Tuning up processes

During his first three years at Sun Federal Credit Union in Maumee, Ohio, Ted Wenzlick engineered a slew of organizational improvements that have propelled its success.

“I was brought on board to think critically about how we do things at Sun Federal,” says Wenzlick, director of leadership and organizational development at the $652 million asset credit union. “I remain curious, build partnerships, and dive into what’s going on. Process improvement is always the theme.”

Wenzlick works to enhance internal communication to improve the credit union and ensure members have the best possible experience.

To gather and improve access to knowledge within Sun Federal, he created SunWiki, a sort of Wikipedia of the credit union that collects expertise and allows everyone access.

“It’s searchable, intuitive, and easy to get to,” he says. “It taps into that tribal knowledge that already exists so we can build expertise throughout the organization.”

Wenzlick also championed daily, five-minute stand-up meetings across the credit union that have four pillars: an overview of the day’s schedule; a highlight on processes, policies, procedures, or products; a success story; and a focus for the day.

“The vision is to have a rigid, specific approach to the meeting,” he says. “We want to get on the same page and understand what we’re doing today.”

In identifying opportunities for Sun Federal, Wenzlick also targeted its use of SharePoint software and found improved uses for the tool. The credit union updated to a fresh version of SharePoint, and Wenzlick challenged departments to use it as more of a resource than a file warehouse.

“SharePoint can be a dumping ground,” he says. “That can be good, but if it’s not curated and well-

managed, it becomes its own entity and doesn’t necessarily serve its initial purpose.”

He also led organizational leaders through sessions on how to better use SharePoint to streamline their workload and communicate with their teams.

Wenzlick also created the Sun Institute to identify and develop leadership skills. The program includes a series of people leader workshops and additional sessions throughout the year.

His appetite for organizational improvement seems unlimited.

“The good news about our department is that we’re very close to the work,” Wenzlick says. “It’s not just training, it’s about enhancing processes. With the results we’ve demonstrated over time, it’s created additional buy-in. The phone keeps ringing: People turn to us because they know our approach.”