From Onboarding to Leadership: How Members 1st Builds Learning That Lasts

What does it take to build a learning culture that truly sticks? Brad Garfinkel, Vice President of Learning and Development at Members 1st Federal Credit Union shares how a clearly defined culture — grounded in the belief that “we is greater than me” — shapes everything from onboarding and frontline training to leadership development and career pathways. 

Show Notes:

Members 1st VP of Learning and Development Brad Garfinkel offers many practical, inspirational and actionable ways to make learning an integral part of any organization. 

• Culture must be embedded from day one: At Members 1st, learning starts on day one with a consistent message: culture isn’t a slogan — it’s a daily practice reinforced through onboarding, training, and coaching.
• “We is greater than me” drives learning design: This simple but powerful mindset shapes how training is built, delivered, and reinforced, helping employees see their role within a larger team and mission.
• Listening builds credibility for L&D: Brad’s organization-wide listening tour helped reposition learning and development as a strategic partner, not just a support function for frontline roles.
• Personalized pathways outperform one-size-fits-all training: By using flexible learning pathways, hybrid delivery models, and hands-on coaching, Members 1st meets learners where they are — and accelerates growth.
• Career exploration fuels engagement and retention: Programs like leadership development tracks and internal apprenticeships allow employees to explore new roles, build skills, and envision long-term careers within the organization.

Read the book Brad referenced, Attitude is Everything : 10 Life-Changing Steps to Turning Attitude into Action   By Keith Harrell

Powered by Learning earned Awards of Distinction in the Podcast/Audio and Business Podcast categories from The Communicator Awards and a Gold and Silver Davey Award. The podcast is also named to Feedspot's Top 40 L&D podcasts and Training Industry’s Ultimate L&D Podcast Guide.

Learn more about d'Vinci at www.dvinci.com.
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Transcript

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Susan Cort: [00:00:00] At Members 1st Federal Credit Union, learning starts with a simple belief about people and culture. 

Brad Garfinkel: What you can do collectively as the “we” is so much greater than what you can do as the “me.” So we talk about that in every single thing that we do. We talk about it during orientation, day one. We built that into every piece of our training, whether it's leadership training, it's technical training, is it frontline, uh, engagement training with, uh, with our associates, um, as, as we're troubleshooting, as we're doing career coaching.

We're consistently talking and bringing back to that base formula, which is we is greater than me. 

Susan Cort: That's Brad Garfinkel, Vice President of Learning and Development at Members 1st Federal Credit Union. He'll explain how they've built a culture where learning, leadership and community are inseparable  - as we begin the seventh season of Powered by Learning, next.

Announcer: Powered by Learning is brought to you by d’Vinci Interactive. d’Vinci's approach to learning is grounded in [00:01:00] 30 years of innovation and expertise. We use proven strategies and leading technology to develop solutions that empower learners to improve quality and boost performance. Learn more at dvinci.com.

Susan Cort: Joining me now are d’Vinci Client Solutions Consultant Angeline Evans and our guest, Brad Garfinkel, VP Learning and Development at Members 1st Federal Credit Union. Hi Brad, and welcome to Powered by Learning. 

Angeline Evans: Hey, Brad. 

Brad Garfinkel: Hey Susan. Hey, Angeline. I am so excited to be here today and I really appreciate this opportunity, uh, to speak with both of you and tell you a little bit about, uh, what we do at Members 1st.

Susan Cort: That's great. Well, let's start off talking about Members 1st. Certainly it's well known in the Central Pennsylvania region, but, uh, for our listeners who aren't familiar with Members 1st, tell us a little bit about the organization and where you're located. 

Brad Garfinkel: Yeah. Um, well, we just celebrated our 75th anniversary.

The, uh, all of last year was spent celebrating the 75 years from our original founding. Um, we have 60 branches. We have a 61st that's gonna be opening, uh, in a few short [00:02:00] weeks. As you mentioned, we're, we're based in Central Pennsylvania. Um, so if you think of, uh, the map, uh, we go from the eastern side of the Lehigh Valley all the way to Central Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, the state capital, uh, and up into Williamsport, so right smack in the middle of the state.

