My neighbor just put in a new pool with a huge brick patio structure including lights, a grilling area, and very stylish furniture. The place looks great! My wife and I watched as our neighbor’s backyard was transformed into a very posh resort area. However, their backyard has now been completed for a couple of months, and to the right of the patio deck there is still a huge mound of sand with grass growing wild, a rusting wheelbarrow, and other remnents of the original construction. The finished pool and patio look great, but from the street it still looks like a construction zone. Why doesn’t the contractor or the family finish cleaning up the job site?
I see this same behavior in many instances. For example, I have seen credit union conversions where the conversion takes place, the credit union is now live, and everyone wants to move on with their lives. However, there are still items that need to be cleaned up. Neither the core processor nor the credit union seem motivated to spend time on the outstanding issues. Everyone gave it their best effort to push the conversion over the finish line, and now going back and working on follow-up conversion items seems insurmountable.
What is it in our personalities that makes this follow up so difficult? We fought hard and won the war…let someone else do the clean-up work. I believe that somewhere in this paradox is what separates good from great. The hardest parts of any project are getting started and completing the follow up post project.
While we focus on every aspect of a project, the success of the project hinges on our ability to push ourselves to complete the follow-up. I was responsible for conversion work earlier in my career, and I was always surprised at how clients viewed our conversions. Sometimes we would do the best conversion and the clients weren’t happy with the results, and other times we didn’t do our best and the clients were happy with our efforts. I now know that this perception of the conversion was tied to what our clients remembered the most; how quickly we completed the list of follow up items and returned the credit union to normalcy.
There are many ways a credit union can help their team achieve great results after change by following up and completing the project. There are five tactics you can take to keep your conversion or migration on track for success.
Team Approach – Before the conversion starts, create a follow-up team tasked with working through the list of outstanding items. By creating this team before you convert, the team members will help ensure the list is short. They will also make sure they are tuned in on all the issues.
Document, Document, Document – We all have someone taking minutes during our meetings. You should have someone documenting the conversion discussions as well. Any issues reported should be recorded and worked during the conversion as well as after the project.
Set Completion Dates – Set a goal to have all outstanding items completed in a specific amount of time. For instance, you should have a quarter of your outstanding issues removed from the post conversion list every month at minimum. Ideally, we make more progress than that. However, post conversion can be a stressful time, and we need to provide time to do our new jobs and work follow-up items.
Meet Regularly – Meet with your management/conversion team regularly on the issues list. Post conversion, you may find you are adding as many new items to the list as you are correcting problems. Meeting regularly with the managers that can get the job done is essential. Schedule your recurring meetings in Outlook.
Don’t Shoot the Messenger – If you want everyone speaking openly and honestly about the issues, then don’t shoot the messenger. We don’t want problems swept under the carpet for someone else to fix, we want to address them head on with all of our strength. It doesn’t matter who’s at fault, we just need to fix the problems and move on.
As a Credit Union Service Organization, United Solutions tries to make a promise, make it personal, deliver on that promise, and then finish the job…until the client is satisfied.
Orginally published on Jim Giacobbe's LinkedIn Page.
