NEW YORK–In 1996, to mark its launch, Fast Company magazine hosted an event at which the discussion was all around how to overthrow established companies.
There was, recalled the magazine’s co-founder, much turmoil and turbulence in the market at the time.
Now, 21 years later, “It strikes me that everyone is wrestling with the same questions,” observed Bill Taylor, a co-founder of Fast Company, in remarks to CO-OP’s THINK 17 Conference here. “And that’s because the work of building deep-seated change really has become the defining work of our time. Regardless of the job title, that’s what you’ve signed up for.”
In the middle of all that, said Taylor, what credit unions must identify is a definition of success that allows the CU to stand for something and allow others to stand with it.
At several points in his remarks Taylor stressed his conviction that credit unions have a unique market position that is a strength they are underplaying.
“We are living in a world where ordinary is not an option,” said Taylor. “You can’t do big things better anymore if you just do them a little better than you did in the past. The only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something special. The goal is no more to be the best at what lots of other people do; the goal is to be the best at what only you do.”
The Message Then & Now
While the talk at THINK was concentrated on digital transformation, Taylor stressed that certain things never seem to change, regardless of technology. He noted that in an early issue of Fast Company it published a piece titled “50 Reasons Why We Can’t Change,” which contained no introduction and was simply a numbered list from the author on all the roadblocks to change. What’s most interesting is that the list is still relative in 2017, it was actually originally published in 1959 before being republished in 1996.
“Our message then and my message today is the more things change, the more the worries about and objections to change stay the same,” said Taylor.
Taylor said that one thing that has changed, however, in many organizations is that the risk of trying something new is actually less risky than continuing to do things that worked in the past. He cited the case of fast-growing, Oregon-based Umpqua Bank, which has mushroomed from its small community bank founding into a bank operating across a region of the western U.S. after its management team sat down and re-thought everything. In the process, it has worked hard to maintain the “community” aspect of its being.
For instance, if the bank closes at 6 p.m., it re-opens at 6:01 as a community center that local groups can use.
“Why do they bother? Because A), they want to change the conversation about the role a bank can play in people’s lives,” said Taylor. “If you’re the kind of person who says I’ve got to have a financial institution in my life, it’s kind of nice that every time I encounter my FI they do something that makes me smile and is unexpected. They also want to B), change the conversation with the community about what a community bank can do.”
Taylor called on credit unions to borrow from the Umpqua example. He said the only a sustainable form of business leadership is thought leadership.
“What I would ask you to do is to go home and sit back and set aside the business categories you’ve used to organize the business and ask yourselves what are the small number of ideas that truly differentiate you from others in the field,” said Taylor. “Often, people are asked, ‘What keeps you up at night? But the more powerful question is, ‘What gets you up in the morning?’ What gets you and your colleagues more excited, more creative, and more confident than ever?”
What Successful Organizations Do
The most successful organizations, said Taylor, really do think differently.
“The credit union movement has such an opportunity to make progress on this front. The most successful organizations genuinely do care more about others,” he said. “You’ve got to think about how do we behave in a way that makes us more human? In a world being reshaped in so many ways by technology, authentic, more memorable connections, in a world being reshaped in so many ways by technology, what people are desperately hungry for is a genuine humanity. To me, the real opportunity for credit unions, with their authenticity and sense of mission and purpose, you really have a chance to outthink the competition every day.”
Credit unions, he added, should make sure people understand that they treat members as real-life human beings, because they are made up of real-life human beings and are not a heartless corporation.
“We revel in all this technology. But you’ve got to look at technology as a way of elevating humanity and the person-to-person connections that come alive in your credit union every day.”
Some of the other points raised by Taylor include:
- “What I have seen in iconic, long established organizations like yours is that often-times the better at your job you’ve become, the more successful in your career you’ve become, the longer and better your CU has done, often the harder it is to open your eyes and minds to new ways to interact with members and using technology to solve old problems. We allow all that expertise to get in the way of innovation.”
- “The best leaders I have gotten to know tend to be the most insatiable learners. Yes, they want their organizations to be more interesting, but they worry deep down about keeping themselves interested. They are Interested in the enduring mission of the enterprise and in new ways to bring that mission to life. They are asking themselves, am I learning as fast as the world is changing?”
- The future is rarely created by people who don’t believe in the future. “It’s created by enthusiasts who want something very much or who believe something very much. That to me is a great description of the digital mindset.”
- “Deep down most of us are so afraid of failing or making mistakes that feel embarrassing. But there is no growing or learning or changing without developing the intestinal fortitude to handle the missteps and failures that take place along the way.
Two More Lessons
Before concluding, Taylor also shared two lessons that he, in turn, learned from J. Patrick Doyle, CEO of Domino’s Pizza, which has seen its stock prize zoom from around $8 a share to $186 while Doyle has been in charge.
Doyle said Domino’s had to deal with two mindsets as the company went digital.
1. Omission Bias. “In most organizations, people worry a lot more about actually trying something than not trying an idea, because the worst thing you can do is try something and it doesn’t work. We know how to hold someone accountable for that. But what we have no idea about doing is holding people accountable for an idea that was right there to be seized and leveraged, but the organization/individual chose not to do it because they lacked the optimism/guts.”
2. Loss Aversion. “Just look at human beings. By our nature, what you find is that most of us feel the pain of loss twice as intensely as we feel the thrill of winning. That means most of us play not to lose, as opposed to genuinely playing not to win. Has there ever been a time that calls out for people to be bolder, more decisive, and yet most of us are much more comfortable being cautious and conservative? Another part of the digital mindset for leaders is to give your people permission to play to win, not to play to not to lose.”