Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

I remember the first time I rode in an Uber.

This is perfect! Clean. Reliable. Affordable. 

Everyone will ride with Uber. Why would anyone do anything else?

The world doesn't work like that, though. Seth Godin wrote a recent column that really spoke to me and what we do in credit unions.

For a generation after people realized that smoking would kill them, many smart, informed people still smoked. Then, many of them stopped.

After discovering that an expensive luxury good is made out of the same materials as a cheaper alternative, many people stick with the expensive one. And then they gradually stop going out of their way to pay more.

After a technology breakthrough makes it clear that a new approach is faster, cheaper and more reliable, many people stick with the old way. Until they don't.

And inevitably, it doesn't matter how much people discover about their favorite candidate, they seem impervious to revelations, facts and the opinions of others. For a while, sometimes a very long while. But then, they assert that all along they knew something was amiss and find a new person to align with.

Computers don't work this way. Cats don't have a relationship like this with hot stoves. Imaginary logical detectives always get the message the first time.

For the rest of us, though, the flip isn't something that happens at the first glance or encounter with new evidence.

Why wouldn't everyone be in a credit union? Why isn't our market share more? I would love a silver bullet. I love this video about the credit union difference. Many of you have seen it and shown it to others. Things like that can help. But how do we change the minds of a country? Of a generation?

Godin had words of wisdom here as well.

If you want to change people's minds, you need more than evidence. You need persistence. And empathy. And mostly, you need the resources to keep showing up, peeling off one person after another, surrounding a cultural problem with a cultural solution.

Silver bullets are great and seem efficient. But they are rare. The tenacity and power to peel off one person and teach them the credit union difference is within us all. 

That's Briggs, trying to use Penn State FCU's ATM four years ago...