Susan Cort: And continuing to grow

Brad Garfinkel: Continuing to grow.

Susan Cort: And then talk a little bit, Brad, about your journey and your current role. How did you get to where you are? What are you in charge of at Members 1st? 

Brad Garfinkel: Yeah. I'm celebrating this year, my ninth anniversary at Members 1st Federal Credit Union, which is amazing. I blinked and all of a sudden nine years has gone by.

Um, but what is even more special to me is that I've been a member of the credit union myself for 45 years. So this is my 45th anniversary as a member. That also means that the banks and, uh, the other banks I was working for previously, you might have said I was cheating on because I banked at Members 1st.

Um, but I'm, I'm, uh, in my second year as actually entered my third year as Vice President of Learning and Development. Prior to that, I had responsibility for our retail branches. So I was VP of Retail Services. Um, I had the 500 retail [00:03:00] associates, uh, at the time, the 60 retail branches. And the majority of my career has been in retail banking, community banking…leadership development. 

Um, I've spent, uh, two short years at another institution, uh, overseeing their university. Um, so it was an easy transition for me to take on the opportunity of using what I knew, uh, and my experience, um, in really navigating, uh, financial institution and, and focusing entirely on learning and development.

Susan Cort: And a brand that you're familiar with and supportive of too. 

Brad Garfinkel: Yeah. 

Angeline Evans: So tell me more, what helped you make that transition successfully? I mean, obviously you have that wealth of experience in the industry, um, but it's not always an easy switch, so. Tell us a little bit more about that. 

Brad Garfinkel: Well, as I mentioned, so we, uh, with learning and development, um, 65% of the work that learning and development does or has done is really in supporting retail banking.

So, uh, when I was leading retail, I was their biggest customer. I was their biggest client. If you, if you look at it that way. And every single thing that retail did, [00:04:00] uh, and does, touches the organization, lending, operations, compliance, legal, so. The relationships I had and that I was fostering was, I was doing it from a different perspective.

I was doing it from the, the, the leader of retail, um, as we're protecting our members, protecting the organization. Um, I was just literally changing seats. Um, and taking those relationships and looking at it from a different perspective. It's how do we take, uh, their partnership and how do we make sure that, uh, we're fostering, uh, relationships through education, uh, growing the, the individuals growing the, the, the credit union.

Angeline Evans: And you had mentioned to me that when you stepped into the role, you conducted a listening tour across your organization. What did you uncover when you did that? 

Brad Garfinkel: So Angeline, so nothing like stepping into a brand new role and then, and then having the single biggest project you may ever work on in your career right in front of you.

So we were rolling out. We were rolling out a, an organizational wide project, uh, that had just started just as I came into the role it was gonna touch all 1300 of our associates. And I had to figure out how the [00:05:00] heck are we gonna train all these people with something that wasn't even built yet? So the first thing we did was we, we built, uh, we put together a listening tour.

It was myself and my team. We met with business unit leaders from every single business unit, and we, we took advantage of the opportunity to talk about, here's what's coming, here's what we're anticipating, but help us understand what is your relationship with learning and development? What have you done in the past?

Um, what training do you do yourselves that maybe are not, it's not part of a curriculum that's owned or built or managed by learning and development. And, and those relationships helped us understand their expectations for this big project rollout. But also, even deeper than that, it helped us understand, um, their perception of learning and development.

What was really interesting, uh, was, you know, I mentioned, you know, 65% of, uh, of the work done by L&D at the time was, uh, was supporting retail, was supporting our, our call center, our contact center. And what we learned was there was this perception that they just thought, well, L&D is for those groups. It's not for us.

Uh, so that that opened the door. To us talking through, you know, [00:06:00] what are their pains, um, how can we help support their growth? What is it that they do? Um, you know, if they had a wish list of how we could support them, what would that be? So, uh, so it really became, uh, it was, it was a really great, valuable opportunity and, and some of the relationships that maybe I didn't have as, as deeply, um, I was able to foster much better.

