“And the Oscar goes to……” Was it Moonlight or La La Land? For a few minutes, no one really knew. There was confusion and to some degree quite a bit of chaos. Hopefully those two words (confusion ad chaos) do not describe your strategic planning sessions!

All Jimmy Kimmel joking aside we can learn quite a bit about strategic planning from what happened (good and bad) during this year’s big Oscar show.

Here are four lessons along with practical applications (because learning without application is meaningless) credit unions can learn:

• Start with something fun—The opening number from Justin Timberlake was high-energy. It also set the tone for the entire night. He did a fantastic job involving the audience: getting them on their feet, clapping and singing. Similarly, start your planning sessions with some type of ice breaker or game rather than a boring review of your financials. We often will use games with such as Toss Up or Jenga with our clients to not only have fun but also get people moving and then applying strategic lessons from those activities.
  • Application: Start your planning session with some type of activity that gets people out of their seats. There is magic in movement.

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