Some credit unions schedule strategic planning sessions because their examiners require it. Some put strategic planning on the annual calendar because it means a nice visit to a destination location. Some do it solely because they always have.
None of these are good reasons for a credit union to do strategic planning. The reason strategic planning is important is that growing, complex credit unions in a dynamic and changing marketplace cannot afford to fly without instrumentation. One of the most important risks faced by successful credit unions is the strategic risk that can come by reacting to events as they unfold, rather than planning in advance to impact events and help shape how they unfold.
Strategic planning is important simply because looking ahead is always a better approach than looking back. And, credit unions that plan ahead, even if those plans have to be changed because of intervening events, inevitably are stronger credit unions with more satisfied members than are those merely reacting to events.
Perhaps because of its importance, strategic planning has matured and changed; perhaps, in line with the changing marketplace credit unions are facing.
The biggest trend in credit union strategic planning over recent years has been moving from viewing strategic planning as an event and looking at it more as a process. The initial planning session sets the broad strategic goals with board and management buy-in, then the management team takes those strategies and subsequently puts the tactical action plans under each strategy. Then, on a quarterly basis, management reports to the board for accountability and monitoring purposes records their progress in implementing the tactics that further the strategic goals.
Therefore, for a three-year plan, the next two-year planning session becomes a time to have annual updates, review the strategic goals for ongoing timeliness and adjust them accordingly. The quarterly reporting keeps the plan fresh for both management and the board, and it remains a priority.
The old adage that action without planning is fatal, but planning without action is futile, certainly comes into play at times with credit unions when they make strategic planning an annual event rather than on ongoing process. Progressive credit unions, larger and smaller, are moving toward this much more process-oriented approach.
With the right structure and approach, strategic planning becomes more of a process and less of an event.
Dennis Dollar is a principal partner at Dollar Associates LLC and a former NCUA chairman. He can be reached at 205-991-1525 or [email protected].
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