In two recent posts, I’ve talked about the “Seven Do’s and Don’ts of Branding” and the “Seven Do’s & Don’ts of Marketing.” In each piece I offered four ideas you should absolutely be doing in those key areas and three issues you should avoid.

It’s the same way with strategic planning. There are several things you should DO and there are many things you should make sure you DON’T do.

So what are the seven Do’s and Don’ts of strategic planning? Below are four Do’s and three Don’ts of planning.

Be sure you DO the following:

• Say no—Steve Jobs famously said one of the secrets to Apple’s success was that he said “no” to lots of ideas. For every 100 investment ideas Warren Buffet hears, he says no to 99. When it comes to strategic planning at credit unions and banks the problem is we say “yes” way too much. Every idea seems to work itself into the plan. Stop doing that! At your strategic planning session ask not what can you do, but what should you do.

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