To thrive in your work, job and career as a leader, manager or employee, you need to have a working environment that is going to support you, not hinder you.

That was the theme of the first of three workshops that attendees of the 2021 Virtual World Credit Union Conference participated in on Friday.

Claire Boscq-Scott, an authority on customer experience, showed how the transactions and interrelationships between people and their physical surroundings demonstrate how and why our environment impacts our thinking, feeling and behaviors. 

“Your environment, what’s happening outside, is going to affect how you feel inside,” said Boscq-Scott. “Start looking at your home, start looking at your workplaces and see how you can make changes. The difference can be powerful.”

Scott helped credit union professionals discover the principles of Feng Shui, a traditional Eastern philosophy which follows the same belief system as environmental psychology, in which there is a spiritual relationship between the physical elements of nature and human-made environments to create the right balance of energy for harmony in one’s space. 

Attendees learned:

• To understand the basic principles of Feng Shui & environmental psychology.
• To develop their employees 'work from home' touch point mapping.
• Recommendations for implementing Smart Shui Moves.
• How positive public environments can improve credit union member experience.

DEI as a health and safety issue

Attendees of the day’s second workshop learned why it is important to treat equity and inclusion in the workplace as a psychological health and safety issue.

Psychological safety refers to the efforts taken to reduce the risk of psychological injury, often in a workplace setting. Psychological health includes the prevention efforts and promotion of good mental health.

Professionals from First West Credit Union, located in British Columbia, Canada, showcased their operation’s journey towards greater diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and the necessity and opportunity of leveraging parallel efforts toward psychological safety in the workplace, as the means to achieving inclusion.  

“Like many credit unions, we are values based organization with ambitious, very clear business strategies and goals. We see our culture as the cornerstone that will drive our success as equity, inclusion, diversity and psychological safety,” said Brieann Spencer, Senior Leadership and Learning Advisor for First West Credit Union.

A final workshop, on how leadership can move a credit union from a fear-to-purpose-driven business, concluded Friday’s activities at WCUC 2021.

Follow daily conference activities on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with #WCUC2021.

The 2021 World Credit Union Conference runs through Wednesday, July 21.