Successful Organizations Published Sept. 7, 2012 By Col. Douglas Schiess Commander, 45th Operations Group PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- First of all I want to say how excited I am to be a part of Team Patrick. This first month has been awesome as I got to learned about the missions we do here across the 45th Space Wing and with our many mission partners. It was also an incredible experience to take part in my first launch as we worked with NASA and other mission partners to safely launch the two Radiation Belt Storm Probes into orbit. What a great team we have! In my first Commander's Call with the men and women of the 45th Operations Group, I implored them to take on four top priorities I had for them. However, those priorities are not limited to the Operations Group, but can be a part of any successful organization. First, any successful organization must conduct flawless operations. This is especially important for those of us in the military and, quite frankly, our nation's leaders demand it of us. All Airmen; officers, enlisted, civilian and contractors, need to do their mission without errors each and every day. It takes a huge team to get us to launch day and if any of those individuals are not doing their respective tasks flawlessly then the whole mission is in jeopardy. Each of us needs to wake up every day and dedicate our efforts to perform our missions without error. Secondly, successful organizations need to be efficient. There is no room to do things the same way we always have just because that is how it was done in the past. We need to look for ways in our units to accomplish our missions more efficiently. Efficiency brings about changes that can make us better and allows us to devote time to the extremely important portions of our mission. However, efficient does not mean we simply cut corners or we don't care about compliance. Efficiency is accomplishing actions in the best way to use our resources in the best way with the best outcome. It makes us better. Additionally, we have to develop the next leaders of the Air Force. We need to make sure there are capable leaders behind us. That next generation only becomes great leaders if they are developed. In our fast-paced world we sometimes forget to develop our people and we blame that on needing to get the mission done. That may work for the short term, but in the long term we won't have the right people prepared to take our places. This is not just a job for senior leaders, but required for everyone who supervises someone. Go the extra mile and work to develop your people. Finally, we are a big family and we need to take care of each other. Many of our Airmen are far away from home and don't have the support networks they are used to. This means stopping to check on the new person that just arrived to your unit, or stopping by to check on someone that has been going through some tough times. People are the most important resource we have and if you take care of them, when you need help, someone will be there to take care of you. If we want a successful organization, we have to put the work into making it one. That takes people willing to dedicate themselves to conducting flawless operations, being more efficient in their duties; developing their people, and taking care of people. I look forward to working with each and every one of you in this endeavor.