A new approach to enroll organization-wide commitment.

Imagine this: All employees in your organization have deep-seated clarity of your credit union’s strategic direction, and they know precisely how their individual actions and performance can create value in reaching strategic goals and initiatives. A heightened sense of coordination, collaboration and communication creates organizations that are high-performing, with engaged employees and proactive, long-term members.

The strategic planning team at DDJ Myers wants to share with you a new approach to strategic planning that has added immediate value to clients and new outcomes previously unimagined.

“Our entire employee group is achieving greatness in ways never before imagined,” claimed one CEO of a $200 million credit union. “The communication channels are wide open, we take less time to start and complete initiatives, and I hear reports of less stress and more creativity.”

There are various approaches to strategic planning. One of the most common is the SWOT method of identifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

The SWOT methodology was developed 1,000 years ago to support military operations. Its design is structured to spend 50 percent of strategic planning time on Strengths and Opportunities and 50 percent on Weaknesses and Threats. Due to human nature, however, most of the time is spent dwelling on the Weaknesses and Threats.

“Unfortunately, the flaw in using this method is that it creates an outcome where participants leave with strategic initiatives to remedy issues with current operations rather than building for the future through creation of opportunities and incentives,” notes Deedee Myers, CEO of DDJ Myers.

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