Travis Credit Union

Challenge

Cascading organizational-level goals from the top of the hierarchy down to individual contributors can be a challenge! When this step is missed, employees can be confused on how projects they are supporting tie directly to organizational success. This can lead to erroneous decisions, misdirected efforts, poor morale and ultimately lost revenue. 

Travis Credit Union recognizes the business value of obtaining strategic alignment and wanted to ensure that select key management in the organization not only understood their role in supporting organizational goals but also had a detailed plan in place to successfully execute. 

With leaders in multiple locations spanning 12 counties, TCU sought an L&D partner with an established history of success in delivering results in both professional development and virtual training. 

To succeed, they turned to Learnit.

Solution

In collaboration with TCU, Learnit took a two step approach to design and develop a customized solution.

Step 1: Connecting virtually through Zoom, Learnit’s instructor, Kandis Porter worked directly with the Assistant Vice President of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management  to create a simple and effective one-page business plan to align on goals and objectives. 

Key directives included asking leaders to:

• Envision and document what their departments, divisions, and branches would look like in the year 2023; what is success? 
• Reflect on their mission; whom do they serve, how do they serve them, and what do they help customers achieve? 
• Capture what their departments, divisions, and branches would accomplish and commit to in support the 2020 organizational-level goals. 
• Document how they would accomplish those commitments including key results and success metrics. 
• Create clear milestones including due dates and resources (by name) that would be supported by completing the outlined tasks. 
  

Step 2: Executing an interdepartmental virtual workshop for 40+ leaders to walk through each section in the business plan and provide clear examples of how to complete and communicate it. 

Leaders actively participated in their interactive workshop and on conclusion, were knowledgeable on the organizational-level goals, how they would support them in the future, and the next steps for continuing to cascade the goals down to individual contributors on their teams.  The two-hour workshop reinforced the importance of cascading goals throughout the organization, introduced each section of the one-page business plan, and then participants broke into smaller groups to get hands-on experience completing customized plans for their areas of responsibility.  

Results

Travis Credit Union’s 40+ leaders were able to effectively communicate company priorities, increase engagement at all levels within their departments, divisions and branches, and create a unified sense of purpose for their reports.  Leaders emerged from Learnit’s program able to confidently empower team members to make decisions, knowing they understood where resources should be invested.  

What Travis Credit Union had to say about working with the Learnit:

“Thanks for having Kandis work with us – she was fantastic. She delivered an excellent session with our leaders. Her expertise and ability to simplify the information helped our leaders learn how to build their business plans one step at a time.

We appreciate the speed in which she clearly identified our training needs and helped to develop a great session. I would definitely like to work with her again and would recommend her to others.”  

-Delannia Caldwell, Assistant Vice President of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management, Travis Credit Union