Changing Your Credit Union’s Culture

 
 

Culture change. Talk about a buzzword in today’s credit union community. In fact, throwing out the words “we need to change our culture” could win you a great game of buzzword bingo. But the reality is changing your credit union’s culture is not just a buzzword—it’s something many credit unions should indeed explore.

While it’s easy to throw out the words “culture change,” it is in fact much more difficult to actually do it. So how can your credit union change its culture?

“Culture change is not a one-size-fits-all situation,” says Matt Monge, vice president of People & Development at Fort Campbell Federal Credit Union (and also president of the Mojo Company, a consulting firm specializing in organizational culture). “For some credit unions, there really does need to be a significant change in direction: from a culture defined by politics, confusion, silos and lack of leadership to one marked by passion, commitment, strong leadership and fun. For others, it’s more a matter of discovering and living more loudly the culture that’s already in place.”

Monge notes that an organization’s culture is like its DNA. He suggests that changing a credit union’s culture means finding their voice, telling their story and then living their story. He remarks that there are signs when a culture change might be in order.

“Without constant attention and focus, even the healthiest of cultures can go south quickly,” Monge says. “Some signs that might be happening would include absence of innovation, lack of employee engagement, lack of passion and excitement, interdepartmental turf wars, lots of internal politics, lack of healthy conflict, lack of fun, weak and/or disengaged leadership, lack of genuine cohesiveness on teams and so on.”

Monge offers a list of questions you can ask to help determine your culture:

• Who are you?
• What makes you tick?
• What is your credit union’s story?
• Why is the market better for you being there?
• Are you making a difference?
• Are employees actually excited to come to work every day or do they dread it?

“After you’ve really worked through those questions, you’ve got to take concrete and intentional steps to either build or further cultivate that culture,” Monge says.

“Corporate mission statements and core values lists are filled with buzzwords and clichés,” he adds. “Until those ideas are actually woven into the fabric of an organization, they’re worthless. Too many organizations mistake their excitement about a shiny, new idea for actual cultural identity to change. Credit unions need to take an honest look in the mirror.” 

Comments

[Ron Shevlin]

I don't get why this notion of "culture" is cloaked in mystery. Want to change your credit union's culture? Fire the entire management team, and bring in a new team.

Unless you hired a set of exact clones, the culture will change. Pretty fast, in fact.

Don't want take that drastic a step? Good luck. Reality is that executives with 15 to 30 years of experience have mental models about what works and what doesn't. About the only way they'll change those models -- and thereby enabling a change of culture -- is if there's a burning platform (i.e, the CU is about to go under).

Matt's list of questions are great, but -- and I bet Matt would agree -- a CU can't get bogged down answering those questions. Their time is better spent figuring out what to do, not coming to consensus on those questions.

I think this discussion is critical, because as I talk to a lot of CUs for my research, many say they want to instill a "sales culture."

It's really pretty easy (in theory) -- hire some SALESPEOPLE and change people's incentive and pay structure. Watch the culture change pretty fast. Of course, it won't be without a fair degree of pain. But I hope nobody thought that changing the culture was going to be easy.

[Janine McBee]

Oh Ron, not all "seasoned professionals" are set in their ways. Want fresh perspectives? Want change? Make the decision to be deliberate about connecting with people outside of your demographic profile. Take time to listen and engage. Have meaningful conversations.

Personally believe if we all take responsibility for our own actions and behavoirs, instead of blaming others or systems, there are many opportunities to make a difference and influence change.

[Matt Monge]

Ron, thanks for joining the discussion, and again, I really enjoyed your talk on Quantipulation at the Water Cooler.

In regards to the topic at hand, you're right, culture shift isn't easy. I think that's partly why many can't figure out exactly how to do it. It's--as you said--"cloaked in mystery." And yes, you could fire an entire management team and bring in new people; and yes, that would create a change in the culture. But not all culture change is for the better. That's why, in my estimation, it's so important that you have the plan and the courage to do it well.

While I'd agree with you that I don't think CUs should ponder those questions to the point of paralysis, I do think it's very important that questions like that are really wrestled with, discussed, and even argued about. Without answering those questions (it doesn't have to be those exact questions, just questions that get to the heart of who are you are, how you think, etc), how do they really know they want to embrace this sales and service thing? Choosing a sales and service culture speaks to who you are, what makes you tick, and so on. If you don't grapple with those questions, you're going to be chasing every single new and shiny idea that comes into the market or is in a book or happens to pop into some executive's head after late night Taco Bell. Having answers to those questions provides an appropriate framework within which you can think through issues like the sales culture and so on.

Now, to stick with your example, if you've decided that embracing a sales and service culture is part of the answer to your credit union's questions, then would come the step of going out and making it happen (hiring salespeople, adjusting the incentive plan, and so on). And to your point - yes, I do think there is a line that many credit unions cross and they end up navel-gazing forever instead of doing something about their culture issue.

It's funny, because a credit union's culture, and specifically their executive team's micro-culture, will determine how well they're even able to think and work through this sort of thing in a way that's helpful and doesn't take from now until retirement to figure out.

[Amanda Thomas]

Janine and Matt both hit that nail on the head with the individual leaders and the "micro-culture" of the leadership team. And I believe the cornerstone of a good culture is trust.

Tellers, Member Relations, Back Office and Supervisors all mirror the kinds of behaviors and conversations they see from the leadership team. The first step to changing an organizational culture is to take a good long look at yourself in the mirror and do the work to become a great leader yourself. The rest of your leadership team (or management, whatever you want to call it) needs to do the same.

A great book to get you started is The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey. We had all of our leaders read this book and have the hard conversations. It has worked wonders for the "micro-culture" of my leadership team.