September is 30 things I would implement or consider implementing at my credit union if I was a credit union leader.
Thing 10: Tear down the silos by merging marketing and IT
Being on the marketing side of things, I hear the credit union marketing folks griping about the IT folks. I wrote a long post about this recently on the CUES Skybox Blog.
I imagine if I travelled more in the IT circles, I would hear the horror stories about the marketing prima donnas. I believe much of this adversarial situation stems not only from the complete separation on the org chart, but also from the physical division of these teams within the administration center. Sometimes in completely different buildings!
In my fictitious credit union, I would take a cue from the Silicon Valley and San Francisco tech start-ups and mash everyone together in a big room. Tear down the eye-height beige cube farm. Sit marketers next to technologists, designers next to developers, writers next to sys admins.
Everyone would be encouraged to participate in brainstorming sessions and ideas and responsibilities would be shared amongst the whole team.
The photos above are from a great blog called Office Snapshots. They depict the no-nonsense open office layouts that I am talking about. Nothing fancy. A few rectangular Ikea tables pushed together would really promote team work and understanding.
Tim