Ahhh, credit union strategic planning topic season. Let’s take off our pessimistic blinders, pull out our beanies and start thinking of the credit union world we want tomorrow. Soon, our credit union will disrupt the local banks. We will put them those evil bankers out of business and take over the world… cooperatively (of course).

If you are looking for quick strategic questions to ask your board at your credit union planning session, you are in the right place.

Credit Union Strategic Planning Topics About Growth

1. If you had to process 3x your normal loan or member growth volume, how would you?
2. Where do you want to be in 3 years?
3. What market trends support that vision?
4. What client demands support that vision?
5. What are the tactical plans to support that goal?
6. What are the known risks?
7. If you could rebuild the credit union 2.0, what would it look like?
8. What are the top 10 questions we have about our credit union (analytics based)? What would you do differently if you knew the answer?

Credit Union Strategic Planning Topics for Critical Self-Evaluation

1. 1. What is the one thing your credit union was worst at this year? What needs to happen to fix it?
   2. What is one thing your credit was best at? How can you double down on it?
   3. What is the single metric that you least like hearing about this year? Why? What can you do to change it?
   4. Where do we use Analytics well?
   5. Are we moving or reacting fast enough in the marketplace?
   6. In each department, what should you start? What should you stop? What should you continue?
   7. What are our best service experience and memories?

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Credit Union Strategic Planning Topics About Culture

1. What are some examples of living your core values?
2. What are some examples of failing to live your core values?
3. If you could change one thing about the credit union, what would it be?
4. What are the top 3 credit unions we admire and why?
5. What does the perfect member look like? Where do they hang out? Who do they know?
6. What makes an ideal board member?
7. If you were the new CXO and were brought in tomorrow, what were three things you would fix immediately?

Credit Union Strategic Planning Wildcard Questions

1. If a perfect competitor opened across the street tomorrow, what would they look like?
2. If we were to rebuild our credit union with no branches, what would it look like?
3. If the NCUA got merged into the FDIC, what would change?
4. If your largest SEG went out of business, what would you change?

Any of these credit union strategic planning topics can help you and your board plan for a brighter, warmer future.

Credit Union 2.0 — Credit Union Strategic Planning Facilitators

Kirk Drake and Chris Otey take a unique approach to planning sessions. Their goals are to deal with some of the real issues facing credit unions. These include:

•                 Who is your ideal member?
•                 How do we improve board governance?
•                 How do we get our board to look more like our membership?
•                 How do we deal with the onslaught of fintechs and technology?
•                 How do we change our culture to be more like a fintech?

As the author of Credit Union 2.0, head of a large technology CUSO, and founder of CU Wallet, Drake has great insights from both his time working at a credit union through his entrepreneurship and board experience.

As board chair of South Bay Credit Union and former CU Wallet and Fiserv executive, Chris has worked with hundreds of credit unions to help them deal with board governance, CUSOs, and other technology challenges.

Click here to book!

Credit Union 2.0 — Strategic Planning Options

DREAM (Based on the CU2.0 Book)

Credit Unions are under unprecedented attack from all angles. Thousands of fintechs are collectively hurting the bottom line. Regulators are slowing the industry down.

Credit Union 2.0 outlines the DREAM (Differentiation, Repeat and Reinforce, Educate and Excite, Automate and Motivate) methodology that will help your credit union begin the process of digitally engaging your members, building fierce loyalty, and making them feel the credit union difference.

The Credit Union 2.0 movement teaches why we need to change. It emphasizes key case studies from awesome credit unions, lessons learned from other cooperatives, and strategies for creating fierce loyalty.

Some highlights from Credit Union 2.0 include The ultimate first 100 Day Experience, Hacking your CU’s Repeated Mistakes, and Education = Trust | Trust = Sales.

Finally, Credit Union 2.0 will provide an optimistic outline of the credit union of tomorrow. Such a credit union digitally engages members, builds fierce loyalty, scales gracefully, and makes your members feel like they own the place!

PAINT

Kirk Drake, a serial entrepreneur focused on credit union technology and author of CU 2.0, reveals his P.A.I.N.T. strategy you can use to make your credit union more competitive, more creative and more in tune with today’s digital expectations.

