Toss It or Tune It? By Tim Harrington and Kevin Smith

We're going to call this a "newsletter" just for this month.

Toss It or Tune It?

Toss it or Tune It: Credit Union Strategic Planning in 2020

COVID has undoubtedly impacted your 2020 strategic plan. But don't fall for the Devil's easy temptation to skip planning in 2020. Planning in a time like this is far too important. You should consider though whether to

Toss it or Tune It.

Toss It: throw out the original strategic plan, temporarily, and replace it with a shorter-term Tactical Plan to get you through.

Tune It: Look at your strategic plan in light of the current turmoil for what you can modify and capitalize on.

Strategically, only one thing is certain: your members have become fully digital and they'll expect their credit union to fill their digital needs. This is not a year to pull back from planning. The board and senior management still need to be on the same track with the same goals and expectations. Even if those expectations are greatly scaled back from your original 2020 plan.

The TEAM Resources approach for 2020:

Think Long, Act Short, and Preserve Capital

1. Think Long: continue to focus on what is good for the credit union in the long-term;

2. Act Short: create short term solutions

to meet the urgent and important issues constantly arising, but always keep the short-term actions closely aligned to the Long-term plan; and

3. Preserve Capital: do all that you can to hold on to your Capital to Assets ratio and not allow it to sink perilously.

We can work with you virtually, or in person, like the good old days. We have done virtual planning sessions for over five years and they are a terrific way to meet and discuss the future of the credit union.

May Blog:

How to Spot a Board in Trouble

(An Incomplete Listicle)

By Tim Harrington and Kevin Smith

This is not a comprehensive list. In fact, we'd like to hear from others the things that they've seen or what they look for. We're sure our smart readership has some things to add. This is also not a checklist. We're not suggesting that once you've identified all eight of these you've found your troubled board. (Notice that some of these are countervailing.) But these are things that show up regularly and have been present when dealing with troubles.

Read more ...

Coming Soon:

New Board Governance Video Series episodes
Expanded online training content and videos, including options for understanding credit union financials (one of Tim's particular specialties)

While you wait, check out our most recent Board Governance Video:

How are you Adapting?