The FARE Framework & Cross-Functional Understanding

This week we began our second round of the FARE Framework Series at Northwest Federal focusing this time on sharing the information with our AVPs and those VPs who were unable to attend the first set of courses in August. While the coursework itself went very well with the modifications made after the first round, the star of the show was the atmosphere of learning and cross-functional engagement that occurred in both sessions. Very few times in my professional career have I reached the end of a training session and felt it wasn’t quite long enough and there was still more to be discussed. This was definitely the case as I pointed out the fact we had reached time during our sessions and participants stuck around discussing the key topics for a while longer.

 The exciting pieces were the broad discussions of how certain functions impact others both directly and indirectly especially as team members examined how revenues flowed through the various processes of the Credit Union, expenses were incurred to service members’ needs, or how decisions of one area to purchase equipment or software impacted others through streamlining processes, installation, or vendor reviews. These light bulbs of understanding kept going off as participants were not only gaining a greater level of understanding of financial management but how the Credit Union operates holistically.

While this piece is really transformational, it is also fundamental to building a successful leadership succession pipeline. In my prior blog I discussed the Strategic Development Model which is built primarily for executive leadership and senior management development. One of my colleagues, however, quickly brought it to my attention that this formula should be used for management at all levels, with each level having a slightly different formula. Her example was a successful branch manager must learn about leadership, operations, and financial management to run his or her branch successfully. However, they must also have a bit of focus on strategy concerning how they differentiate themselves from other branches nearby and should understand how a mortgage or credit card application will impact other departments in the Credit Union and this builds a career path for the manager in other areas of management or in his/her chain of command.

After my discussion with my colleague, my level of excitement grew for the upcoming sessions which will involve managers and rising stars in our organization. Those sessions are currently scheduled beginning in October through June of 2018.

In the short term, we will be finishing the second round of courses and holding a graduation ceremony for all those who have participated so far. I look forward to sharing more at the CEO & Executive Team Network in Las Vegas.

Until then, click her to learn more about the FARE Framework and my project

Derek Fuzzel