If you have struggled with corporate culture, agility, moving faster, or competing with the onslaught of new Fintechs, the P.A.I.N.T. methodology will help your credit union quickly iterate and apply key “Operating System” Strategies to better engage your members.

Take home these 5 tools:

• Painted Picture
• Analytics Plan
• Innovation and Agility Hacks
• Nimble Algorithms
• Terminate

Related Content

Credit Union Planning Session Facilitators

Credit Union Planning Session Process

What is a credit union strategic planning process and why should you use one? If you are a new credit union executive or are thinking of doing your first credit union planning session, this article outlines the process and methodology credit unions use.

Credit Union Strategic Planning Process

The credit union strategic planning process is the steps that you go through as an organization to determine:

• Vision: the direction of your organization.
• Mission: what you’re going to do and for whom.
• Goals: how to measure it and guide your strategy to get to where you want to be.

Before we get into the process, it is important to revisit why we do credit union strategic planning processes. There are 5 main components:

• Get your team on the same page. They should be aligned with the credit union’s vision, mission, and goals.
• Maximize resources.
• Understand trends, scenarios, and situations that might impact the credit union in the future.
• Determine the best ways to accomplish your goals.
• Develop implementation plans and goals for your team.

A strategic plan is a key tool for your employees, leaders and board members to make sure everyone knows where we are going and why.

The process used to create your credit union’s strategic plan is every bit as important as the plan itself. Then, the method for communicating, updating, and re-evaluating it is essential.

Ultimately, we all have more things we want to do than resources allow. We must therefore prioritize and make tough choices so that we can deliver and get to the next level.

4 Considerations for Credit Union Strategic Planning

1. How did our credit union get here today?
2. Where do we want to go, and what are the Champagne moments we will celebrate when we get there?
3. What might get in our way?
4. What resources (people, budget, etc.) will we need to get there?

So how do you get there?

Credit Union Strategic Planning Step 1: Gather Inputs

In this first stage we want to gather what has worked from the past. Any credit union performance data, staff surveys, or member surveys are key.

What are the outside factors? Community, political, SEG, economic, social, regulatory or technology that you are concerned about? What keeps you up at night?

SWOT—Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats—make sure you know internal and external factors that impact your credit union.

Credit Union Strategic Planning Step 2: Vision

What will your credit union look like in 5 years?  What is the Champagne moment when you get there? Is it your number of members, your loan portfolio, etc?

Why is this important? What will the impact be if you get there?

Credit Union Strategic Planning Step 3: Mission

Why was your credit union created? What is your mission? Why is that important and who is it for?

Credit Union 2.0 highly recommends creating a painted picture or Vivid Vision to develop these inquiries.

Often as leaders we feel that we have better intuition—in fact, we just know where we are going. The painted picture and Vivid Vision help with that.

Credit Union Strategic Planning Step 4: Values

What are the values that represent the credit union? People helping people? These are about having values that everyone agrees to and are understood.

What are the behaviors that your best employees exhibit? What are the things that won’t be tolerated? What is it like to be an employee at your credit union?

Credit Union Strategic Planning Step 5: Competition and Roadblocks

What could go wrong? What might change in the marketplace? Which competitors should we watch and learn from? Which should we watch and avoid?

Credit Union Strategic Planning Step 6: Priorities, Goals and Tactics

This is where the fun begins. Take the big picture and tie it into your credit union strategic planning process.

Make a list of priorities and action plans that align with your vision.  Prioritize the key items and build a timeline, goals, and measurements.

Credit Union Strategic Planning Step 7: Communication Plan

Who needs to know? What should we communicate? What are the key milestones?

Build a communication plan to board members, employees, and members that will make sure everyone knows what is coming, where you are going, and how you will know when you get there.

Credit Union 2.0 — Credit Union Strategic Planning Facilitators

Kirk Drake and Chris Otey take a unique approach to planning sessions. Their goals are to deal with some of the real issues facing credit unions. These include:

•                 Who is your ideal member?
•                 How do we improve board governance?
•                 How do we get our board to look more like our membership?
•                 How do we deal with the onslaught of fintechs and technology?
•                 How do we change our culture to be more like a fintech?

