PATH OF TOTALITY, U.S.–For Mark Weber, the darkness is about poor data. For Anthony Hernandez, it’s about bringing light to financial readiness. And for Matt Saefkow, it isn’t so much about the light or dark, but instead, it’s about the noise.
Those were just some of the views shared when CUToday.info asked readers, “With the April 8 eclipse nearly here, where do you think CU leaders often find themselves in the dark?”
Over a period of three hours today a solar eclipse will pass over North America, the last such time it will do so until 2044. Beginning in South Texas, the so-called “path of totality” will travel to the Northeast and across Maine and then into Canada (see graphic).
“The two-hour long eclipse will include four minutes, and 28 seconds of ‘totality,’ a completely shadowed sun leaving us completely in the dark. The rest of the time will be a hazy, partial picture of light and dark,” said Mark Weber, CEO of Strum Platform in Seattle. “It sounds a lot like the marketing blackout many credit union marketers face: trying to shed light into member data insights to help hugely varying generations of people struggling with their financial situation.”
Mark Weber
Weber called that scenario a “member marketing eclipse.”
A ‘Murky’ Hunt
“Trying to navigate through this darkness of inadequate, siloed data, to hunt for insights into members lifestyles, pain points, behaviors, financial goals is murky - and it’s a killer trying to tailor relevant, personalized solutions to help people get ahead,” said Weber. “But there is an antidote.”
The antidote, he said, lies in using actionable intelligence and machine learning to identify life stage insights and clear member journeys, and avoids using the “manual processes of marketing in the dark.”
For credit unions, he said, it means putting new light on precision targeting and “total personalization to each member’s unique lives.”
Bringing Light to the Lives of Military Members
Anthony Hernandez, president of the Defense Credit Union Council, agrees with Weber when on the issue of the unique lives of members. In this case, it’s members of the military, many of whom at time of enlistment are unprepared for the battle with their finances.
Anthony Hernandez
“Military financial readiness was always an elusive target/concern,” Hernandez told CUToday.info. “It is easy to define, much harder to measure. The Department of Defense has the same issue.”
“However, credit unions have hard aggregate data that can measure financial readiness for military and veteran members: balance transfers around payday, credit card balances, merchandise returns, etc.,” he said. “Thus, defense credit unions are able to advise their commands on the financial readiness and health of the force and can even offer products and services to help military and veteran members protect or restore their financial readiness.”
Learning to ‘Speak Military’
If there is one area where many credit unions are in the shadow of an eclipse Hernandez said he believes it’s in “understanding how to speak ‘military’ and ‘veteran’ to their members and communities.
“Service to our country comes with unique financial challenges and there are many programs to help military and veterans,” he stated, adding DCUC is available to offer assistance and bring some sunlight to credit unions on the issue.
Eyes on the Sky, But Ears?
Matt Saefkow
While tens of millions of eyes will be looking toward the sky today, Matt Saefkow, second VP-digital solutions with Allied Solutions, said the real issue isn’t the amount of light but instead the amount of noise, meaning members/consumers are distracted and it’s more difficult than ever to get their attention.
“I spend a lot of time talking with leaders about how to break through the noise and earn just a few minutes of their members' attention. This increasing battle for focus is referred to as the Attention Economy, wherein consumers exchange their attention to one brand’s message for another,” Saefkow shared. “When a Facebook ad or text-heavy email campaign falls flat, the same questions come up every time – Is it time to make a video? Will that even help?”
Much like Weber noted, Saefkow said personalization has become a key in being seen and hears, especially in personalized video content. He cited data showing, for example, that there is 95% retention of a message when watched versus read, adding, “1.8 million words equates to one single minute of video.”
A Referral Driver
If a credit union is still not seeing the light, he cited other research showing 78% of customers are more likely to refer a friend to businesses that personalize.
Such campaigns can be expensive, he acknowledged, which is why Allied Solutions introduced its SundaySky video platform in 2022. Using such a solution, Saefkow said credit unions don’t have to “wait for the planets to align to communicate via everyone’s preferred medium – video.”