Angeline Evans: And so it, it sounds like the L&D arm really expanded its reach through that listening tour in a way that it might not have before. How did that feed into. The strategy that you then shaped in your role as you stepped in undertaking that big project, but moving forward. 

Brad Garfinkel: Yeah. So, um, what's the motto? It may come through what you asked for. 

Susan Cort: Be careful with what you wish for.

Brad Garfinkel: Yeah. Right. And, and, and one, one of the things that, that I, I thrive on is, you know, what are those new opportunities, new strategies, and, um, the fact that, um, every week now we have a different business unit coming to us. And saying, is this within, uh, your sphere of, of, uh, of opportunity?

Is this something that you can do? Um, you know, our, our team is made up of facilitators. Our team is made up of instructional designers [00:07:00] and, and many of these folks didn't understand really the, the wealth of experience, uh, that we have. I have someone that's on my team and, and one of their strengths is really measuring ROI, um, around the training experience.

And for us to, to talk through, you know, here's how you're doing the training. Um, let us measure what the effectiveness is and what the cost is to the institution. Is there, is there, our better way of training is our way of buying training or building training. Mm-hmm. So, um, so it, it got people to begin thinking differently about what they do.

Um, it allowed the doors to open so that we could provide support to them and provide our expertise to them to say, let us look at it. We're not, we don't wanna take away and we. We can't facilitate every single training that exists. You're subject matter experts, but we can help you build, uh, and, and better structure it.

So, um, but there's things that we're doing now that I never dreamed, you know, over two years ago, that we would be working on projects, um, uh, organ, uh, organizationally, different groups coming to us and saying, Hey, we have an idea and we think that we are gonna need you help for this. 

Angeline Evans: So it sounds like you really shifted the learning culture at Members 1st. 

Brad Garfinkel: Significantly.

Yeah, we, we absolutely [00:08:00] did. It was, um, again, at the end of the day, we, we have some folks that have some really strong technical knowledge, but we have folks that understand how people learn. Um, they know how to scaffold learning in a certain way. And, and, you know, there's certain business units that put things together.

They think it looks good. Um, they think that folks are learning. Um, and we were able to, to use that ROI to, to be able to track the effectiveness of it, um, and to find efficiencies so that we can learn better and, and have it stick. 

Angeline Evans: I think that's wonderful and that's something that we see a lot, um, as we work across different clients.

You know, at d’Vinci side, we're working mostly with subject matter experts and doing the instructional design, the scaffolding, and I think a lot of folks overlook that you need to be more than a SME to develop content that's gonna. See, see the effectiveness that you're describing. So I think that's wonderful.

So talking about culture, you have been part of the Members 1st culture for decades as a customer, and now in the L&D role, I know you know how important it is to really live and breathe the culture of an organization. When you're putting forth training programs, tell me a little bit more about how you make sure that that is practiced when [00:09:00] you're rolling out initiatives and strategies and, um.

All of the different types of, of training initiatives that you do. 

Brad Garfinkel: Yeah, I could talk about this forever. Oh my gosh, where to start. So, so I, I think probably one of the most important things is it starts with day number one and what the experience is for our associate. Um, you know, there's organizations where they have a, a day one, hi new hire orientation.

They put their best foot forward, people see what they think is the best of the organization, and then there's kinda the rest of the experience. We want day number one to be the same as day number two and day number three. And there's hoopla and there's communication, there's transparency. Um, the most important thing is really them understanding what the mission is.

Um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna just share our mission 'cause I think it really tells us a story. Please do so. So our, our responsibility, um, as, as a credit union, we are community owned. Our members own us. So we serve our members, our associates, and our communities through support, empowerment, and meaningful relationships.

So everything that I just said are the things that we go into when we're thinking about how are we working on a project, what is it that we're doing? How meaningful is this gonna be for our [00:10:00] associates? How meaningful is it gonna be, uh, for our members? We're using our members dollars. Is it the best use of money for them?

So, so we, we think about, we call it the three legs of the stool. Um, so again, our associates community and our members, we think about that with everything that we do. But most importantly, um, we, we need to really get everybody to understand that they're not in this alone. Um, you know, so, so the other motto that is critical and, and it's, it's, uh, one of the easiest mathematical equations that you're gonna ever have to understand.

