Many colleges and universities face financial challenges, heightened by the demographic cliff and the pandemic, and find themselves discussing recommendations or notices of concerns with accreditation review teams. An updated statement from AIR, NACUBO, and EDUCAUSE highlighted recommendations. However, this topic is not widely explored at WSCUC ARC. We will demonstrate how leaders who are second in command (2iC) can work together more effectively to address our most pressing challenges. We will share how we leveraged the 2iC Excellence Framework to guide our work, the four phases and twelve stages that can link leaders in a ‘second in command’ chain. Participants will see the framework in action through use cases around retention strategies, administrative barriers, improved procedures, and engaging with finance data in new ways.