Getting Your Plan Off the Page

It's planning season at a lot of credit unions. Leadership teams are scheduling offsite days, pulling member data, and setting next year's growth targets.

I love this process.

But I also know where a lot of these plans end up, because I've sat across the table while a CEO slides one over and says, "Michael, we've done the research. We've dug deep. Here's what we want to accomplish, and here's when we want it done."

And a beautifully researched plan can still sit mostly untouched, especially when the board and leadership team need to work together throughout the year. 

In my experience, that's the number one reason strategic plans fail. They stay on paper. The board approves it, someone saves it to the shared drive, and then Monday shows up with a staffing gap and a fraud alert. The plan waits for a quieter week that never comes.

So what gets a plan off the page? I've worked with more than 215 leadership teams, and I share two strategies in our strategic planning work that make all the difference.

1. Does your frontline know what's in the plan?

The first is engagement, all the way to the front line.

Does your team know what's in the plan, and are they excited about it? Could the member service rep at your smallest branch tell you how her work moves it forward?

Usually, she can’t. That's because the plan lives in the boardroom and the executive suite, while the people doing most of the executing hear about it in an all-staff email, if they hear about it at all. 

People won't fight for goals they can't see themselves in. Once your frontline understands the plan and can point to their piece of it, they start driving it throughout the year. Help get them involved in the process before you even develop it to get even more buy-in.

2. Accountability your team actually signs up for

The second is accountability. (Hear me out…)

Most leaders hear that word and picture babysitting: more check-ins, another project management tool, somebody chasing updates every Friday until everyone's worn out, including the person doing the chasing.

But the accountability that works is the kind your team helps build and agrees to. Each person knows their role, what they own, and how they report on it, whether that's to their leader, a project team, or the people counting on them. So they bring you the update before you have to ask. That changes everything, and helps you build ownership out of the gate. 

Put both together, and the finish line moves closer 

Engagement plus accountability gets your team close to unstoppable. You'll hit your goals, often ahead of schedule, because you finally have the full buy-in most plans skip.

Your action step this week: Pick one goal from your plan. Ask three frontline employees what they think it is and how their job connects to it. Their answers will show you how far that plan has made it.

Are you building a plan right now? Or is it finished, and now you're facing the "we just have to execute it" part? 

Either way, hit reply and tell me where you are. I'd love to share a few proven strategies to build accountability and drive results at the same time.

Lead Boldly,
~ Michael