We is greater than me. It's simple. We is greater than me. We, uh, and we have something that we call a culture of. We, we've branded and we've established this culture. And what it says is that every single thing that you do, you're not just doing it by yourself, you're doing it as part of a bigger team. Um, that has a bigger impact, uh, has greater influence.

And what you can do collectively as the we is so much greater than what you can do as the me. So we talk about that in every single thing that we do. We talk about it during orientation, day one. We built that into every. Piece of our training, [00:11:00] whether it's leadership training, it's technical training, is it frontline, uh, engagement training with, uh, with our associates.

Um, as, as we're troubleshooting, as we're doing career coaching, we're consistently talking and bringing back to that base formula, which is we is greater than me. 

Angeline Evans: And many of your new hires, they don't necessarily come from the banking industry, correct? 

Brad Garfinkel: Correct. 

Angeline Evans: So, how, like finance, we know it's high touch and high trust.

How do you build that confidence in someone who's maybe not used to the culture of this industry and what's expected and how you're gonna make your customers feel at ease? 

Brad Garfinkel: So we, we hire for really three things. We hire for attitude, we hire for enthusiasm, and we hire for aptitude. Oftentimes, we're not hiring and, and I'm, I'm speaking in most cases, kind of your frontline person.

Um, I started right, that's, I'm, that's what I'm picturing. Yeah. I started as a part-time teller, uh, you know mm-hmm. College degree, degree in government. And, uh, and I worked retail and I started as a part-time teller. And that story happens over and over, but we, we find people that are great with hospitality.

The [00:12:00] number of business cards that I hand out when I'm at a restaurant somewhere where I'm getting really good service in a retail store. I mean, I, I, I feel bad because I'm cherry picking employees from some of the favorite places that I eat at and I shop at. Um, I mean, we, we've, we've taken entire stabs from, uh, local coffee shops, um, or national coffee shops because the service is stellar and we can mm-hmm.

Give them, uh, additional career opportunities. So, um. We look to the service industry, we look, we look to the hospitality industry, people that are in some kind of a sales, uh, culture, sales environment. Cell phone, auto. Um, and we can teach banking. We can teach banking to everybody because the way that we teach is not a one size fits all approach.

We use a Pathways approach so that, um, there's not a, a fixed timeline that says someone has to get from point A to point B by this, um. If someone's coming in and they've got that banking experience, that's great. We're gonna be able to fast track them for someone that it's a little bit new. Maybe we have to go a little bit slower, but, uh, but, but, um, uh, there's, there's an author that I had the pleasure of, of, uh, seeing, uh, a number of years ago, and his motto of attitude is everything.

His name's Keith [00:13:00] Harrell. Attitude is Everything sticks in my head. And that's what we look for, uh, as we're hiring candidates. 

Angeline Evans: So for any of our listeners who might not fully grasp the whole pathway approach, do you mind breaking it down a little bit more? How do you establish a unique pathway for an individual?

What does it look like? Just get into the weeds. Just a hair. Not too much, but just, yeah. 

Brad Garfinkel: So, so our, our version of a pathway is we have, uh, curriculum and certifications for every single position. So, for instance, a teller has three different tiers. Teller one, two, teller, two, teller three.

There are certain roles, responsibilities, competencies, that are built into that. Um, the further you go up the, the more that you're gonna be trained. So we, we have minimum expectations. We want you to accomplish X, Y, and Z by, it might be within your first 90 days, maybe the first 270 days. But, uh, but we use that as, as really a guide, as a checklist.

Um, as we begin building and, and working people towards, uh, different roles. We do the same thing for our new accounts people, for our assistant branch managers, for our branch managers. So it, it is a roadmap for us, but, [00:14:00] um, the roadmap allows a lot of flexibility in being able to take detours. It doesn't say that it has to be this linear, straight approach.

Um, you can, if someone's coming to us with a whole, uh, bunch of experience, um, we can fast track them or in, in some cases, uh, skip some of the training we have, uh, brought some folks on that have experience from other local credit unions that use our same systems. Mm-hmm. And what someone may take 30, you know, 60, 90 days to do, they can do in two weeks.

