3 minutes
While Prospera Credit Union has always supported professional development at both the board and staff level, over the past 12 months we have enjoyed a heightened level of engagement in governance and leadership for the purpose of building skills that strengthen our contribution to the development and implementation of our new enterprise-wide strategic plan.
As a result, several board members and staff have committed to strengthening their strategic leadership skills and, in June this year, the senior manager of governance and planning and I attended CUES Governance Leadership Institute™.
Top takeaways for me from this summer’s institute include the big ideas of governance effectiveness through committee structure and organizational performance through good governance.
As the chair, I gained a great deal of insight from the case studies. I was particularly impressed with the level of class discussion and how open the participants were in sharing their opinions and experiences on the various governance topics being explored.
I took notes non-stop and was particularly influenced by the discussion on high-performance boards, especially the discussion on the importance of board mandate and committee structure. Equally impactful was the time spent exploring the relationship between credit union governance and performance. This was particularly relevant as I considered performance expectations associated with the development and execution of our organization’s new strategy.
Committee Mandate and Structure
Within the instruction on high-performance boards, we explored a variety of processes and tools boards can apply to enhance governance effectiveness. Establishing mandates for board committees was an important component of the lesson that validated my thoughts around reorganizing our own committee structure to support the development and implementation of our new organizational strategy.
The faculty member from Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto reinforced the important role that committees play in doing the work of the board, and the review of committee guidelines and best practices helped me with the language to pursue discussion with our own board to consider committee restructuring.
Beginning the conversation with the premise that periodic review of board committee structure is a good governance practice, I requested the board determine if the appropriate committees were in place to increase the board’s effectiveness in supporting our new organizational priorities.
The result was a formally facilitated evaluation of our committees in September to align our structure to support key strategic priorities, as well as to address new regulatory emphasis on what is considered priority work for the board.
Board and Organizational Performance
One of the more intriguing learnings was the study presented on Day 3 that explored the relationship between credit union governance and performance. This 10-year research project demonstrated that there is little statistical correlation between effective board governance and organizational financial performance. While I had initially assumed the board had a more direct impact on the balance sheet as a result of setting strategy and working directly with the CEO, this clearly demonstrated that the role of most effective boards is less directly connected to operational results.
The takeaway for me was how important it was to become more deliberate about our focus on the future, rather than spending a lot of time on operations. Focusing board time and resources on key areas—such as strategy, risk management, CEO evaluation, member satisfaction and ongoing governance training and board renewal—will do more for board effectiveness and organizational success than focusing more so on compliance and operations. For Prospera CU, this applies directly to the purposeful restructuring of our board committees to support our new strategy —our future—and emphasizes where the board needs to focus its time and effort.
The Prepared Board
There is no question that CUES Governance Leadership Institute and the faculty at the Rotman School of Management refined my skills and understanding of good governance. All board members interested in learning how to address the biggest challenges credit union boards face will benefit from this comprehensive and practical course. I left knowing I would be able to contribute more meaningfully to our credit union, and I am grateful for the experience.
Stacey Crawford, CCD, is chairman of $3 billion Prospera Credit Union, Abbotsford, British Columbia.
