Four ways to get executive buy-in to your creative ideas

by: Alex Castley

Since the Next Top Credit Union Executive competition, people have asked me how to get buy-in from their executive team for some of their creative ideas.  I’m lucky enough that the executive management at my Credit Union allows for creativity to flow and has given us the freedom to execute on some of the zany stuff we have done.  But it wasn’t always so easy.  When we made our first Banks? No Thanks! video, it was met with a certain level of skepticism from most people.  The CEO was encouraging, but there was hesitation from most as YouTube and social media were not ‘things’ we had done before.  To help you get your zany, innovative ideas accepted, I’ve compiled a list of four ways to get executive buy-in to your creative ideas.

  1. Hire the right executive team.  Okay, maybe it’s not your choice.  But having a strong supportive executive team to begin with is critical!
  2. Do your homework.  Who can you engage with your idea?  What benefits might it have?  What is your Credit Union missing out on? For us, we knew we needed to pay attention to the younger demographic for sustainability.  Yet, all of our existing touch points with potential members were through channels focused on an older demographic (e.g., newspaper).  To attract a younger demographic, we needed to do something different.
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