Organizations that lack clear and reinforced corporate core values leave behavioral norms up to individual interpretation or individual preference. When organizational values are left to the individual desires of employees, bad things can, and will, happen. 

In this podcast, we will explore the common causes of values breakdown, and in the process define the appropriate ways to put organization-wide values to work.

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Most of the time, if not all of the time, the expectations of someone empowering others will not be met. This happens either because the empowered fails to take the responsibility far enough, or because they take it too far. It seems impossible to meet in the middle, with effort equaling expectation. 

Though it seems impossible, it isn't. The challenge with empowerment comes from the lack of a clear explanation of what is specifically meant by "empowerment." Simply put, communicate "empowerment" clearly, and train appropriately, then step back and watch your efforts blossom into an efficient workforce poised to win.

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The successful deployment of an outsource or vendor/partner strategy isn’t all that complicated if you remember two things. First, that you should only outsource functions to partners that are not core competencies or strengths you possess, and second, that the performance of your vendors and partners must be monitored, specifically with regard to their ability to support your long-term objectives and supplement your own strengths. 

Vendors and partners are critical to operations, perhaps more so now than ever, and successful credit unions will be the ones that realize that vendors and partners are not a place to dump unwanted activities, but a means to strengthen competitive advantage and better leverage core competencies.

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Consistency is the hallmark of successful brands. Enduring brands consistently supply their products or services to consumers. In this, I think of McDonalds, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks and other companies that deliver the same experience no matter the location, route, or store. No doubt, there are times when these brands stumble, or profits flag, but companies of this type find ways to survive and outperform peers regularly. Consumers love consistency, and arguably these brands are loved for the consistency they promise, and deliver, to consumers. 

What sets them apart? How is it that they have found the ways and means to maintain their successes? The answer? Their structures are aligned with their core purpose, their reason for being, and rarely do they make mistakes that result in misalignment.

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Have you ever looked at the multitude of business books available for your reading pleasure? Consider the New York Times paperback best seller list. Second on the list is Getting Things Done, a book about increasing performance. Fourth on the list is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, a book of similar focus. There are many others, all bent on helping people and businesses be better at doing stuff - otherwise known as executing. 

Now, many of these are not newly published! Some have been around for years. So why, you may ask, do they still appear at the top of best seller lists sometimes more than a decade after publication? I think it has to do with a continuing problem with execution, this concept of getting things done.

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Is your credit union competent? Can that competency be leveraged? I would argue that very few credit unions have maintained a level of competency that can be leveraged. I believe this mainly because as credit unions have lost their original common-bond sponsorships that served to subsidize operational costs, the prevailing business models have become a mishmash of strategy. 

While credit unions are mostly good at what they do, the reality is that competence is watered down, with divergent areas of focus and strategy competing for time, energy and financial resources. 

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Apparently we have a problem with communication. If you google the word, the first page of results seem to all lead to methods for fixing communication problems. Look to the top book titles involving communication. They all offer tips for better communication. In fact, according to a few of the search results and published resources, “faulty communication causes the most problems.” 

We’ve been talking, as the human race, for thousands of years. You would think by now we would have figured it out!

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In some ways, credit unions today are acting much like the industry described in Michael Porter’s 1985 book Competitive Advantage. In certain cases, inefficiency and misalignment have resulted in bloated organizations unable to maintain the competitive advantages inherent in the credit union charter. The only way out is to embark on an effective realignment effort along the lines defined by Porter’s value chain concept.

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Planning, contrary to the beliefs of some, is a critical exercise. Not only does it help you define where you will allocate available resources, but it helps you understand just which emerging opportunities you should take advantage of. So what is the problem with planing? Simply this: many engaged in the planning process do so in such a limited fashion that the plans they make may as well be worthless.

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Service is what characterizes our institutions, it is what endears us (or not) to consumers, and it is the very reason people come back again and again or recommend us to friends and family. In this day and age, it seems that there is a real, measurable, decline in the quality of service - especially in the financial arena. Drives to push consumers into self-service channels have removed human interaction, and with it our communication and feedback loops. While some are content to suffer the consequences, for those still committed to delivering quality service this presents a huge opportunity to excel.

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