Take Your Planning From the Weeds to the Trees

Every credit union does strategic planning. But do they strategically plan well? In his book “Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies,” Jim Stengel says, “Remain stuck inside your current business model and your business’ days are numbered.”

One way credit unions get stuck strategically is by focusing on the granular rather than the big picture. They focus on the tactical and not the strategic. They focus on the 5,000-foot level rather than the 30,000-foot level.

In other words, they stay in the weeds rather than go to the trees.

Credit unions can easily fall into the the “weed trap.” For example, rather than talking about the future of branches, board members and C-suite executives want to discuss a particular branch’s color scheme.

When it comes to your strategy and planning sessions, you must go high and not low. You have to get out of the day to day (weeds) and into the long-term (trees).

But how? Here are five ways to focus more on the strategy and less on the tactical (not that implementation is not important).

Complete Unique Strategy Exercises

One reason credit unions get stuck in the weeds is that they are doing the same thing every time strategy is discussed. Think SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). That exercise is overused and doesn’t yield anything you don’t already know.

As Jeff Rendel, president of Rising Above Enterprises, says, “One of the best ways to build a successful strategic plan is to get rid of the SWOT.”

Two exercises we use with clients is The Myth of Excellence and the Five Star Credit Union Analysis. The “Myth” approach helps you determine how you want your credit union to compete (price, product, experience, service, access). You can’t compete effectively in every area (that’s a myth). So strategically discuss how you want to position your credit union. The Five Star Analysis quickly helps you identify where your credit union has strategic gaps in five key areas: Service, staff, marketing/branding, finances and operations. Those are all five points on a successful credit union’s star.

Get out of the weeds by doing something different.

Ask Strategic Questions

The best strategies often start with the best questions. If you are asking low level questions, you are going to get low level answers. So ask strategy questions.

Some questions that will immediately yield higher level discussions include:

• What is our value proposition?
• How would you describe our culture and how can we improve it?
• What are the strategic gaps that are preventing us from being all we can be as a credit union?
• Of the following four growth strategies (market penetration, product development, market development, diversification), how are we going to grow?
• What makes us different from our competition (note: you can not use the words community, service or people)

Get into the trees by asking high level questions.

Use Anti-Weed Tools

If weeds are overwhelming your literal yard, you often break out a weed killer of some sort. It’s no different if metaphorical weeds are impacting your strategic sessions. There are two playful tools you can use. I intentionally say “playful” because while strategy is serious, you need to insert a fun element to the process.

The first tool is GEPO cards. GEPO stands for “Good Enough, Push On.” In a meeting (board meeting, planning session, executive discussion, etc.) anytime someone continues to talk about a subject already covered or a subject that is more tactical than strategic, then any attendee can bring out or point to a card that says “GEPO” on it. End of discussion. Move on.

A second option I saw one of our clients use was a spray bottle with the words “Weed Killer” emblazoned on it. During board meetings, if any member started talking about an issue that was in the weeds and not strategic, someone could use that bottle. Of course, it was filled with water and not real weedkiller. But the point was made: You get in the weeds, you get sprayed.

Stay away from weeds by giving people friendly reminders.

Use An Outside Facilitator

Can you facilitate your own strategic planning session? Absolutely. Should you facilitate your own strategic planning session? Absolutely not.

A good facilitator keeps you from driving off into unwanted ditches. It is sometimes hard for fellow team members to call each other out for veering into weeds. You don’t want to come across as a jerk. But a good facilitator has no problem being challenging. You often need a “frienemy” as a facilitator: Someone who will love you like a friend but challenge you like an enemy.

It’s also easy for credit unions to fall into the “charge” trap. Executives are high achievers who go and go and go. In other words, they charge, charge and charge. Until they hit a wall. A good facilitator ensures you don’t try and do too much by keeping you from the weeds.

Watch out for weeds by hiring an expert facilitator to keep you focused.

Don’t Focus On the Numbers

Numbers are important. But numbers are just measurements – they are not strategic. Some strategic meetings get off track by people spending way too much time talking about ratios, peer group analysis, balance sheets and budgets.

As Ray Davis, former CEO of Umpqua Bank and author of “Leading for Growth” says, “You cannot grow your business if all you are doing is worrying about the numbers.” In other words, you cannot see strategy when you are up to your eyeballs in spreadsheets.

When it comes to planning, you need to glance at your numbers and glare at your strategic initiatives. If you come to a strategy session with binders full of data, you are certain to have more weeds-type discussions.

Spend more time in the trees by spending less time in the numbers.

Strategic planning is a process – not a date on a calendar. For that process to accomplish as much as you want strategically, then focus on the trees and not the weeds.

Mark Arnold is founder and president of On the Mark Strategies, a Dallas, Texas-based consulting firm specializing in branding and strategic planning for credit unions.