By Ray Birch
MADISON, Wis.—How do CUs get their directors to openly discuss an issue not easily raised in the boardroom, such as lack of diversity and the growing age among directors? Get them to play a board game modeled on one for children.
“We modeled it after Candy Land,” explained Mallory Snader, director of consumer lending at Chartway FCU, in Virginia Beach, Va.
Snader is a member of a Filene i3 team that’s developing a game called “Diversity Drive,” the goal of which is to have credit union board members play the game during an extended board meeting to assess their strengths and weaknesses, diversity and age, learn, and eventually when the game is done develop a strong succession plan to address their findings.
“When you are looking at board diversity and inclusion, that’s honestly pretty heavy stuff,” said Snader. “So the i3 team decided we needed to come up with not such a serious approach to addressing this topic with boards; take a less heavy-handed approach than just having a meeting to address issues facing the board and how to fix them.”
The big challenge with credit union boards, and the reason the game is so important, stressed Snader, is the reality most credit union boards are not representative of their members, either in age, ethnicity and gender. It’s a weak point for credit unions as the industry moves forward, she added.
Oldest of Any Industry
“For example, credit union boards are the oldest of any industry—not just financial services—any industry,” said Snader.
What the board game is most effective at, emphasized Brad Hickey, manager of application development at American Airlines FCU in Fort Worth, Texas, who is also on the i3 team that’s developing Diversity Drive, is starting the conversation about diversity and inclusion and succession planning among CU boards in a “non-threatening” way.
“By playing the game board members learn about their own board, what issues they have, what strengths, opportunities and challenges,” explained Hickey. “Then, once they learn in a fun, non-confrontational way, it is much easier to develop action steps, like succession planning, before the game is done.”
Snader emphasized the game can’t be played in one meeting and would take several meetings over the course of the year to complete and develop action plans. She also explained that while the tool is presented in a board game format, what it really is a facilitation tool.
Facilitator Leads Process
“There should always be someone leading this game to help facilitate the process,” said Snader. “That is our intent. The facilitator takes the board of directors, via Destination Drive, through a journey. The game, via its various stops on the game board, has the groups discussing things, doing research, learning, expanding their knowledge and gaining greater insights into their own team. When they leave the game they all should have a better grasp of the topic of diversity and inclusion so they can make better choices regarding their makeup and succession planning.”
Hickey emphasized the game is “circular” and there is no winner.
“The winning comes from having a stronger, more diverse board,” he said.
Stops Along the Way
The board game, in fact, features a circular path. Along the way, stops include:
- Diagnostic Station, where the board will “understand and define diversity to determine how the organization will proceed”
- Tune Up, where the board “assesses existing policy and procedures, identifies opportunities, and learns about the change process”
- Fuel Up, where the board “builds a team and identifies tools”
- Set the GPS, where the board “aligns goals and determines milestones;” and finally Accelerate, where the board “implements and shares progress.”
Mallory Snader
“The game being circular is, of course, intentional, because with diversity and inclusion you are never done, you are always working to learn more and improve,” said Hickey. “So, the game just keeps on going. Once you hit all the stops you just keep moving ahead and repeat the process.”
Each station of the game has a small set of cards. The cards describe the actions the board needs to take, such as performing research and accessing tools like NCUA’s voluntary diversity self-assessment program.
Getting People to Talk
Snader said not every credit union board will enter the game at the same point.
“We know each board is different, and some may not need to start at the beginning, at the Diagnostic Station they may move ahead to Tune Up,” she said.
What Diversity Drive is really good at, stressed Hickey, is getting people to talk openly in groups about diversity and inclusion.
“We are addressing diversity and inclusion in smaller, digestible steps and tackling the subject in a non-threatening way,” he said. “You bring up diversity and inclusion and many times boards’ defenses go right up. This is a good way to start the conversation in almost a fun way.”
Tough Decisions
“You're learning, you're growing, you're making tough decisions about diversity, and yes, you are expanding your knowledge about the diversity and inclusion space and seeing how your credit union and board shapes up in that respect,” added Snader. “The idea is that were educating our board members so they can make better choices about their succession planning and about their board makeup. That is critical to moving the credit union industry forward.”
Snader said Diversity Drive, which is still being finalized, will be formally presented at the Filene spring meeting May 29 in Seattle.