As author of Credit Union 2.0, head of a large technology CUSO, and founder of CU Wallet, Drake has great insights from both his time working at a credit union through his entrepreneurship and board experience.

As board chair of South Bay Credit Union and former CU Wallet and Fiserv executive, Chris has worked with hundreds of credit unions to help them deal with board governance, CUSOs, and other technology challenges.

Want to know the other options in the industry?  Click here for the Facilitators Guide

Credit Union 2.0 — Strategic Planning Options

DREAM (Based on the CU2.0 Book)

Credit Unions are under unprecedented attack from all angles. Thousands of fintechs are collectively hurting the bottom line. Regulators are slowing the industry down.

Credit Union 2.0 outlines the DREAM (Differentiation, Repeat and Reinforce, Educate and Excite, Automate and Motivate) methodology that will help your credit union begin the process of digitally engaging your members, building fierce loyalty, and making them feel the credit union difference.

The Credit Union 2.0 movement teaches why we need to change. It emphasizes key case studies from awesome credit unions, lessons learned from other cooperatives, and strategies for creating fierce loyalty.

Some highlights from Credit Union 2.0 include The ultimate first 100 Day Experience, Hacking your CU’s Repeated Mistakes, and Education = Trust | Trust = Sales.

Finally, Credit Union 2.0 will provide an optimistic outline of the credit union of tomorrow. Such a credit union digitally engages members, builds fierce loyalty, scales gracefully, and makes your members feel like they own the place!

PAINT

Kirk Drake, a serial entrepreneur focused on credit union technology and author of CU 2.0, reveals his P.A.I.N.T. strategy you can use to make your credit union more competitive, more creative and more in tune with today’s digital expectations.

If you have struggled with corporate culture, agility, moving faster, or competing with the onslaught of new Fintechs, the P.A.I.N.T. methodology will help your credit union quickly iterate and apply key “Operating System” Strategies to better engage your members.

Take home these 5 tools:

1. Painted Picture
2. Analytics Plan
3. Innovation and Agility Hacks
4. Nimble Algorithms
5. Terminate

Related Content

https://cu-2.com/select-credit-union-strategic-planning-facilitator/

It’s a wild world out there. Disruptive technologies are forcing us to completely reconsider our credit union strategies. If you want your financial institution to be ready for the rocky, futuristic road ahead, you may want to bring on a credit union strategic planning facilitator.

Each summer, hundreds of credit union boards and executives gather at a beautiful offsite location to dream about the future. First comes the icebreaker, then some tough questions. Along the way, we will cover industry trends and peer data before finally jumping into planning. We whip out our sticky notes, markers, and easels, and we begin to democratically home in on a future we can all (mostly) agree with.

Meanwhile, fintechs and non-traditional competitors are breathing down our doors. What if the age-old credit union strategic planning process is too slow. What if our modern world needs modern experts?

If you love the time-honored traditions, are afraid of different viewpoints, or simply don’t want to upset the apple cart, CU2.0 is probably not for you. However, if you want a bold view that focuses on transformational change that will leave a legacy decades from now, read on!

So, how do you select a credit union strategic planning facilitator?

5 Key Criteria to Select a Credit Union Strategic Planning Facilitator

1. Industry Experience
2. Facilitation Technique
3. Understanding of Key Trends
4. Financial Model Understanding
5. Credit Union Board and Management Expertise

Industry Experience

Credit Unions are a unique animal. We are half non-profit, half cooperative, and half bank. Yes, we know we can’t add. But every aspect of how credit unions plan, fund, and work is different from other businesses in many ways.

Our ways are both our strategic advantage and our Achilles heel. Because of this, having a facilitator that gets the “credit union difference” is essential. Without this alignment, you will waste precious time explaining to the outsider the difference between a credit union and a bank (or why we can’t just raise more capital).

Understanding of ALM, member onboarding, digital blueprints, board governance, and the NCUA are all key elements that your credit union strategic planning consultant should possess.

