Customer Story - Enhancing Efficiency in the Marketing & Communication Operating Model of a Credit Union
A mid-size credit union in the western part of the United States, hired a new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) from outside the organization. Tasked with merging the Marketing and Communications teams, the CMO was also responsible for addressing numerous internal operational issues that had troubled previous leaders and the team. Given the CMO's newness to the organization, there was a need to quickly acclimate and drive change as soon as possible.
Call For Help:
- The marketing department previously faced several challenges, including inefficient processes, poor connections with external vendors, and a lack of communication or clear expectations with internal clients. Roles and responsibilities were often confused, leading to an excess of people in meetings and a lack of decisive decision-making. Projects were costly, time-consuming, and failed to achieve the desired results. Additionally, the various departments within Marketing operated in silos, resulting in poor communication both within the department and with the rest of the organization.
- The team had lingering issues from previous poor leadership, which resulted in a lack of trust, a need for perfectionism, and competition where there should have been collaboration.
FarWell Support:
- Building trust within the team and ensuring their voices were heard was essential throughout the process. FarWell advisor began by facilitating a two-day session where we got to know each other, expressed ideas and frustrations, and started brainstorming solutions. FarWell’s focus was on solving the problem rather than merely acknowledging it.
- From that meeting, the FarWell advisor identified five small groups. FarWell collaborated with these groups to create crucial artifacts for developing the future state, including an updated mission, team commitments, a clear understanding of the team's strengths, a list of weaknesses transformed into opportunities, and an understanding of what was within their control to change versus what they could influence.
- Simultaneously, the FarWell advisor worked with the CMO to redesign the go-to-market process and realign the organizational chart to better fit this new delivery method. Once this was announced to the team, FarWell partnered with key leaders in the new organizational chart to flesh out the new process, creating a RACI for each step.
Results:
The new Marketing and Communications team underwent a significant transformation in how they operate and deliver services to their clients.
- An updated organizational chart and new identified competencies enabled the completion of tasks in a more efficient manner.
- This process updated strategy and performance metrics and encompassed a change management approach to transition the team from its previous state to a more effective version.
