An important skill for an agile credit union is the ability tobe decisive in indecisive times. Previously, executives and boardsmade all important decisions once all the facts were in and lengthydiscussions had happened. Sometimes decisions could drag on formonths which frequently caused the prime opportunities to belost.

Today, decisions must be made faster and in some cases, withless than complete information. To wait for all facts to be known,all costs to be completely understood, and to get buy-in from allboard members, most likely the critical moment has passed.

A more agile competitor has grabbed the opportunity while yourcredit union was still thinking. Business opportunities will belost again and again using this time-consuming approval process inthe new economy.

For example, the CEO of one of my client credit unions must getboard approval for any expenditure over $5,000. When this rule (anddollar amount) was established in the 1980s, that may have been amore reasonable figure. Today it's a handcuff to timely decisionmaking.

Decisions in the new economy need to be made with betteragility. The entire credit union needs to be taught how to makeproper decisions by using a basic model that is one of thesimplest, most easily repeatable processes for making gooddecisions at the speed of the new economy.

The OODA Loop is a decision-making tool that allows for realtime decision making as quickly as needed. Currently SEAL teams arebeing taught the OODA Loop because they can no longer wait on thechain of command for decisions. The speed of decision can literallymean the difference between life and death in conflictsituations.

Fortunately, business decision making doesn't have consequencesas dire, but the training and development of real-time decisionmaking can create a more agile credit union in a highly competitiveenvironment.

The OODA Loop

OODA is an acronym for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. As withmost skills, the more a person uses it, the more comfortable theybecome and the more efficient in using it.

Observe

The decision makers must be observant of the choices availablefor the decision. Let's use an example of a credit union wanting togrow using a capital project. The group has to decide whether toopen a branch, or place a few ATMs in new locations, or expandtheir online capability.

Being observant of possible choices and option will answer thequestion: Which of these choices can best serve the credit unionimmediately, in three years, in five years? The best facts oncosts, advantages and potential suppliers need to be gatheredquickly for each possible choice. Observations help gainperspective of the decision at hand.

Orient

Once the board and CEO have made their observations, they needto orient them. What is the intended outcome of the decision? Isthis expansion an effort to attract more prospective members of aborrowing age? Is this capital expense to better serve currentmembers? Is this an effort to directly take on a particularcompetitor? Orientation takes observations and places them in acontext for a decision.

Frequently, this step is lost on most critical decisions. Bankof America raised debit card fees because they failed to ask thecritical question of, “What are we trying to accomplish and whatresponse will we get back?” Obviously, the response was not whatthey desired so they rolled back the fees and lost credibility inthe process simply because they failed to orient theirdecision.

Decide

Once everyone has observed the situation and oriented it withthe credit union's intent, the board is presented with a number ofwell-informed options. In the decide phase of this process theboard completes the analysis of their options and determines whichis the best fit for their desired outcome.

For example, based on observations and orientations of theoptions available, the board has gathered information that says ofall of the choices presented, they believe it is best to spend themoney on online services to reach a younger generation ofborrowers. A board vote should be taken at that time. No needto wait, it's time to act now.

Act

With most major board decisions I've witnessed, once thedecision is made the process slows down. Vendors are asked forbids, then those not in full support of the decision want tocontinue to debate the choice, or the executive is more concernedwith the politics of the board than taking the correct action.

Once the decision has been made to take the best possibleaction, implementation needs to be as swift as the process to thispoint. By continually applying the OODA Loop decision-makingprocess to board decisions, the board will develop a greater levelof comfort with the process. Not only will better decisions be mademore frequently, but the evaluation of poor decisions by walkingthrough the process again will quickly show where the errorhappened along the way.

Decision making in the new economy requires a different skillset and speed, the more split-second decisions you make; the betteryou get at making them and the better you position your creditunion as a leader over the competition as you beat them to thepunch every time.

Russell J. White is a consultant andspeaker from Lake Wylie, S.C.