Other Views on the Darkness
Leaders in the credit union space aren’t the only ones who have pointed to the challenge of being in the dark when it comes to organizational leadership.
Jim Collins, the well-known author of “Good to Great,” said his research has found organizations that have declined often do so as a result of turning to the “dark side,” a process that takes place in five stages:
- Stage One: Hubris Born of Success. “Great enterprises can become insulated by success; accumulated momentum can carry an enterprise forward, for a while, even if its leaders make poor decisions or lose discipline,” wrote Collins. “Stage 1 kicks in when people become arrogant, regarding success virtually as an entitlement, and they lose sight of the true underlying factors that created success in the first place.”
- Stage Two: Undisciplined Pursuit of More. This is about “more scale, more growth, more acclaim, more of whatever those in power see as ‘success.’ Companies in Stage 2 stray from the disciplined creativity that led them to greatness in the first place, making undisciplined leaps into areas where they cannot be great or growing faster than they can achieve with excellence, or both.”
- Stage Three: Denial of Risk and Peril. As companies move into Stage 3, Collins said “internal warning signs begin to mount, yet external results remain strong enough to ‘explain away’ disturbing data or to suggest that the difficulties are ‘temporary’ or ‘cyclic or ‘not that bad,’ and ‘nothing is fundamentally wrong’. In Stage 3, leaders discount negative data, amplify positive data, and put a positive spin on ambiguous data. Those in power start to blame external factors for setbacks rather than accept responsibility.”
- Stage Four: Grasping for Salvation. In this stage, according to Collins, the cumulative peril and/or risks-gone-bad of Stage 3 assert themselves, throwing the enterprise into a sharp decline visible to all. “The critical question is, How does its leadership respond? By lurching for a quick salvation or by getting back to the disciplines that brought about greatness in the first place?”
- Stage Five: Capitulation to Irrelevance of Death. Collins said the longer a company remains in Stage 4, repeatedly grasping for silver bullets, the more likely it will spiral downward. In Stage 5, accumulated setbacks and expensive false starts erode financial strength and individual spirit to such an extent that leaders abandon all hope of building a great future. In some cases, their leaders just sell out; in other cases, the institution atrophies into utter insignificance, and in the most extreme cases, the enterprise simply dies outright.”
Listen for the Silence
One other person offering advice on dangers to organizations and leadership said the most dangerous eclipses occur when a company doesn’t know they are taking place.
Steven J. Thompson, principal at NorthStar Healthcare Advisors, shared that “Not long ago, at a meeting designed to update and review organizational strategy and various tactics, I asked a group of middle managers how they felt about a specific major new initiative our organization was undertaking. The response was a long silence.
“It's the sort of deafening silence that tells leaders that there's a real problem. It isn't necessarily that the initiative is troubled. It's that if it were troubled, I and other senior managers might not have a good way of knowing it, or knowing why,” he observed.
He cautioned that without that feedback and input, leaders are more likely to make flawed decisions that are poorly accepted and implemented and that won't be successfully modified to address shortcomings and changing conditions.
‘They Don’t Know What’s Going On’
“They simply won't know what's really going on in the organizations they lead, whether it's moral, productivity, risk, or market position,” he stated.
In response, leaders must get out of positions of isolation and must be approachable, and must also get creative about how to solicit open, honest input from managers and other employees who are frequently reluctant to provide it on demand.
Simon Sinek
His advice:
- Build a network, not a pipeline.
- Dedicate meeting time for feedback.
- Establish trust.
- Look laterally.
Worth a Watch or a Read
And for CUToday.info readers interested in learning more about avoiding information eclipses, Simon Sinek has a video that has seen more than nine-million views titled, “Most Leaders Don't Even Know the Game They're In.” It can be viewed here.
Meanwhile, the Harvard Business Review offers an analysis of “Why Organizations Don’t Learn” here.
