Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

If you are like many of us at NAFCU, you likely have some thoughts on how you can do things better in 2016. 

With that in mind, here are some thoughts about the "future."

• If you haven't read it yet, please consider paging through The Black Swan, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Here's the short and dirty overview. Humans are terrible at predicting the future. Massive changes overcome us, that no one saw coming. All you can do is be flexible, forward-thinking, and constantly scanning the horizon for signs of change. 
• We often want big changes. But small changes can have an amazing impact on the future.  What does a 1% increase in loans look like, compounded year-after-year? Here's what it looks like. Look at the graph below, and ask yourself this: What can we improve by one percent next year?
  
  
  
• Remember this: No matter how good the plan is, you need motivated, engaged employees to do it. What is your plan to have motivated, engaged employees? Read this short post on "Lottery and Freewill."  There's a famous quote - If you build it, they may come. If you build it with them, they are already there.
  
  
• Finally, a colleague sent me this great article. Goals for 2016: Have only one goal. It gets you thinking. If you had a magic wand and could cure one problem or accomplish one goal, what would it be? Once you name it, make it your solitary goal.  The focus can move mountains, according to the article. 

As always, thanks for your time today. Have a wonderful week, everyone. 

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While I can't predict the future, here are some things geared to help your board, supervisory committee and other credit union volunteers excel in 2016.

• NAFCU's Board of Directors and Supervisory Committee Conference. May 2016. San Francisco, California.
• NAFCU's Annual Conference and Solutions Expo. June 2016. Nashville, Tennessee. 
• The Credit Union Director Handbook. I wrote it to be a relatively short, yet solid overview of what new volunteers need to know. And stay tuned - we'll bring the certification tied to the handbook online for 2016!

Feel free to pass along those resources to whomever is responsible for designing your board and volunteer official training.