Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone, Powered by NAFCU

Yesterday, Seth Godin wrote about our terrible "pre-judgment" problem. 

Everyone believes that other people are terrible at judging us and our potential, but we go ahead and proudly judge others on the basis of a short interview (or worse, a long one), even though the people we're selecting aren't being hired for their ability to be interviewed.

The first step in getting better at pre-judging is to stop pre-judging.

This takes guts, because it feels like giving up control, but we never really had control in the first place. Not if we've been obsessively measuring the wrong things all along.

I think we all fall victim to this. As managers, we have trained ourselves to look for problems. To tweak things and make them better. How often do we walk into situations expecting to find something to improve?

A while ago, I asked an experienced CEO if he had advice for someone new in management. He said the following:

As a new CEO, you'll be temped to move the furniture around.  But remember this: The furniture might be where it is for a very good reason. 

Wise advice.

Which brings me to brown M & Ms. I wrote this about four years ago, but it is always one of the more popular discussion points when I do strategic planning or speak to credit unions. I figured it was time to trot it back out.

Legend has it that Van Halen had a clause in its contract that demanded a bowl of M&Ms.  But the clause demanded that all brown M&Ms be removed. 

What jerks!  Just another example of a star losing touch with reality. Right?

Wrong.

The M&M clause was real.  Van Halen did use it.  But not to be jerks.  The following (Huffingtonpost.com) comes from David Lee Roth, the then-lead singer of the band.

“Van Halen was the first to take 850 par lamp lights -- huge lights -- around the country,” explained singer David Lee Roth. “At the time, it was the biggest production ever.” Many venues weren’t ready for this. Worse, they didn’t read the contract explaining how to manage it. The band’s trucks would roll up to the concert site, and the delays, mistakes and costs would begin piling up.

So Van Halen established the M&M test. “If I came backstage and I saw brown M&M’s on the catering table, it guaranteed the promoter had not read the contract rider, and we had to do a serious line check,” Roth explained.

Well then. That paints a different picture, doesn't it?

So often, we jump to conclusions.  We see something we don't understand, and we assume it was done randomly...without thought.  But the furniture and the M&M clause might be there for a reason. 

Have a great week, guys. 

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On Thursday and Friday, I'll be visiting some great credit unions in Virginia and North Carolina. And on Friday, I'll be speaking at the Management Association of Carolina Credit Unions. If you have a local or regional gathering of credit unions and would like a speaker from NAFCU, please let me know.

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Finally, Kate and Mandy went shopping for dresses recently, as First Communion quickly approaches. When did she get this old?