What key factor may be working against your interest in raising board engagement and accountability

In 2023, we identified four elements of good governance in our State of Credit Union Governance Report: 1) board members fulfilling their roles and responsibilities; 2) engagement; 3) accountability and 4) trust. Our study found that these four elements were VERY strongly correlated, meaning that if one of these elements was weak within a board, it was very likely the other three were as well; the reverse was also true. If a board was scoring well in just one or more of these areas, then it’s likely that all the elements were markers of a high-functioning board.

We were thrilled. The findings were so strong (with correlations equal to or greater than 0.79) that it now meant that we could identify the weakest link among our clients, focus on that element, and the other elements would become stronger as well.

But that marked just the beginning of our work. How does one build engagement, accountability and trust? And why might these scores be low in the first place? The study also found that among all four of these elements, engagement was the lowest across all respondents.

 

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