NEW YORK–Must innovation always compete with “Only if I Win” collaboration? Why the tension between large and small CUs? Are credit unions headed for celebration, disruption or extinction?
Those provocative questions and others were part of the discussion at the “Underground Collision” conference here sponsored by Mitchell Stankovic & Associates at which voices from across credit unions offered some unique perspectives. Among those addressing the meeting was Frank J. Diekmann, cooperator in chief at CUToday.info.
Among those giving attendees something to think about was Randy Karnes, CEO of CU*Answers in Grand Rapids, Mich.
“Usually, people just endorse innovation and collaboration,” observed Karnes. “It’s intuitive that it will work. I find that to be kind of whiny. If you have a goal that everybody has to win, that’s not quite how it works. From my standpoint, you need self-interest for collaboration to work, some sense of expected outcomes.”
What Karnes said seldom happens in collaborative endeavors is the participants never get around to “negotiating what a ‘win’ would be.”
We never get around to negotiating what a ‘win’ would be.
Sarah Canepa-Bang, EVP with CO-OP Financial Services, who will be retiring at the end of May, said another aspect of cooperation that is often overlooked is that “cooperation is hard. The enemy of cooperation is ego. Yes, you have to put your members first, but there are no members if there is no movement.”
Canepa-Bang added that among the challenges to credit unions is the need to “make cooperation cool.”