It is that time of year again. The time when credit unions everywhere schedule 1/2 day planning sessions, full-day planning seminars, or multi-day planning retreats…all intended to set the future course for the credit union.

In spirit these well-intentioned efforts are valuable, but in practice there are some myths that pervade the processes in ways that can seriously limit their effectiveness and impact. Here are three important myths that you should consider before scheduling your next planning session.

Myth 1. The best time to hold a planning session is in the fall.

Reality…Though the fall planning session has become almost an accepted practice for many credit unions, it may well be the worst time of the year for it. This is especially true if the goal of the process is strategic planning. The reason?

The fall is riddled with pitfalls that can derail strategic thinking. The staff are bogged down with closing out the current year and measuring performance against annual goals, and that makes it difficult for them to think about the long-term. The holidays that are just around the corner create a break that can seriously derail critical post-planning session discussions. A spring planning session, in contrast, can set the stage for an ongoing process that can produce powerful results and maintain a strong focus on the strategic plan throughout the coming year.

Myth 2. Strategic planning sessions should define clear and specific goals for achievement during the coming year.

Reality…An effective strategic planning process should create clarity regarding the strategic vision for the credit union across the next 3-5-7 years, and perhaps beyond. While there will be action steps identified during the process that need to be pursued during the coming year, that should not be the focus of your strategic planning effort. Nor should the focus be on setting specific targets for the year ahead–that task should be done by those who are responsible for creating the outcomes. The focus needs to be on identifying the possible scenarios that will impact the credit union in the future, then defining a clear vision that will lead to success, regardless of which scenario actually unfolds. Annual goal setting should follow the process and be done by those who will be held accountable for the achievement of those specific goals.

Myth 3. No planning session is complete unless it produces a comprehensive planning document that lists the action steps for the next 12 months.

Reality…Many credit unions are at a crossroads today that will require more than mere words on paper to guide them to the next level. The key outcome of the planning session should be an agreement on where the organization will go in the future, with special emphasis on five critical questions:

1. What should we stop doing?

2. What should we start doing?

3. What should we do more of?

4. What should we do less of?

5. What is our distinct and defensible difference within our target market?

The time frame for these questions is not just the next 6-12 months when you can take action regarding the low-hanging fruit, but more importantly the next 3-5 years when you can create significant and meaningful change. The point being that it is more important to address and answer these critical questions than it is to create a long list of action items that may never get done in the next 12 months, or that simply add things to leaders already overloaded to do lists.

There you have it. Three myths and the associated realities that should be considered to ensure the success of your next planning session. While the tone may seem a tad cynical, perhaps even negative, the simple fact is that too many of the so-called ‘stategic planning’ sessions that will occur in credit unions across the next several weeks will focus more on operations than they will on strategy, opting for the more familiar and comfortable approach of defining target outcomes for the coming year.

But in the planning sessions at the credit unions that will thrive in the future, the flow and tone of the discussions will be different. The team will focus on what their credit union needs to do in the next 5-7 years to ensure its continued success. Rather than debating target levels of return or coping strategies for dealing with uncertainty in the next 12 months, these planning teams will consider the future of the credit union in the context of the world as it will be in the future. And though they may not produce a comprehensive list of things to do, they will achieve the more powerful outcome of advancing their thinking about the future of their credit union.

ACTION ADVICE: Take time to seriously evaluate the effectiveness of your strategic planning efforts before you hold your next planning session by asking and openly discussing this question: Are we focusing our strategic planning discussions on the big picture, long-term issues and making sure to address the difficult questions that need to be considered to define out pathway to long-term success? Depending upon how you answer that question, you may want to consider de-myth-ifying your strategic planning efforts!

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 19th, 2012 at 5:02 am and is filed under Credit Union Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.