Will credit unions get this right?

The cause that each and every Credit Union fights for is just. The cause itself is necessary in my opinion. The need to help your membership achieve financial literacy, independence and success is being corrupted by tired processes, outdated bureaucracies, and stuff that won’t die and go away.

Will your Credit Union get this right? If the entire movement is about helping the member…then what must change in how you approach your work life? The status quo must be challenged.

Say what you will about Jim Blaine at SECU – and his break-up with CUNA, etc. – but he has shaken up what many thought was assumed/required. He simply asked this question (among others), “Why and how will this association help our membership, and is it worth the cost?” Do you ask this question about the things you do at your Credit Union? This is leadership.

Does your Credit Union have sacred cows that must be challenged? Get busy. The responsibility for Credit Unions to face up to the reality of what you can and should be doing – not what you have/had done – is essential in leading the charge to truly serve members in the decades ahead. What if you don’t? What do you think?

You could rifle through the responsibilities of virtually every department at your Credit Union and find scads of stuff your folks should stop doing. You should question why your process is what it is. Have you established a bureaucracy to solve problems that don’t even exist anymore? Are you staffing these bureaucracies in such a way that it feeds a beast and makes it harder to kill?

To amplify this, I once heard of a CEO who asked his senior team at a meeting if the 2 reports he was holding were still essential for producing, printing and distributing to each of them. Producing these reports taxed the time of the I/T staff greatly. The response was unanimous, “Yes, these reports are vital to our managing the institution,” they responded. “Hmmm”, the CEO said.

The CEO continued by asking, “If this information is so important, may I ask why not one of you has asked for this information, even once, in the last 60 days? You see, I asked I/T to stop producing this report. You haven’t seen it in two months.”

Guess what won the day? Common sense…which I have found is none too common.

Will you start asking hard questions? This is leadership. Will you get this right?