A Direct Line Blog

By Donya Parrish, MCU VP- Risk Management

I know, you already answered “yes” to the question above based on the date on the calendar. It IS officially the day when we get excited for a large rodent to tell us whether we have six more weeks of winter or spring is just around the corner. To be honest, in Montana, I am not sure there is a difference!

The “Groundhog Day” I am referring to today, though, is about a 1983 movie starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. In it, the main character gets stuck in a time loop where every day he wakes up to live the same day — which happens to be Groundhog Day — over and over again. As he realizes it, he stops caring about his actions because none of them have consequences. Instead, they lead to, you guessed it, another day just like the one before.

In asking if your credit union is having Groundhog Day, the question is, are you planning and acting with the expected outcome of another year just like the one before? [Yes, it might be an unfair question as we come off two years of COVID, but you get my point.] Are you working toward intentional goals that might be outside the current comfort zone of the board and management team? What are you doing to improve and grow the credit union in this world of fast-paced change and expected innovation?

I would challenge you to use this Groundhog Day to think about ways you can help your credit union get on track for change. Whether it is learning more about a topic you hear about and don’t understand, planning for board succession, asking the hard questions about places your credit union seems to be stuck, or just speaking up — now is the time to be a catalyst. And, maybe that involves neither six more weeks of winter or spring just around the corner. Maybe it means a third and unexpected outcome that we never considered. I can’t wait to hear what you come up with!