Maybe It’s Time to Stop Doing That

By Michael Hudson, Ph.D.

“You must be willing to let go of who you are to become who you are meant to be.

That is the path to epic outcomes.”

Randy Gage in Risky is the New Safe

One of my favorite exercises to use with strategic planning teams is the “Stop Doing Brainstorm.”

The context is simple: The team is asked to brainstorm a list of things the credit union should stop doing without regard to how big or small the impact will be—the focus is simply on things the team thinks no longer need to be done.

The logic is basic: To free up resources to pursue new opportunities successfully, something has to be given up, and every organization has things that it does that are being done largely because they have always been done.

The impact is direct: Forcing people to think about what needs to be stopped makes them uncomfortable and pushes them to think about the credit union from a different perspective.

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