited a fierce debate across corporate America about workplace loyalty and changing employer-employee expectations.
Defending the Memo as a Necessary Framework
Stankey defended the memo's intent, urging observers not to "over-rotate" on it. He described it as just one component of a larger framework designed to empower leaders. "It's one of a series of steps in trying to put a framework out there and remove excuses for leaders to lead," he told the summit audience.
The CEO explained that the document was meant to give managers "all the air cover in the world they need" to execute the new vision. It aimed to outline his strategic perspective clearly and enable decisive action aligned with AT&T's future goals.
Sweeping Changes: Return-to-Office and AI Push
This memo was part of a broader set of transformative changes AT&T has implemented over the past year. A key element is a mandatory five-day return-to-office policy. In the August communication to managers, Stankey wrote that employees seeking hybrid or remote arrangements "will have a difficult time aligning" their personal priorities with the company's objectives.
"We run a dynamic, customer-facing business," the memo stated. "If the requirements dictated by this dynamic do not align to your personal desires, you have every right to find a career opportunity that is suitable to your aspirations and needs."
Beyond physical presence, Stankey also highlighted the company's aggressive push for AI adoption among employees. AT&T is providing tutorials and educational tools for upskilling, with the CEO personally monitoring usage metrics. "I want to see who's building their skill set, where they're building, and this is just the next set of skills that people are going to have to have," he emphasised.
The original memo, titled "My Observation on our Employee Survey results," was addressed to all AT&T managers. It came in response to an employee survey where staff requested more transparency from leadership. Stankey used the note to articulate the shift from a culture based on "hierarchy and familial norms" to one focused on "rewarding capability, contribution, and commitment."
He acknowledged the difficulty of such change but quoted General Eric Shinseki: "If you dislike change, you're going to dislike irrelevance even more." The CEO's reflection at the summit suggests that while the message was tough, he believes delay, not the message itself, was the true error in AT&T's journey to reinvent its workplace culture for a new era.