Angeline Evans: And is that typically done through assessments or through manager observation, feedback, that sort of thing? 

Brad Garfinkel: Yes. Yes and yes. Okay. So, so all of the above. So, it's all the above. Um, okay. We, we do, um, we use a hybrid learning model. Um, so okay, we do a synchronous learning. We're able to look at the results.

We have someone that's really kinda managing the relationship with these folks behind the scenes, even as they're doing asynchronous. So it's not completely online. Um, we have. Uh, his name's Colton. There's a learning line that we have where they're in direct connection. We're constantly monitoring their progress, how long it's taken to do things, but we're getting feedback [00:15:00] from, uh, their, their managers.

We also use a model in which we have teller, we use a teller as an example. Um, our tellers. Mm-hmm. Um, they, they come out of, uh, they do asynchronous. They go into a guided instruction. So they're in a live classroom, uh, for several days. Mm-hmm. And they go into a tra into their branch. We have teller coaches that are kind of our, our in-person coaches, um okay.

They follow them to their branch. So these are people that pick up from their normal, uh, branch and then they follow them for two weeks and they are at their beckon call. They're the ones that are really guiding them constantly, giving us feedback, answering surveys. And what their progress is that they become essentially a lifeline for mm-hmm.

For these tellers and, and they help communicate to us, um, with what they're seeing and what they're experiencing and whether we need to, you know, do we have to take one of our facilitators and actually have them go back out and shadow, um, or, or maybe do some remedial work, uh, if, if, uh, something is not, is not clicking with them.

Angeline Evans: That is personalized learning at its finest there. I mean, 

Brad Garfinkel: yeah. 

Angeline Evans: Well, and having an [00:16:00] individual coach, holy moly. 

Brad Garfinkel: Well, and, and the, the teller coach model, um, I I is pretty amazing because if you think about it, yeah. They're going from, and this was, um, something that we really reiterated over the past, uh, uh, year or so, they're going mm-hmm.

From their home branch to a branch of, they're unfamiliar with. That means that there's no distractions. Their normal members are not gonna come to them and say, you know, uh, you know, Hey Anne. Um, you know, can you help me with this? They're a stranger to that branch so they can have their undivided attention on that learner, uh, which is pretty amazing.

The first week, really, they're, they're just shadowing them. They're not leaving their side. The second week they've stepped back. Mm-hmm. They're allowing that, that new hire, uh, to be able to, to kind of find their own path. 

Susan Cort: What an incredible tactic. And that's a nice growth opportunity too for the person who's doing that shadowing, doing the training. 

Brad Garfinkel: Mm-hmm. Yeah. It, it is, it's kind of our secret weapon on, on how to build our future leaders, whether they're head tellers or assistant managers or who knows, maybe future, uh, learning and development associates. 

Susan Cort: Exactly. 

Angeline Evans: Well, that, uh, transitions gracefully into my next question 'cause I was gonna say, we've been talking a [00:17:00] lot about new hire associates, and I would love to shift to how you support emerging leaders. What do you do to upskill and across the organization from technical needs to just leadership development in general? 

Brad Garfinkel: Yeah. So the, again, the question you just asked is why we wake up in the morning? Um mm-hmm. Again, someone gave me the opportunity, have given others the opportunity. That's our job is to give, uh, our folks the opportunities.

Um, we love growing from within. Um mm-hmm. We, that institutional knowledge. Um, if you look at the tenure of our associates, um. Service matters. And, and when you can grow it from within, um, it makes a difference. So we invest a lot. So we have, um, uh, an emergent leader program, uh, that we call star. Uh, it's striving to achieve results.

It's a, it's an eight-month long program for non-managers. They, uh, it's broken into really three trimesters. Um, it's, uh, uh, professionalism, uh, is, is one of the, the areas. Leadership is another area. Communications and networking is another area, and it's entirely. Mentor driven. Mm-hmm. Learning development runs the program.

