Without Living Our Values, It Can Go REALLY Wrong

In early December of 2001, I was just getting my feet under me in the behavior-based safety role I had accepted in the spring of that year, doing all I could to take care of our young family, and still reeling a bit from our freedom being attacked just a few months prior. I remember seeing the headlines detailing Enron filing for bankruptcy but I won’t pretend that I had a finger on the pulse of all it meant or how it unfolded. In the months and years that follow, however, I read plenty outlining what a lack of values ended up costing so many people who had ties to that organization!

Since that happened more than two decades ago, and since even a shit show that big was overshadowed by what ended up being a global war on terror, let’s take a walk down memory lane. There’s no shortage of articles summarizing that, but here’s what I found called “Enron Code of Ethics” on fbi.gov, something I would have considered a very reliable source just a few years ago, “The executives of Enron defrauded thousands of people out of their life savings, leading to financial ruin for many of the employees that they purported to hold to high ethical standards.”

The article provides what I felt was a comprehensive snapshot of what unfolded and a wide-eyed look at the investigation(s) that followed. After explaining just how much data was seized as evidence, retired Supervisory Special Agent Michael E. Anderson, who led the Enron Task Force in Houston was quoted as sharing this:

“Enron was a company where it was OK to lie; it was OK to cheat as long as you were making money for the company. And that attitude was permissible up to the top levels of the company. Both Skilling and Lay [the former CEOs of Enron], they agreed with that, and they allowed employees, they tolerated transgressions as long as employees were making money for the company,”

As we started down this path, I shared my own recent experience of working with a company that provided a textbook example of how clearly defined values can make a positive impact on each team member AND drive substantial increases in revenue and profitability. If we were to take a quick look at the two side-by-side, we could easily assume that Enron lacked clear values - and we’d be wrong! While there was clearly a lack of living out their values, they did indeed have a clear set identified and posted for the world to see - so we’ll take a look at those next!