Cooperation, Collaboration, and Compromise

Co•op•er•a•tion [koh-op-uh-rey-shuhn]
- noun
1. An act or instance of working or acting together for a common purpose or benefit; joint action.

Col•lab•or•a•tion [kuh-lab-uh-rey-shuhn]
- noun
1. The act of working together, especially in a joint intellectual effort.

Com•pro•mise [kom-pruh-mahyz]
- noun
1.  A settlement of differences by mutual concessions; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles, etc., by reciprocal modification of demands.

I hear these three words in the credit union movement over and over. I'm glad I do. After all, each is necessary for us to realize our potential, maximize our impact, and fortify our future. Unfortunately, too many credit unions do not understand their importance. Worse, the ones that do get it sometimes think that doing any of the three without the others is sufficient.

Here's why it isn't.

Cooperation amongst credit unions means that the parties involved work together with a common purpose. I believe credit unions in fact do have a common purpose. There is, however, debate over what that purpose is. Some seem to think our purpose is being the low cost leader in the financial services world. Others think our purpose is to be cooperative banks; different in structure than banks, but direct competitors. Still others believe that credit unions are charitable organizations that fund our good work in the world with financial services. Most of us believe our purpose is some combination of these three. Cooperation, full cooperation anyway, requires a clear purpose. While way too many of us are not on the same page, we are for the most part in the same book. That's a start.

But say we all worked together with a common purpose. Let's say this is it: credit unions exist to provide members with control over their financial lives through the governance of their financial institution, access to affordable financial services, financial literacy education, and community impact. A credit union whose member owners, environmental factors, resources, or board disagree with the collective purpose, or even one component of it, would feel obliged to break from the pack. This is where compromise comes in. Each participant in the cooperative ensemble must be willing to give something, anything, up for the common good. Without compromise, we cannot be cooperative.

What about collaboration? A joint intellectual effort should go like this: a bunch of credit union people, regardless of seniority, sex, title, geographic location, politics or relationship with the meeting scheduler, come together to pick each other's brains about how to tackle a problem. All ideas are taken into consideration, none trumps any other, and collectively a solution is formed from the group that far exceeds the value of a solution any single member of the group could have come up with.

But what if the solution isn't consistent with our purpose as credit unions? Collaboration can yield great ideas, but those ideas need to be put into play and need to be consistent with the entire group's purpose. The solution must be one that credit unions will embrace and pursue. Without cooperation, we cannot be collaborative.

So, how about compromise? This is a touchy subject. There are certain things we should never compromise as credit unions: our autonomy as a movement (ahem, TARP debate), our member-ownership, and our mission, for example. Working within a system, a cooperative of cooperatives, however, we must at times allow ourselves to give up certain things for the greater good. Support of the corporate system has served as a simultaneous point and counterpoint to this statement.

We can't compromise for the sake of compromise. There are some things that we simply should not budge on. This is why collaboration and cooperation become so important. How can we put our collective minds together to create solutions to current problems, cooperate under the flag of a common mission, and give up a little as individual credit unions to see our vision through?

The three C's of credit unioning are easy to say and hard to do. And, try as we might, none of them are sufficient by themselves. 

Partnership Symposium Takeaways

After a few days and finally a few hours of sleep with which to collect my thoughts, let me share a few of my takeaways from the Partnership Symposium hosted by Forum Solutions/Trabian at Forum Credit Union, October 1-2, 2008. This was a truly amazing conference, and I would encourage any of you that get a chance to attend next year. At a minimum, check out the sessions recorded by Brent Dixon here.

1. Be Careful Who You Vote For. I was lucky enough to be voted in as a guest speaker for this conference. I'll be the first to admit that as speakers go, I'm not particularly good. Heck, in the first 5 minutes of my session I thought I was going to pass out from nervousness. I've felt very guilty about my lack of polish since the second I walked on stage. Not that I didn't think I had a compelling story to tell - it's just that I could have told it a lot better. Hopefully, I at least encouraged attendees to reexamine the concept of promoting thrift, and how the services they offer help define what they stand for. Simple passion does not make for a good presentation, but I hope it helped.

2. Technology isn't redefining credit unions - it's allowing us to better implement our founding principles. Matt Dean, William Azaroff, Gene Blishen, and Morriss Partee all discussed how technology can help credit unions build tighter community with members, collaborate with other credit unions, and promote thrift. What was striking to me was the fact that even though their solutions were high tech, they were deeply rooted in traditional credit union philosophy.

3. Forum CU gets it. This is something that became quite clear to me after the Partnership Symposium last year - Forum Credit Union is as classy as classy gets. From the types of attendees and speakers they attracted, to the friendliness and professionalism of their staff, to their unique hosting style, it's immediately apparent that this is a credit union that is progressive, in-tune, and focused on innovation.

4. Ron Shevlin gets it. What made this year's Partnership Symposium for me was the implementation of Ron Shevlin as moderator. Ron's obvious goal was to keep speakers honest about how they presented their information, how/if their stories were relevant to attendees, and whether or not they substantiated their claims. This was no doubt a great experience for speakers and attendees, as it enhanced our presentations, better defined conference takeaways, and (for anyone like me who welcomes constructive criticism) educated us on how to improve our messages. He was seemingly harsh at times, but never irresponsibly. Those who disliked his methods are missing the educational opportunity he provided. Those who listened to his critiques, and tried to understand the reasons behind his lines of questioning, will become better listeners and better speakers.

5. Every credit union needs an Andy Janning. Employee training is an extremely difficult (and often thankless) job - especially in an industry with such frequent changes as credit unions. Forum CU's AVP of Training and Quality Service, Andy Janning, has the perfect perspective on the irreplaceable role a top-notch training program can have on your organization's performance. "Knowledge isn't power, performance is," Janning quipped. You see, he knows that the only measurable in his performance is his trainees' performance. He's not passionate for recognition, he's passionate for people - and his success is evident with every Forum employee you meet.

6. Web 2.0 is cool, but it sucks compared to live discussion. It's strange how much adoration I had for blog/Twitter friends I have never met. It's even stranger when you actually meet those people and they're better than advertised. My virtual buddies, and you know who you are, are true inspirations for me.

7. The right people are unified. I have been distressed over the past few years about an apparent shift from inter-cooperative credit unions to inter-competitive adversaries. I have always thought that we are better off working as a team against banks, than against one another. Some people don't get that...but the attendees at this conference did. This wasn't a place for competition or one-upsmanship, this was a place to learn from one another to improve the services we offer to members. Simple as that. What a refreshing change! Now let's hope it spreads.

8. I've never been more excited about the future of the credit union movement.