CU executive strategizes for the future.
Credit unions need every edge to compete in today's world of rapidly-changing technology, regulation and economic dislocation. Your strategic plan, an essential tool to address this level of change, can also give you an advantage in ways you may not have realized. Your strategic planning process is a major opportunity to enhance your organizational culture, which brings a wealth of ancillary benefits. A culture of engagement forms a basis for organizational success, as an engaged workforce produces increased member satisfaction and higher financial returns. A planning process that relies on candor and inclusion generates engagement.
Complete and accurate information is indispensable to any planning exercise. Having data gathered, by an independent source in a confident manner, from a sample representative of the workforce and senior leadership, creates a foundation for the strategic plan. When the data gathering process is inclusive, it enhances the trust that is fundamental for a healthy culture. Participants take time to share honest critical thinking. Everyone knows their input matters and their voices will be heard. This level of inclusion generates enthusiasm and motivates people to create a shared plan and strive to achieve its goals.
Organizations typically engage outside advisors who can facilitate this process, create tailored instruments for in-person interviews and employee surveys, and allow for thoughtful sharing of findings without individual attribution. Personal one-on-one interviews with senior managers are supplemented with other tools, including digital surveys, to gather data broadly and deeply, with an objective of inclusion throughout the credit union. These internal results are complemented by external data, including information from members, other stakeholders, the competition and the financial services industry in general. This comprehensive data platform forms the baseline for the creation of strategy, giving a full and accurate picture of the credit union's current environment and how people collectively see the future.
These quantitative and qualitative results, when shared in a transparent and inclusive way, generate confidence in the process and remove debate about the current reality. The data provides senior executives with the comprehensive view needed for both the formulation and implementation of the newly-created plan. Leadership has the information they need to assess the capability and capacity of the organization, and to assess the organizational culture. These are essential as your people will drive the execution and make the plan happen. Accurate data allows leadership to identify areas in need of strengthening, as well as barriers to success. Senior management can think through issues across the enterprise and see strategic opportunities more clearly. This is an iterative process that requires respectful and honest communication that embody the values of listening and collaboration.
Strategy flows from your credit union's mission, vision and core values. The process includes senior management identifying and articulating key strategic elements of the plan through which the mission and vision (which describes the desired future state of the organization) will be achieved. Three to five key drivers are developed and expanded into a prioritized set of strategic initiatives. Goal statements and high-level performance metrics for each key strategic driver are defined and codified as dashboard items that are not just reviewed by the CEO and C-Suite but shared with the organization as a whole. Proper incentives align employees' motivations and behaviors with the desired measurable results. The process is disciplined. There is a clear understanding that accountability will be required throughout the organization. The employees will expect accountability of each other, in addition to management's expectations.
The core values underpinning your culture are strategic weapons in the recruitment of talent. Values and culture are given as top reasons to either join or avoid an organization. The people needed to carry out your strategic plan will be focused on the alignment of the organization's values with their personal values. Core values should be an inherent strength of credit unions since their mission and values are centered around their members, employees, the community and other stakeholders.
Strategic communications of the plan should reflect simplicity, creating a common language and articulating clear, shared objectives. The inclusion of your people in the planning process enables senior management to share messaging and ensures that everyone knows the organizational core values, mission and vision. When employees understand and embrace these, they can communicate them and live by them, thereby creating and strengthening a healthy culture.
Your people are the foundation that will carry out the ideas through which strategic goals are achieved. They will embrace responsibility for the strategy because they have been included in its development. They want to be proud of their work, and they will be when they see their efforts successfully move their credit union into the future.
Stuart Levine Stuart R. Levine is Chairman and CEO of Stuart Levine & Associates LLC and EduLeader LLC. He can be reached at 516-465-0800 or slevine@stuartlevine.com.
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