Most credit unions are undoubtedly familiar with an annualstrategic management cycle and planning session. What is perhapsless familiar is how to convert planned strategy into a prioritizedexecution plan to deliver maximum results.

Execution is critical because the realized strategic impact forthe organization equals the sum of all completed projects duringthe year, not necessarily what was planned in a prior strategicsession. Disconnection can and does occur when less strategicallydesirable projects are selected, resources are misallocated, orresources run out prematurely before important projects arecomplete.

As a rule of thumb, it takes less time to contemplate strategicideas than it does to implement them effectively. Therefore,evolving strategic choices quickly exceed resource capacities,conflicts arise, and less optimized decisions occur.

Tenets, goals, objectives and capabilities clearly help seniormanagement articulate high-level strategy and these can also beused for aligning initiatives. For example, high-level strategictenets could certainly include creating lasting community value,managing market share, managing cost, managing talent, leveragingtechnology for innovation and efficiency, improving internalcommunication and collaboration, and maximizing revenue.

Goals might include such worthy realizations as advocating forthe community, operating more cost efficiently, attracting andretaining knowledge workers, becoming an employer of choice in thelocal community, and building a scalable and flexible membercentric technology platform. Objectives might include increasingmortgage market share, replacing obsolete desktop technology orincreasing employee knowledge in savings products by the end of theyear.

More granular business capabilities that support strategy couldinclude world-class member experience capabilities with coreintegration, online/mobile access account opening, personalizedonline/mobile access marketing campaigns, ability to offerindividualized products or services, ability to offer ongoingeducation workshops for community organizations, or even dataanalytics capacity to collect, aggregate and analyze member orproduct data for improved marketing.

Credit unions, like all organizations, desire to achieve theirstrategic objectives and attain their strategic capabilities, andmost typically do so from a living backlog of future initiativesthat supports, in varying degrees, the overall strategic plan. Ofcourse, a credit union should further divide these strategicobjectives and capabilities into even shorter-term goals,objectives and metrics, and ultimately translate them intoactionable programs and projects.

Strategy, as defined by the unabridged dictionary.com, is aplan, method or series of maneuvers to attain a specific goal orobjective. As we can see in the preceding paragraphs and in thedefinition above, there is pluralism and complexity of action. Howdoes a credit union transfer a diverse roadmap into ongoingoperations? How does a credit union minimize the potentialdisconnection between what it says it wants to do and what itactually does?

The most common method for implementing a strategic plan andintroducing organizational change is through project management.Projects are often the means to execute strategy such as a projectfor a new home banking system.

However, a common reason why strategic projects fail to delivertheir desired benefit is due to competing project priorities andlimited resources such as time, money, and people. This isespecially true in lean organizations such as credit unions.

The inherent problem lies in the fact that projects compete withother projects, perhaps from other functional areas, and for sharedresources. Most readers of this article will have experienced theissue of trying to force 10 pounds of projects into the proverbialfive-pound knapsack. It simply does not fit elegantly, andsomething, often scope or quality, must give. Peter is robbed topay Paul, or the seams burst.

The solution is an enterprise project portfolio managementframework, which aligns all projects and resources with strategy.In the simplest form, an enterprise project portfolio is a holisticinventory of all projects and prioritized against their respectivestrategic value, presumably measured from the aforementionedstrategic elements.

This framework helps ensure that scare resources are appliedfirst to projects with the greatest strategic impact and that thereis unified organizational agreement on what comprises the mostvaluable projects. PPM frameworks deliberately review active andpending projects in order to maximize organizational value for agiven level of time, money, and people outlay. (Please note thatdetailed discussion of designing, implementing, and managing a PPMframework is outside the scope of this article.)

Organizations without a PPM framework invariably have too manyprojects, projects that do not add value, projects that do not linkto strategy, critical resource shortages, conflicts, and apotential waste of member money.

Conversely, organizations with a robust PPM process willprioritize and select projects based upon a shared organizationalstrategy, allocate adequate resources to the most valuableprojects, increase internal alignment between business areas andtechnology, increase overall strategic impact, and eventuallyprovide greater member value.

In summary, PPM provides a centralized enterprise method forprioritizing all project initiatives and an objectivedecision-making process. PPM is a key organizational capability andtop management should consider PPM as a means to help achievestrategic realization, business results and greater value.

Anthony W. Montgomery is a senior director for aglobal non-profit in Nashville, Tenn., a former credit unionexecutive, and currently pursuing a doctoral degree ininterdisciplinary leadership from Creighton University in Omaha,Neb.