There are numerous factors in improving a credit union's performance today: adding to the membership base, increasing products and services per household, improving productivity by adding new technology, and many more. The challenge for a credit union executive is to minimize the many barriers faced on a daily basis to get the best ideas implemented and embraced within the organization.

I recently surveyed a couple dozen credit union executives to use a diagnostic tool that assesses the strengths and barriers of their organizations to implement their strategies. Bridges Consulting Group developed the tool to identify critical success factors for implementing an organization's strategy. The tool reflects 52 reasons why implementations fail. The purpose of their participation was to see what executives agreed were the top factors, or barriers, to implementing strategy within their respective credit unions.

Listed below are the top four barriers they selected, providing tips to eliminate them so your credit union's strategy will be easier to implement.