Your Credit Union's Strategic Plan Success: 5 Best Practices
By Peter Myers, MSC, PCC, Senior Vice President, DDJ Myers
DDJ Myers speaks to hundreds of credit unions every year. This helped inform us that with the ever-changing industry dynamics facing boards and executive teams, credit unions require a reinvigorated approach to formulating and executing their strategic plans. Board members and management are asking for the same progress in the dialogue during the strategic planning session.
We have carefully listened to the challenges that face credit union leadership and boards and constructed five best practices to implement right away for a more successful strategic planning process.
- Educate your board ahead of time
- Understand the competitive landscape and the market holistically
- Outline your membership demographics and define your target membership
- Map out your credit union's cultural variables by examining your executive team's decision-making process and your staff's strengths
- Define your credit union's capacity for change and risk tolerance
It is critical to the health of your credit union to have more robust discussions that focus on the bigger picture, are less tactical, and more inclusionary with your board. These dialogues should also conclude with clearly defining measures of success. To produce meaningful change in the strategic planning process it is necessary to integrate a structured roadmap. This is a common missing element in the efforts of most credit unions.
For more information about the missing elements and best practices in strategic planning, specifically for credit unions, listen to Peter's podcast series with Paul Timm, VP of Marketing for NAFCU Services.
The Missing Elements in Strategic Planning – Part 1
The Missing Elements in Strategic Planning – Part 2
DDJ is the NAFCU Services Preferred Partner for Leadership Training, Executive Search and Recruitment Services. More educational content and information is available at www.nafcu.org/DDJMyers.