One of the First Steps to Accelerate Organizational Performance

The 22 years I spent at Enron was an unbelievable learning opportunity in understanding what it takes to create a high performing Innovative Culture. My first role in the newly formed company, Enron, was to "fix" a problem that our President was having as he tried to meet with our customers about a contractual issue. Because the invoices they had been receiving from Enron were incorrect the customer was unwilling to talk to him about anything else until the Invoicing was fixed. I was asked to fix the problem. Of course this "fix" was more complicated than anything I could do by myself. The fix involved not only the department that I was responsible for but, as in most organizations, involved multiple departments that were contributors to the final invoice. This was the first leaning experience at Enron that taught me how important a culture of cooperation was to the ultimate success of the entire organization. One of the leaders of one of the critical organizations in the invoicing process told me that he was "big and mean" enough to figure out what needed to happen by himself. Instantly I was thrown into understanding how to change that leaders attitude and if I did not it would ultimately impact my success.

If you look at any issue or function within an organization it requires cooperation across departments to service a customer....only creating a culture of cooperation can the ultimate customer be served with excellence. Accelerating Organizational Performance has to include creating a culture of cooperation.