There’s a kind of thinking that’s quietly undermining everything credit unions stand for. It’s the belief that success is a fixed pie; that if you get more, I get less. That growth, attention, and opportunity are limited, and if someone else wins, I must have lost. That’s zero-sum thinking.

At its core, zero-sum thinking assumes the world is rooted in scarcity. It assumes the world runs on limits. One persons gain is automatically someone else’s loss. That logic might work in chess or on battlefields, but it doesn’t hold up in a modern economy. And it sure doesn’t fit with the cooperative values that built the credit union movement.

There was a time, centuries ago, when the global economy ran on that logic. Under the old mercantile system, nations hoarded gold and blocked trade to “protect” their own wealth. That started to change when economists and leaders embraced comparative advantage, the idea that everyone wins when they specialize in what they do best and trade for what they don’t. Success stropped being about shutting others out and started being about playing to your strengths and building smart partnerships.

The world moved away from zero-sum because we discovered something better: mutual benefit. But lately, that old mindset has started creeping back in. You can see it in headlines—tariffs, trade wars, shrinking alliances. Countries acting like rivals instead of collaborators. Leaders treating diplomacy like a scoreboard. And it’s not just happening globally. It’s showing up in our industry too. You can hear it in merger talks, vendor negotiations, market expansions, and the list goes on.

It’s subtle, but it’s there.

Here’s the real issue: today’s consumers aren’t committing to one financial partner for life. They’re building a toolkit. I pay for breakfast with Apple Pay. My mortgage is in one place, my checking account somewhere else. I’m not looking for one institution to do everything—I’m looking for the best tools for the job. And so is everyone else.

And in that kind of world, collaboration is a comparative advantage. Sharing resources—whether it’s marketing strategies, training programs, or digital platforms—doesn’t make us weaker. It makes us more agile, more sustainable, and more member-focused.

When we fall into zero-sum thinking, however, we do the opposite. We collect, steal, and hoard ideas. We chase scale for its own sake, or worse, for ego. We measure success by what others didn’t get instead of what our members did. And in the process, we risk turning our movement into just another marketplace—one where efficiency replaces purpose and where competition replaces cooperation.

The legacy of zero-sum thinking

To understand how damaging zero-sum thinking can be, it helps to trace its roots. For centuries, the idea that one person’s gain is another’s loss wasn’t just common—it was assumed. In the mercantile age, nations built empires on the belief that wealth had to be hoarded and rivals shut out.

This mindset encouraged fierce competition and, sometimes, innovation. However, as economies became more interconnected, it became clear that this was a short-sighted strategy. The rise of comparative advantage showed that each player could win by doing what they do best and trading for the rest. Specialization led to efficiency. Cooperation led to growth.

We learned so many years ago that success didn’t have to be exclusive. And yet, here we are, watching that old zero-sum logic creep back into our thinking.

When comparative advantage changed the game

Comparative advantage reframed the game. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, economies and organizations flourished by focusing on strengths and forming smart partnerships.

For example, say your credit union has dialed in consumer lending with quick approvals, smooth service, and solid underwriting. Meanwhile, another credit union nearby specializes n ag loans. Instead of stumbling through each other’s specialties, you trade. You do what you do best, they do the same, and the member ends up better served by both.

For credit unions, this lesson is crucial. We’ve always stood for community, trust, and service. When we lean into what we do best—and team up with others doing the same—we create something more powerful than any single institution can build alone.

But the moment we slip back into zero-sum thinking, we see every potential collaborator as a competitor. We’ll stop working together in times of feast or famine. We’ll we stop building the bridges our communities desperately need.

The hidden cost of zero-sum thinking

Zero-sum thinking shows up in subtle, corrosive ways.

Take mergers and consolidation. These conversations often frame growth as a race for survival. If one credit union grows, it must mean another is shrinking. If one wins a SEG, another loses all of their members.

But that’s how consumers actually behave. Most people don’t “belong” to just one financial institution anymore, they spread things out. Checking here, car loan there, mortgage somewhere else. If we’re still acting like we either “have” a member or we don’t, we’re ignoring how real financial lives are lived while gearing up to fight a battle that doesn’t exist.

When credit unions view ideas as competitive assets to protect rather than tools to share, everyone loses. While we bury best practices, we all end up solving the same problems (fraud, compliance, digital friction, etc.) but doing it all alone, behind closed doors, wasting time and money in the process.

Inside the walls, zero-sum thinking is just as detrimental as it breeds turf wars. Teams shift their focus from members to metrics. Departments guard their slice of the budget, afraid of being cut of overshadowed. Leaders start managing to beat each other, rather than working together to elevate the whole organization.

The lift of logic advantage

The antidote to zero-sum thinking is what I call lift-logic thinking. Instead of “If you win, I lose,” it asks, “How do we both win more together?” Collaboration expands the pie by adding bandwidth, trust, and momentum across the board.

Take a real-world example: a member signs on for your credit card but finances their car through a neighboring credit union with a better auto loan program. If both institutions are playing the long game and focused on member success, that’s not a loss. That’s a win-win.

It’s about recognizing that your strengths become more valuable when you share them with intention.

Take shared digital platforms. Instead of each credit union investing millions on its own, a collaborative approach can reduce costs and increase functionality. No one loses. Everyone wins. The same is true for staff development. When we share training programs or host a chapter event, we raise the bar everywhere. Not just for one credit union, but across the movement.

How resource sharing creates strategic advantage

Resource sharing isn’t a backup plan. It’s the smart next step for credit unions who want to scale what they’re best and without carrying the full weight alone.

At Journey Federal Credit Union, we’ve seen this firsthand. As a part-owner of of a CUSO, we’re tapped into an accounting and finance team we could never afford on our own. That partnership frees us up by cutting administrative overhead, gives us expertise on demand, and lets us put more energy into what matters most: the member experience.

We’re not talking about losing our identity. We’re talking about letting go of the idea that we have to do everything on our own.

A call to collaborative action

Credit unions were born to serve the people traditional banks ignored. Cooperation isn’t just in our mission statement, it’s how we started. But if we keep slipping into win-lose thinking, we risk becoming exactly what we were created to fix.

It’s time for a mindset reset. Members aren’t looking for exclusivity, they’re looking for flexibility and solutions that work for them. They want the best tools, not just the most familiar brand. Let’s building things together, things like tools, training, and talent pipelines, and stop stockpiling solutions. When we work and come together as an industry, we move faster, make better decisions, and stay rooted in our purpose.

Rewriting the rules for a cooperative future

Zero-sum thinking might have made sense in the past. But it doesn’t serve us now.

The future belongs to those who see opportunity in collaboration, who believe that resource sharing is comparative advantage, and who understand that a win for one credit union can, and should be, a win for all of us.