The only strategy question that matters (and the one your credit union is not answering)

“Progress always involves risks. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first base.”

– Frederick B. Wilcox

Strategic planning is about asking (and answering) the right questions—the ones that help the planning team understand the possible environments the business will operate within in the years ahead, the ones that ensure rigorous and thorough debate regarding the options available to the business, and the ones that surface the best ideas for taking the business to the next level.

Every planning facilitator (including me) has their favorite questions, and we all know the ones that people struggle to answer (and the ones they choose to ignore). We also know the ones that tend to bog the group down and essentially stop progress, as well as the ones that can quickly lead a group to a sound decision.

My original plan for this post was to provide a list of such questions, to discuss their respective implications, and to offer recommendations for the best time to use them in your planning discussions.

But that all changed when I read The Power of a One Item List.

The post (written by Holly Fearing from CUNA Mutual Group) reminded me of the one critical (but all too often overlooked) question that needs to be asked and answered in every strategic planning process. It is a question that I have fought hard to get my clients to answer, and frankly it is one place where I sometimes feel my efforts are in vein.

But it is the only strategic question that matters, because it is the only question that will always produce results. That’s not to say those results will always be the ones you want, but answering this question will force you to take actions that have visible and real impacts and that reveal whether you are in fact progressing in the desired direction.

You see, every credit union strategic planning team has the capacity to generate lists of things to do (even if they think they are not creative). In fact, credit union planning teams tend to excel in identifying the reasons why things won’t work and leveraging those insights to prioritize options and define action plans.

Where most planning teams fall short, however, is in answering the (seemingly simple) question: What are you not going to do?

But answering that question is the essence of defining your credit union’s strategy for (at least) three reasons:

1. It is the only question that can force you to decide what will make your credit union different from every other financial services provider.
2. Answering this question confirms your strategic focus and provides a framework for every decision moving forward in pursuit of your vision.
3. Deciding what NOT to do frees up capacity to pursue what you decide you are going to do and improves your chances of success.

None of this is to suggest that answering this question is easy (nor is it intended to beat up those who avoid it). Deciding what NOT to do should be challenging, but it cannot be avoided because it is difficult. It must be embraced because only then will the rigor of your strategic discussions rise to the level where the true potential of your credit union can be discovered.