April 3 – JUNE 24
Education Phase
Up to 36 applicants will be accepted into a seven-week online course including live instruction and an opportunity to collaborate with other participants. This is a tremendous opportunity to improve your strategic thinking and leadership skills.
April 2: Kick-off
We’ll get things started with a 90-minute online orientation to help everyone in the 2025 cohort get familiar with what’s to come. We’ll discuss the Virtual Classroom sessions, the Mastermind sessions, business case development strategies and additional resources to help you get the most out of this experience.
Virtual Classroom sessions
Three Virtual Classroom sessions take place every other week on Wednesdays starting at noon Central. These 90-minute interactive online sessions are designed to build knowledge and understanding through connections with subject matter experts and peers. Sessions and instructors are subject to change.
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April 9: What’s the Problem?
Overview
In activities ranging from surgery and aviation to architecture and management, one of the most important first steps in tackling a problem is to define it. But you first have to make sure you are thinking about it in the right way. Using a recipe to bake a cake – a simple problem — is a good idea, but using a recipe to solve a complex leadership problem would lead to disaster.
Your Instructor
Dr. Mario Moussa is an award-winning author, keynote speaker, management consultant and executive educator. He has taught at the world’s leading academic institutions, including NYU, UCLA, Duke, the University of Virginia and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the co-creator of the popular Wharton Strategic Persuasion Workshop. Books by Dr. Moussa include, Committed Teams: Three Steps to Inspiring Passion and Performance, with co-authors Madeline Boyer and Derek Newberry and The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas, co-written with G. Richard Shell. His new book The Culture Puzzle: Find the Solution, Energize your Organization, co-authored with Derek Newberry and Greg Urban, was published in June 2021.
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April 23: Work the Problem with Design Thinking
Overview
How do you create a business venture that is member-centered, and serves an unmet need? How do you design your idea into a product by prototyping and gathering feedback? How can you demonstrate your opportunity is financially viable? This session will arm you with Design Thinking tools to help build your business and limit risk early in your process.
Your Instructor
Katherine Londergan is currently Chief Marketing Officer at Zapata Computing, a startup building software for quantum computing. Her mandate includes market-making for an emerging technology, fundraising, shaping the company’s offering, and designing its brand and business model. Her prior role was a Senior Director at IDEO, a global design and innovation consultancy, where for eight years she used Design Thinking to create new ventures for enterprises seeking transformational growth and helped startups go to market. She worked across industries for clients like Michaels, Liberty Mutual, Exelon and PillPack (acquired by Amazon). Her IDEO work included a venture design curriculum, which has informed her executive MBA lecturing as a Faculty Associate at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and delivery of Executive Education modules at Babson College. Katherine brings experience in business and marketing and her entrepreneurial mindset to every challenge. She thrives when designing new value propositions, brands, business models, and products (digital or physical). Katherine holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Babson and an undergrad degree from Georgetown.
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May 7: Amplify Your Impact by Mastering the Art of Powerful Communication
Overview
How do the best communicators motivate and inspire? In this workshop, you'll learn the secrets of persuasive, engaging and memorable communication. Through a series of videos and interactive exercises, you'll come away with an immediately actionable set of tools that will help you increase your impact through enhanced presentation and impromptu speaking skills.
Your Instructor
Lauren Weinstein is a communication coach and consultant who works with executives, start-up founders, and product leaders across diverse industries. For five years, Lauren taught one of the most popular classes at the Stanford Graduate School of Business – The Essentials of Strategic Communication. She has a popular TED Talk on overcoming limiting beliefs with over one million views and her articles on effective communication have been published in Harvard Business Review and Stanford’s GSB Insights. Through her company Resonate Coaching, Lauren works with private clients, helping them amplify their impact through powerful public speaking, leadership, and interpersonal communication skills. Lauren received her B.A. in psychology from Stanford University and her J.D. from Stanford Law School. She also studied coaching and leadership development at the international Coaches Training Institute.
Mastermind sessions
April 16, April 30 and May 14
Three Mastermind sessions take place on the Wednesdays between each Virtual Classroom session starting at noon Central. These 90-minute online discussions support the application of learning and guide business case development. The CUES Emerge Masterminds are an integral piece of this program, offering guidance and support to program participants by leveraging their industry expertise and past program experience.
Masterminds
Business case development
Due June 23
As part of the program, you will develop a business case to drive innovative ideas to support your credit union and community. You will connect with your CUES Emerge Mastermind and peers for support and guidance. Your finished business case will be approximately three to four pages in length and will include:
Project description
Benefits and rationale
Brief timeline
Resources required
Expected financial return
Potential risks
Basic financial performa (hypothesis of financial performance)
Earn your Certified Credit Union Manager designation
The Certified Credit Union Manager designation will be provided upon completion of the education phase and review of your submitted business case. This designation from CUES is given in recognition of the individuals strong commitment to their career, credit union and the industry.