We facilitate it, but, [00:18:00] uh, we have 15, typically 15 to 18 participants, and we have 15 to 18 mentors that are part of the program. Wow. Our, our success rate is 80% of the people that, in the history of the, the 16 years, 80% of the folks that have gone through the program have gone on, uh, to, uh, be promoted into leadership roles now.

These are go-getters. So the reality is they probably would've done it on their own, but we're, we're helping to really foster that growth. So, uh, so that's a dynamic, uh, program that we have. We, uh, actually this year we've, we've partnered with a local university. Um, people graduate from the STAR program and then they ask, well, what now?

And the what now is, uh, we, we have a, a frontline leadership program. Uh, was already established and we were able to provide some feedback to this local university. And, um, it's virtual, uh, it's every two weeks. It's folks that are either in a leadership role, um, or aspire to work into a, a leadership role.

And, uh, we, we pay for them to attend that. It's really based around key competencies for that frontline leader, that, that more [00:19:00] entry level leader. Mm-hmm. Um, and uh, uh, while that was already established, myself and one of my colleagues, Sean, we had the ability to partner with the same university to help build out a mid-level leadership program.

Very, very similar. That's actually an in-person program. So not only, uh, is, uh, is there an opportunity for our folks. To be on campus, uh, to be able to, um, get the content and the growth around the competencies for someone that's in a mid-level position. Mm-hmm. But they're also networking with other business leaders.

Um, we we're a relationship driven company, so to get an opportunity to, uh, to, to be able to network and build relationships within the marketplace is, uh, kinda an added bonus. 

Angeline Evans: Yeah, that's an incredible opportunity. 

Brad Garfinkel: So I, I talked about leadership, but we also realize. That, you know, that a lot of people entered the organization through the front door, which is retail, right?

Angeline Evans: Mm-hmm. 

Brad Garfinkel: And they look and say, you know what? I have a degree in marketing, or I, I degree in learning and development. I mean, I'm, I'm a great example of that. Um, so, uh, a number of years ago, three years ago, there was a program that was established. Initially, it was a “how do we grow our associates from within, specifically for the IT [00:20:00] world?”

Angeline Evans: Mm-hmm. 

Brad Garfinkel: Um, this was kinda a post COVID where uh, we found that, that we really were looking to home grow, um, our IT folks. So it was called BITS. So it's it's bootcamp for, uh, Information Technology Systems or bits. And what we did was we built, uh, an apprenticeship. So these folks apply for the program, they stay in their current role, but they commit a certain period of time to, uh, shadowing…doing applied hands-on learning with, um, the first program was with software engineering and then software testing. And the goal was, you know, we wanna give these people a pathway to walk into their dream role, uh, if it's in, if it's in information technology. And we've exactly had that happen where folks have done this and said, oh my gosh, this is what I want to do.

Uh, the, the IT folks, um, they're also, it's also men, uh, mentor driven. So they're assigned, uh, roles of leadership. They're assigned projects. So they're not just standing back and watching, but they're, they're really hands on with this. But we've had folks that have, have made the move and joined, uh, these teams and been offered jobs.

That's a success. The other [00:21:00] success we've had is people have said, you know what? I've been kind of off on my own studying technology, and I think it's what I wanna do, and I'm realizing it's not what I want to do. I'm in my, I'm in my perfect job. So that's also been a win because we're helping people self-discover what is a great fit for them.

So what. It started with software engineering and software testing has now moved into a similar program for network engineering, a similar program for cybersecurity. Uh, we're just, uh, uh, several weeks from launching a project management version of it so that, uh, hopefully we can, we can, uh, grow some project managers internally.

So, uh, great upskilling opportunity and, and again, it's mentor driven. Um, where we're also at is how do we offer continuing education to those folks that have graduated from the programs. But there's not an immediate opportunity. So how do we put things in front of them so they can continue to grow? And that's, uh, where we're investing a lot of time right now.

Angeline Evans: I love that you're offering Career Explorer opportunities like that and the BITS acronym is on point. Yeah. So tell me a little bit [00:22:00] about your lessons learned, Brad. So what's one recent program or approach that really changed the way you think? Uh, and lead your team. 

Brad Garfinkel: Yeah, I, I, alluded to it a little bit before.

