Strategic planning season is upon us—are you ready?

Last month I had the opportunity to work with three credit unions, in three sessions, over three days in North Dakota. It’s a new model that FarWell created to bring strategic planning to credit unions of all sizes.

It was an intense few days, but it was an amazing reminder of how important these strategic discussions are. Having frequent strategic dialogue with your board and engaging in good strategic planning is a key indicator of credit union health. The big conversations are critical, but I was majorly reminded how important the day-to-day decisions are in making sure your annual, repeatable strategic planning process remains healthy.

So, as you approach your annual planning cycle, think of it like a health check:

• How are you feeling?
• What should you be doing to be in better shape?

Do you have a good champion for planning?

Planning only succeeds if there is a good, loud, and influential champion who understands the work and who pushes it forward. As you mature in your strategic planning processes, it may not always be the same champion—make sure to grow your pool of champions. You need people who understand why planning is important and why it is something that needs to be done every year, not just every few years.

Do not forget current state

Often, when we get into a good routine of annual strategic planning, leaders want to try to “streamline” planning or make it more efficient. There’s nothing wrong with that—as long as you’re not doing it at the expense of the work that needs to be done. One of those crucial tasks is assessing current state. It may not take as long as the first time you did a current state assessment but looking around and understanding what’s happening around you—and what has changed since the last time you looked—is key to knowing where you want to go and how to get there. Our environment is constantly moving faster, and we must take a moment to assess it and how it pertains to our plan or provides opportunities.

Do not make assumptions on simple statements

In my recent strategic planning sessions, we had several “aha” moments while pushing for more clarity around pretty common statements. “We need to grow.” But what do we mean by grow? What does growth look like? And how fast will it happen? Is everyone on the same page? Often, as we push for further clarification, we find there are different views on what these simple statements mean. The Five Whys Exercise is always a good tool for getting to the root of what everyone means. If we all agree to “let’s grow,” do we end up moving strategically in the same direction? Or do we move with more focus if we clarify that statement to something like, “we want to grow through branch expansion and adding more members.”  That leads to a specific plan with clear goals and measurements so that we can see our success.

Are you in too much of a routine?

Having a routine around strategic planning ANNUALLY is incredibly important. I mean, heck, I did it for eight years. But can it start feeling too routine? Are we going through the motions? Do we start just filling out the template and not taking the time for the critical strategic discussion? As mentioned above, are we leaning too far into “efficiencies” that we’ve slimmed down so much that we’re losing the meaning of what we’re doing?  Have we gotten too comfortable?

The planning process should feel expected each year, but it should not feel comfortable. If you’re not taking time to ask hard questions, push boundaries, say ‘yes’ to big dreams but also ‘no’ to good ideas—then you’ve fallen into too much of a routine and you need to shake it up. Think about changing your template, bringing in new groups to participate in planning exercises, or bringing in an outside advisor to push you further. Shake it up!

Health checks are important for all of us and all the things—including your annual strategic planning process. As you get started this year, take a moment to check and see if you’re ready for a successful planning season!