Why Shiny Objects Are Killing Your Culture Strategy
Ghostwritten By Jake Engel | Published in 2025
When I started leading Financial Center, I brought three words with me: better, faster, easier.
They’ve become an important framework for our organization – a way to think about everything we do. At its core, these words reflect what matters most: not what we’re telling our members, but what they’re telling themselves.
Every member defines their relationship with us by asking their own questions: Is this better than what I’ve experienced before? Does this make my life easier? Can I trust this institution to move at the speed of my life?
If we’re not helping them answer yes, they’ll look somewhere else.
Over the past three years, those simple words – better, faster, and easier – have become guiding principles. Not just for me, but for our entire organization. They’ve helped us focus on what truly matters and resist the temptation to chase distractions.
And I won’t pretend that’s easy. In financial services – like in any business – there’s always another shiny object vying for your attention. A new tool, a new trend, a new direction.
But here’s the thing: when you constantly pivot, when you abandon one plan for the next big thing, it creates something no leader wants – doubt. Doubt in leadership. Doubt in the plans we’ve shared. Doubt in the promises we’ve made.
By sticking with a clear, consistent vision, we’ve created something different at Financial Center. We’ve built a sense of security, transparency, and reliability – not just for our members, but for our employees. Through a high-level three-year strategic plan, broken up into smaller, more tangible annual goals, we’ve developed a plan and stuck with it – even when the shiny objects came along.
And, I hope that there's something to be said about the relief that gives our team when they go home at night. When our team knows that leadership is not going to rip up the playbook every time a new idea comes along, it allows them to focus on what they do best. It frees them to innovate within the framework, rather than scrambling to constantly learn a new framework that’ll soon become old news.
And we’re certainly not all the way there yet. “Better, faster, and easier” isn’t a destination. It’s not something we’ll wake up one day and say, We’ve made it! We’re done!
Instead, it’s a mindset. It’s a question that I turn to every time that I’m making a decision. Are we making things better for our members and employees? Are we working faster and smarter? Are we simplifying processes to make life easier? These are the thoughts that guide us, not just as an organization, but as people.
This framework has shaped the way we operate, but it’s also taught me a lot about leadership.
Transformation isn’t about writing a new book. It’s about writing the next chapter of the story you’re already telling. The credit union we are today isn’t the same as the one we were three years ago. But that growth didn’t come from throwing everything out and starting over. It came from refining what we already had.
And that’s the beauty of better, faster, easier. It’s not about being perfect. It’s about progress.
So, here’s my challenge to other leaders: Are you staying focused on what really matters, or are distractions pulling you away from your vision? How are you building a sense of consistency and reliability for your team? And what are your members or customers telling themselves about their relationship with you?
The answers to those questions may just write your next chapter.