Um mm-hmm. You know, not every learner learns the same way. Some people are in person learners, some are auditory, some are visual, um, some are self-guided. So, uh, a large portion of the content that we have, uh, in the way that we learn is, is through a hybrid model. So that way we're giving everybody the same opportunity to be able to learn, uh, maybe in a way that, that best relates to them.

Um, so that's been key. Number one is realizing that we, we need a hybrid model. There are some folks that traditionally will look and say, well, in-person is better. Some people might look and say, well, um, educationally, you know, self-study asynchronous is, is a better model. We're, we're finding a happy medium.

Um, in the middle. The other part of it, and I mentioned this earlier, is as we continue to grow, um, you know, from one end of our, uh, uh, of our marketplace to the other. If you were to go from, you know, from one side to the other, you're looking at a three, three and a half hour [00:23:00] drive. Um, we need to make sure that our folks are the ones that are not doing the driving.

We need to go to them. So the other thing that we've done, um, uh, many of our branches, our larger branches have a, what we refer to as a learning lab. So it's a, it's a small conference room that you can seat anywhere from six to eight, six to 10 people. There's technology there, there's big screen TVs there, there's computers that are there.

So, uh, we take training on the road. Um, so we go to them. I'd, I'd much rather have one person drive someone from my team that's driving, um, versus having five or six of our branch folks that are out, um, when they could be serving. Yeah, they could be learning in their own environment, um, serving their members.

Um, and, uh, and, and we're being much more efficient with our time. So, uh, we continue to look for opportunities for, for efficiency, and, and that's been a big one. Um. We do a lot of surveying of our, of our associates. Um, their voice matters. We do journey mapping. Um, we follow the, the journey path. We, we did a, a journey mapping with our tellers.

We just completed one for our MSRs, which are our new accounts folks. And one of the things that we ask is [00:24:00] what that learning experience is like and, um, what works for them and what doesn't work for them. And, and one of the things that keeps coming back is, is that that hybrid model and when there's opportunities that we can go to them, um mm-hmm.

Versus them always being the ones that are driving, you know. It's great if, if you're within 10 minutes of our headquarters, but, uh, but when you're two hours to the east of us, um, we should be going to them. 

Angeline Evans: Mm-hmm. And do you mind breaking, I I had you do this earlier for Pathways. Do you mind breaking down journey mapping for our listeners?

Brad Garfinkel: Yeah. So what we did, this is, this is so fantastic. Um, so we followed the path of, and I for tellers for example, we followed the first 90 days of what the path was. We had our instructional design team that had a, a system of interviews and checkpoints. So we were very, very consistent with the questions that we were asking.

We, we used, uh, this was all via data, so we collected data. Uh, we used a software called Atlas, um, that we were to feed the answers and the data into. But um, we found out, okay, well. Right after you completed your asynchronous training, we surveyed you after you did your teller coach training, we [00:25:00] surveyed you at the end of your first month, we surveyed you and so on.

And we collected the data and then we took the data and said, okay, what's the story that it's telling us? Um, we found that, you know, some of the things where there were inconsistencies and expectations when they got out to their branches. Um, you know, our job is to, is to service our members and in some cases, to educate them.

On products and services that can help them with their life's moments and milestones that, uh, can make their lives better. But some folks were told, well, I could do this. Now I've got the knowledge. Some folks were told, well, you need to do it today. And they're saying, well, I'm not ready. So what it did was it just helped build consistency.

Um, we ended up making, uh, considerable action to, uh, to our, our, our teller training. Um, I'll give you an example. So mm-hmm. We went from three days of asynchronous. And one day of in person to two days asynchronous, two days in person. And we moved some of the, the, the more complicated, more technical stuff mm-hmm.

To when they're actually working with their coach in person in the branch. Um. So it allowed us to really [00:26:00] move some things around and then to resurvey them. And, uh, when we, we got feedback on what the impact was and, and we've continued to survey. Um, if there had been issues previously, these were things that were no longer issues, um, because of how we move things around.

So, uh, again, we, we use survey feedback to help us make really data driven decisions. 

