Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

A credit union CEO passed along the following "business fable" the other day.

The story begins with a company that makes very large and very heavy pieces of equipment. 

They had a special order for an especially large piece of equipment. They completed the piece of equipment and got it ready to ship to the client. In order to ship it to the client it had to pass over a bridge that was located very close to the plant where the piece of equipment was built.

As the piece of equipment was passing over the bridge, the bridge collapsed and the huge piece of equipment fell into the river. The company quickly went into action and rented a crane that was used to extricate the piece of equipment from the river and place it safely on the plant side of the bridge.

The city which owned the bridge quickly went into action building a new bridge relying on the assumed knowledge that the company would never try to go over the bridge with another piece of equipment that weighed so much.

The company embarked on the project of repainting and repairing the piece of equipment that had fallen into the river. They completed their repairs about the same time that the City finished their project to rebuilt the bridge.

Now it was time to once again transport the heavy piece of equipment to the waiting customer. The people at the plant assumed that the City was surely smart enough to not just replace the bridge but to build it to carry more weight.

The piece of equipment was loaded on to a truck and began the journey to the client’s location. The truck got to the middle of the bridge and once again the bridge collapsed. The company once again rented a crane to remove the piece of equipment from the river, but this time a meeting was called to determine what course of action should be taken this time.

The meeting was called to order and everyone present was asked for suggestions. Finally a hand was raised and the leader of the meeting acknowledged that person and asked them what their suggestion was. The person replied that he thought the company should buy a crane instead of renting one each time.

How many times haven’t we witnessed credit unions ( or whatever other entity you wish to pick) who insist on “buying the crane” instead of fixing the problem. 

The timing of his email was impeccable.  I was just finishing, Lead with a Story.

Paul Smith is the author. Smith was the official executive story teller for Procter and Gamble. A nice gig if you can get it. In his book, Smith walks you through the history of story telling, the structure of good stories - and scores of stories that fit nearly every business situation.  

I speak at a number of conferences each year, so I've already used Smith's guidance in building stories into a talk on the Bank Secrecy Act and risk management. The result was a presentation that stuck with attendees (at least that was the hope) a bit longer. 

If you brief people, make speeches, or give presentations to your board or other groups, the book is worth your time.  At the end of the day, effective communication may be the best tool we have as managers. 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

***

Ladies and Gents, the early bird deadline for our Management and Leadership Institute is quickly approaching.  I hope to see you there.  There's a one-day workshop by John Spence on the Leader of the Future.  And speaking of communication, there's a wonderful communications workshop with Stacey Hanke, a top-notch executive coach and business leader.  Here's a recent article she wrote on the 7 "filler phrases" to avoid when speaking. 

Again, I hope you check out the conference. If you plan on attending, please let me know.