LAS VEGAS–Which is more important in leading a credit union: Emotional intelligence or digital intelligence? Four people here debated that question, with two people arguing each side, respectively.
The debate took place during Mitchell Stankovic’s "Underground Collision: CUSO Mayhem event," which was held in conjunction with the NACUSO Network meeting.
Participating in the discussion were Becky Reed, president/CEO of Lone Star CU and Chad Ritchie, CIO with Ventura County Credit Union, both of whom took the emotional intelligence viewpoint; and George Estrada, principal strategist-CUs with AWS, and Ed Chuang, EVP and CIO with Logix FCU, who took the position of digital intelligence as being most critical.
Here's a look at what was discussed:
Reed: I am a technologist and have a tendency to embrace technology solutions, but technology is only as good as the person using it. I take the emotional intelligence side. Data can’t provide insight. That requires human interpretation. Technology can provide trend analysis, but it can’t provide a strategic vision. Data doesn’t collaborate, it doesn’t inspire. Humans create that. Ultimately, you have to decide how best to utilize it. Credit unions are in the business of people, ultimately.
Estrada: We need to bring in other stakeholders. (People) will say we need to be data driven, but what does that mean? They say, ‘You figure it out.’ Research by MIT found organizations that had three or more leaders who are digitally savvy, someone who knows what the impact of technology on their line of business will be, can almost double their efficiency and productivity, and also see 15% higher profits vs. the competition. Organizations like that tend to go from command and control teams to coach and advise teams.
Ritchie: I still believe in digital intelligence, but I'm going to take the emotional intelligence side, as well. I like George's argument. I believe that the focus needs to be on outcomes. As a CIO my job is to deliver information securely at speed and at scale at the end of the day. Information has to be consumable by the people in the business lines and it's really about the employees and the members.
We have to focus on those outcomes that they're getting from technology and we have to be emotionally intelligent to understand that it's not about whether I use the AWS or Azure.
The decisions that are important at the end of the day and what we need to be thinking about is what is the member going to feel when they're interacting with us? If they decide to go through a digital channel and then step off to a physical channel and they want to get back on to a digital channel, that's great, but how to they feel about a process that's painful, that causes friction, that causes them frustration? As technologists, we haven't done our job.
Can’t Overlook Employees
We have to focus on the emotional piece of this, and that goes for our employees, too. If they're dealing with technology that is painful or they can't use it, at the end of the day if they're frustrated when they're interacting with our members, members can get frustrated. We have to take care to make sure that as we're developing these solutions we're taking into account everything at the executive level throughout the organization. We have to make sure as we’re having these conversations that it's not just about the technology, it's about the emotions that we're creating.
Chaung: I feel that oftentimes as credit unions when we talk about digital we fall into a trap that it’s digital with the lowercase ‘d’ and that's digital as a project. We love to compare digital as a channel with the branches or the contact center, but you have think about it in another way, digital with a capital ‘D.’
Look at the language that Chase uses and how they're reaching out to millions of Gen X users they're winning over. Digital is about aspiration, it's a lifestyle. Digital is about letting someone use a QR code so they can enhance their experience. Digital is about being able to bid on curated dining experiences with the celebrity chef. Digital is about the 25-year-old female startup founder that's trying to balance her life productivity and her family.
New Commercial, Old Perception
I hopped in my rental car last night and I heard a radio commercial from a local credit union and they were talking about digital as a convenience so that they could bring in deposits. These are decades-old terminology and really doesn't resonate with the generation of today. We're debating as if it's still a debate over whether or not digital should be the center of our business. One thing I see in credit unions is when it comes to digital, it’s often just one person in the room saying it. They are saying it to boards who won’t even turn on their cameras during (Zoom) board meetings.