Assiniboine Credit Union
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Background
Assiniboine Credit Union has been no stranger to change in recent years. Almost four years ago, three organizations merged to form the current credit union. A year later, another was amalgamated, followed by the entire organization converting to a new banking system. The following year ACU launched a significant process improvement initiative.
In addition to these major initiatives, they continued to introduce new products and services, made changes to align with regulatory requirements, and continued to demonstrate leadership in community renewal, environmental sustainability and co-operative principles.
Why Choose The Change Monitor™?
Keenly aware that the organization had already experienced several high impact changes and that significant changes would continue, leaders wondered how staff were feeling and worried about their capacity to handle the changes yet to come.
“We recognized that we really didn’t know how well we had done in managing change or what our capacity was to continue with change,” said Audrey Maeren, Assiniboine’s Vice-President of Strategy and Corporate Governance. “So we went to the experts at Turner Change Management, who met with us on several occasions, listened to what we had to say and recommended the Change Monitor™ and change audit.
“We believed this would meet our needs because it engaged our leadership groups across the company in providing perspectives and actions, and also supported our culture, which embraces employee engagement.”
Turner Change Management asked Audrey Maeren a few questions after the process was complete:
TCM:What value did the Change Monitor™ give your organization?
AM:The change monitor allowed us to assess our capacity for change and identified high energy areas and areas of worry from which we could take action. It engaged our leaders in the process and provided a safe forum where we could hold open conversations, leverage the insight of many, and build ownership to maintain our change capacity.
The results of the temperature graph really gave us a starting point from which we could develop a plan. Without this tool, we may have taken action in the wrong areas and we most certainly wouldn’t have considered the importance of keeping the green areas of the charts green.
As an organization with many change initiatives in the works, the last thing we need to do is add projects that don’t solve the root cause of a problem, or to give people more work that wouldn’t contribute to making a positive difference. The Change Monitor™ allowed us to focus attention in the appropriate areas to make a positive difference.
TCM:What surprised you about the results?
AM:We were really surprised that the results were so positive. In fact, we discussed this at all of our leadership forums and concluded that, like most people, we tend to focus on our challenges rather than on what is going right.
TCM:Would you recommend a Change Monitor™ to other organizations?
AM:We would recommend that other organizations who are considering major change or who are in the change process undertake a Change Monitor™. It engages people, it makes change everyone’s responsibility, and it provides focus.
TCM:How is the Change Monitor™ helping your organization’s capacity for change?
AM:The Change Monitor™ has assisted in setting a plan to ensure that we keep the green areas green and address the worry areas. Through the engagement of all leadership groups, it gains the commitment and support of individuals to ‘own’ change. Importantly, in the brief time since we held the Change Monitor™, we have seen action plans completed, excitement built and pride expressed in the accomplishments.
