When I am watching football in my basement on Sundays during the season, I am selfishly engaging in work essential to my understanding and assistance of the credit union industry. Now that the season is over, there is much to be learned about working in a successful organization from watching the Eagles (35) and the Chiefs (38). What a great game! Here are some examples.

1. Everyone has a role to play. If you only watch the Super Bowl, football may appear to you to be little more than a gladiatorial struggle during which freakishly fast and strong men either try to violently tackle each other or avoid such a fate. The most basic job of a coach in football is to break down complicated plays into individual responsibilities. Suddenly, a wide receiver only has one route to run, a running back one area to block and a quarterback has a limited number of options depending on the play call. In other words, everyone has an individual responsibility, and trust that the other person is going to do his or her part of the job. Similarly, many an outsider would be overwhelmed if they ever were put in charge of running your credit union and told they were responsible for everything from customer service to making loans to guarding against bad guys. A successful credit union has distinct and well understood responsibilities for its employees.