The past couple of years have provided multiple sources of external pressures to which credit unions and businesses, in general, have had to adapt. From transforming cultures to revolutionizing technology strategies or internal processes, change management has become a major area of focus for cooperative leaders.
In CreditUnions.com, Lake Jackson, Texas-based TDECU shares lessons learned and advice for how to prepare for, implement, and support major organizational change.
Danny Hurt, vice president of learning and development at $4.7 billion, TDECU has a team within his department that heads up the Change Enablement Strategy. Although the team works closely with the credit union’s project management office, marketing team, and managers and employees experiencing change, the placement of the team under learning and development is no accident.
“Change happens one person at a time,” Hurt says. “We help individuals get through the change curve through training, project work, and individual consulting, as needed.”
TDECU’s team focuses on individual adoption to move people through the change and make the process easier. For small changes, simple communications might suffice for awareness, but major events such as opening a new location or changing the organizational structure require an elongated approach to increase buy-in.
Cascading awareness begins at the executive level, then progresses to the vice president and director level before moving to the manager level and finally to the individual level. According to Hurt, if a manager hasn’t bought in, then neither will their subordinates.
Employees understand that change happens for a reason, but to drive the desired results, Hurt says institutions need to convert those reasons into a clear “what’s in it for me” message tailored for different audiences. Hurt’s team focuses on the positive impacts or how a particular change will help a specific audience or improve processes.
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