Need Fresh Ideas? Think Outside The Management Circle.

Inspiration can strike anywhere and from anyone. That’s why Canvas Credit Union ($4.5B, Lone Tree, CO) has taken a ground-level approach to creativity, collaboration, and employee engagement.

“People in senior leadership roles have access to a lot of data but might not have perspective on the real issues,” says Ryan Brown, senior vice president of people and culture at Canvas. “The majority of the folks serving our members are in support roles. They have amazing ideas and are really creative, they just sometimes don’t get the opportunity to share.”

When a new CEO took the helm in 2015, the credit union decided to change that. Building off the internal curiosity surrounding how to bridge gaps between departments, the credit union started transforming its culture with an overarching employee engagement framework that unifies communication, transparency, listening, performance evaluation, and succession planning across the enterprise.

It’s a major shift that requires ongoing attention.

#SquadGoals

When Canvas surveyed employees in 2016, it discovered critical lapses involving cross-office collaboration and complications to job execution.

In response, the credit union formed two groups — or squads — of eight to 10 employees. The Synergy Squad focused on how to improve collaboration at Canvas whereas the Simple Squad focused on streamlining processes. Canvas then sent out a call for volunteers and brought together a mix of expertise to ensure diverse perspectives and effective stewardship resulting in a distinct leadership approach to guide each squad.

“It was kind of cool because we had one led by someone following a design-focused methodology, while the other group was being led by someone who’d won a Baldrige Award at a previous credit union,” Brown says.

After a few months, the Simple Squad had contributed to a major shift in the credit union’s long-term vision. Canvas even added “ease of use” as one of its strategic pillars.

“They did some work underneath the hood on some of our processes, having conversations and driving initiatives around automation, for example, which is a functional area for us now,” Brown explains.

At the same time, the Synergy Squad collaborated with the whole Canvas team to identify values that reflect the credit union’s culture and helped Canvas update its performance review standards. Today, 50% of the review is based on performance and the impact of the employee’s work. The other half is based on those values — “Canvas behaviors” is employee engagement in action.

Canvas generally disbands a squad after it has accomplished its foundational goal. For example, the credit union has formed two Synergy squads since 2019. It also formed a women’s experience squad after engagement scores indicated an enduring gap between male and female employees.

“We got together some strong people and gave them a couple of deliverables, including for compensation transparency, performance management, and mentorship,” Brown says.

Friendly Competition

In 2018, Canvas Credit Union launched an Innovation Lab to explore how credit unions can innovate to meet members’ evolving financial needs while advancing innovation in the industry and beyond. Through several cohorts, the program has evolved to include a close partnership with a business professor at Colorado State University and a three-day event hosted in the CSU Spur Campus in downtown Denver.

Canvas selects participants based on interest — employees must apply — as well performance and tenure at Canvas. In the end, the program is made up of roughly three teams composed of five employees each.

“Several strategic initiatives have stemmed from the research and prototyping conducted in the Innovation Lab,” Brown says.

The efforts of one sprint team even changed the way the credit union approaches member onboarding and resulted in the formation of an onboarding champion role. Subsequently, the credit union won recognition from an industry CUSO dedicated to member experience solutions. Canvas also has leveraged sprint research to improve its retail training as well as its new digital account opening platform.

The success of these initiatives has transformed innovation and employee engagement at Canvas over the years. But as the organization evolves, so, too, will the work of Brown’s team.

“The organization has matured, and we have departments that are well-oiled, so I am not sure what will happen with squads,” the SVP says. “We were in this high growth mode and needed a formal collaborative grassroots solution. That’s not necessarily going away, it just might look different.”

Inspired by the Innovation Lab’s work with Colorado State University, the credit union hosted a case competition for the first time several months ago. Approximately 50 people from across the organization formed teams to analyze a case study and present solutions.

“We focused on improving operational efficiency and collaboration,” Brown says. “It was designed to be broad so the 10 teams wouldn’t overlap.”

The credit union described the problem at 9 a.m. and requested teams turn in a three-to-five-minute recording by 5 p.m. that same day. First prize winners received $1,000 each, second place received $500, and third place received $250.

“We believe it was a success,” Brown says. “That said, we’ve just completed our retrospective and will be sharing the results with our executive team and deciding whether to host another.”