Angeline Evans: Thank you. Yeah, we, uh, we see a lot of our clients using that, and it really is just a great. You know, we can deliver training as learning and development thresholds, but you need the data to know that it's working. 

And iterate and constantly optimize. So I really appreciate you providing that description. 

Brad Garfinkel: Yeah, we did, uh, as I mentioned, we did, uh, we did our tellers, we did our new accounts folks, and, uh, very soon we're gonna be kicking it off with our contact center, um, and with our call center, which we're really excited about.

Angeline Evans: That's great. So looking ahead, what's next for learning at members first? 

Susan Cort: Seems like you've done it all, Brad.

Angeline Evans: Right? I'm like, oh, there's, we always ask that question, but I'm kind of like, Hmm. 

Brad Garfinkel: There, there's no shortage of opportunities. Um, I obviously continuing to, to focus on, on, uh, developing leadership content.

Um, [00:27:00] we, we just recently rolled out, uh, a, a coaching model that we're piloting. Um, we, we have, uh. Three or four different trainings that have different coaching models, but they're, they're inconsistent. They don't speak the same language. So we realize organizationally we need to have the same model that everybody's using.

Um, you know, for, it should be one model that we're using for all coaching situations. So that's a priority for us. Um, you may be surprised to hear this, but there's this thing called AI that's kind of big right now. Yeah. 

Susan Cort: We've heard a little bit about that. 

Brad Garfinkel: uh, we're, we're doing a, um, I guess kind of a, a crawl, walk, run with, with, uh mm-hmm with, with ai and especially with automation.

So L&D was, uh, put in a position in which we took the lead with a, a pilot of, of co-pilot users. Um, and looking at how we would utilize co-pilot, uh, depending on the ROI of what the pilot, uh, the beta pilot looks like. Uh, I have a high suspicion that we're gonna be rolling out to our back office in the near future.

Uh, probably 400-ish people. We're rolling out automation. Um, so RPA bot automation. Um, we look at AI and we look at [00:28:00] automation. Um, it's going to allow us to be much more efficient. It's gonna allow us to take some of those more meaningful tasks. And, uh, and, and do better, do it faster. At the end of the day, we wanna be able to spend more time with our people and more time building relationships with our members.

Um, we're not looking to replace jobs, we're not looking to take things away. We're looking to, to really kind of reinvest in what matters most. And it's the people side of things and, and, uh, AI and automation, uh, are going to allow us to do it. So a lot of what we're doing is, is looking at how can we implement, uh, AI tools into the things that we do.

Mm-hmm. 

Susan Cort: Brad, everything that you've shared today is so inspirational and I'm so impressed to, it's to hear more about the depth and the breadth of all that you do at Members 1st, for people listening, what kind of advice would you give them? They're probably inspired now to do more, uh, in their organizations.

What, what would you leave people with? 

Brad Garfinkel: You know, the most important thing that we do is we ask questions, we ask for feedback. Um, when you were talking about culture, and we talked about that earlier in our discussion, um, part of the culture is asking questions, um, and not making assumptions. Um, making [00:29:00] sure that you're at every single decision-making table.

Every project that we're involved with L&D sits at the table before we make a decision for another business unit. We sit at the table with them and say, here's what we're thinking, but ultimately we need to collaborate, make sure we're doing this. So I think, um, it, it's relationships, it's collaboration, it's having the conversations is probably some of the most important things that you can be doing and not operating in a silo.

Um, this is a, an organization where, uh, transparency, uh, it, it runs everywhere throughout the organization. 

Susan Cort: Well said, and thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today and for sharing your, your insights with our listeners. 

Angeline Evans: Thanks, Brad. This was a great conversation. 

Brad Garfinkel: Awesome. Thank you so much.

I appreciate the opportunity. 

Susan Cort: My thanks to d’Vinci's Client Solutions Consultant Angeline Evans and our guest, Brad Garfinkel, VP of Learning and Development at Members 1st Federal Credit Union. If you have an idea for a topic or guest, please reach out to us at Powered by Learning at dvinci.com. And don't forget to subscribe to Powered by Learning wherever you listen to [00:30:00] your podcasts.