CUES' established track record and the high interest CU executives have in learning help the CUES institutes possible. By Christopher Stevenson
CUES' established track record and the high interest CU executives have in learning help the CUES institutes possible.
Christopher Stevenson, CIE
Look around the average college classroom and you’ll see varying levels of commitment from students. Some aren’t there; some are sleeping; some are watching YouTube videos; and some are fully engaged. Look around the classroom during a CUES institute at a top business school and you’ll see cream-of-the-crop current and emerging leaders listening, taking notes, sharing ideas, debating issues, and even laughing in the process. Notably, this kind of collaborative learning is not possible in other industries. Being able to describe such a classroom situation, plus CUES’ own track record of working with top tier business schools, is key to CUES’ ability to build new institute relationships with highly regarded universities, according to Christopher Stevenson, CIE, CUES’ SVP/chief learning officer. “We start with an idea for a program based on a need in the industry,” he explains. “Based on the concept, I check the readily available business school ratings for the topic under consideration. For example, when I was developing CUES’ new Strategic Innovation Institute, both MIT and Stanford—where the institute’s segments are now offered—stood out.” Stevenson says outstanding business schools are interested in the uniqueness of credit unions within financial services—and often faculty members want to learn more about these financial cooperatives, as well as to be part of developing credit union leadership talent. “Once we get to the stage where we’re very interested in the school because of the expertise of the faculty and they’re very interested in us because we help them connect with amazing credit union people, we start to brainstorm an agenda,” Stevenson says. Fine-tuning the agenda comes back to CUES members, too. “At that point, I introduce faculty to credit union people so they can really understand the challenges and opportunities our members face,” he says. “The business school faculty members spend some time on the phone learning from real credit union executives. And after an institute is over, graduates often have follow-up email dialog with the school faculty. “It matters that we have partnered with top-tier schools successfully since 1995, when the first CEO Institute took place,” Stevenson adds. “I’m on the lookout now for our next topic and next partner school to meet emerging member leadership development needs.”