Facilitation Technique

If you have been through multiple credit union planning sessions, then many of these will feel familiar:

• Action Planning
• Brainstorming
• Energizer
• Flipchart
• Go Wild
• Ground Rules
• Group Review
• Ice Breakers
• Meta-planning
• Multi-voting
• Ranking
• Reverse Brainstorming
• Round Robin
• Structure Problem Solving
• 3-Star Rating
• Working in pairs or trios
• All these credit union planning session facilitation techniques are key ways to derive engagement, get involvement, and make sure all key parties are excited and energized by the process.

Make sure you pick a facilitator that has a large bag of facilitation tricks and techniques. In our experience, each board or management team has different hot button issues. Being able to switch gears when one approach isn’t working is a key criteria for making your selection.

Understanding of Key Trends

Sometimes it is hard to see the forest for the trees. If your credit union strategic planning facilitator is still focused on issues and trends from 10 years ago, you might have a problem. It is absolutely essential to find a consultant who can provide a realistic view of the key trends facing the industry and your credit union.

These days, any realistic view should include artificial intelligence, CUSOs, fintech’s, ever changing demographics, and key disruptors. Now more than ever, the future of credit unions will be impacted by non-traditional competitors, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

Financial Model Understanding

While trends are essential at the end of the day, credit unions are member-owned cooperatives that must make some money to survive long-term. Picking a facilitator who can balance modern asset liability management needs with growth concerns is essential.

Credit Union Board and Management Experience

Stories are one of the best ways to relate and change perspectives. Whether it is a key question, insight, or lesson learned, having facilitators who have been on credit union boards, worked at credit unions, or consulted in solving real credit union problems is essential.

 Credit Union 2.0 — Credit Union Strategic Planning Facilitators

Kirk Drake and Chris Otey take a unique approach to planning sessions. Their goals are to deal with some of the real issues facing credit unions. These include:

•                 Who is your ideal member?
•                 How do we improve board governance?
•                 How do we get our board to look more like our membership?
•                 How do we deal with the onslaught of fintechs and technology?
•                 How do we change our culture to be more like a fintech?

 As the author of Credit Union 2.0, head of a large technology CUSO, and founder of CU Wallet, Drake has great insights from both his time working at a credit union through his entrepreneurship and board experience.

As board chair of South Bay Credit Union and former CU Wallet and Fiserv executive, Chris has worked with hundreds of credit unions to help them deal with board governance, CUSOs, and other technology challenges.

Credit Union 2.0 — Options

DREAM (Based on the CU2.0 Book)

Credit Unions are under unprecedented attack from all angles. Thousands of fintechs are collectively hurting the bottom line. Regulators are slowing the industry down.

Credit Union 2.0 outlines the DREAM (Differentiation, Repeat and Reinforce, Educate and Excite, Automate and Motivate) methodology that will help your credit union begin the process of digitally engaging your members, building fierce loyalty, and making them feel the credit union difference.

The Credit Union 2.0 movement teaches why we need to change. It emphasizes key case studies from awesome credit unions, lessons learned from other cooperatives, and strategies for creating fierce loyalty.

Some highlights from Credit Union 2.0 include The ultimate first 100 Day Experience, Hacking your CU’s Repeated Mistakes, and Education = Trust | Trust = Sales.

Finally, Credit Union 2.0 will provide an optimistic outline of the credit union of tomorrow. Such a credit union digitally engages members, builds fierce loyalty, scales gracefully, and makes your members feel like they own the place!

PAINT

Kirk Drake, a serial entrepreneur focused on credit union technology and author of CU 2.0, reveals his P.A.I.N.T. strategy you can use to make your credit union more competitive, more creative and more in tune with today’s digital expectations.

If you have struggled with corporate culture, agility, moving faster, or competing with the onslaught of new Fintechs, the P.A.I.N.T. methodology will help your credit union quickly iterate and apply key “Operating System” Strategies to better engage your members.

Take home these 5 tools:

• Painted Picture
• Analytics Plan
• Innovation and Agility Hacks
• Nimble Algorithms
• Terminate

Related Content

Credit Union Planning Session Facilitators Guide