Strategy is fundamental to the success of your credit union, and your leadership and board must continually focus on it. Yet, it's your credit union's organizational culture that enables your strategy to succeed. Culture and strategy are so intertwined that it's fair to say they are on opposite sides of the same coin, and that leadership's primary job is to manage the culture.

The behaviors defining a culture have their foundation in organizational norms. Norms are the conscious and unconscious guidelines and unspoken rules that powerfully influence the thoughts, emotions and conduct of your employees. Over time, the "how we get things done" can arise purposefully through leadership's thoughtful resolve to manage the organization's strategic communication, shared learning and employee experiences based on organizational values. Unfortunately, habits and behaviors can also enter the fabric of the culture in essentially random processes through employee interactions that occur without leadership's direction or knowledge. These norms, which are unintentionally formed, may be counter to organizational values and inhibit senior management's goals to advance the business.