Seven steps not to miss in your strategic planning process
Annual strategic planning is more than just a routine meeting or a checklist item. It's a critical process that helps your credit union stay focused, allocate resources wisely, and navigate change with intention. Whether you're refining your current strategy or setting a new course, getting the process right is essential.
Here are the most important parts of an effective annual strategic planning process—ensuring you don't just have a plan, but it is implemented, evaluated, and adapted throughout the year.
A quick glance at the strategic planning checklist:
- Environmental scan: What's happening in and around us?
- Mission and vision: Are we still clear on our purpose?
- Goals and objectives: What do we want to achieve this year?
- Strategic initiatives: What actions will drive results?
- Stakeholder engagement: Who should be involved in the process?
- Implementation plan: How will we make this happen?
- Review and adaptation: How will we measure and adjust our progress?
1. Conduct an environmental scan
Strategic planning starts with a clear view of the current landscape. This includes both internal assessments and external analysis to understand your credit union's position in the market.
Tools to use:
- SWOT Analysis: Identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
- PESTLE Analysis: Reviews political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors.
A SWOT Analysis provides the background necessary for you to assess your performance and identify growth opportunities, while the PESTLE Analysis helps recognize potential challenges to those opportunities.
2. Clarify mission, vision, and values
Before setting goals, make sure your foundational statements are still relevant. These guide decision-making and help ensure everyone is working toward the same purpose.
- Mission explains why you exist.
- Vision describes where you want to go.
- Values define how you'll get there.
Take this as an opportunity to go over these key statements with your team. A reminder of the values you are all working to embody will help as you work through the remaining steps in the process. Keep these statements front and center as you continue.
3. Set clear goals and objectives
This is the heart of strategic planning. Set big-picture goals and break them into actionable, measurable objectives. A common method for this is the SMART framework: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. However, there are other options available to ensure the goals are actionable and measurable.
In this step, you will also want to define the key performance indicators (KPIs) you'll use to measure success. Additionally, think about what teams will be responsible for each goal. How will those teams be engaged and success be measured, especially when multiple teams may be responsible for a single objective under one goal?
4. Prioritize strategic initiatives
Not every good idea should become a project. Identify which initiatives will move the needle most and allocate your resources accordingly. This also means making tough decisions about what not to pursue.
Look back at your SWOT and PESTLE analyses. While some ideas might be a great opportunity based on the SWOT analysis, the PESTLE analysis may suggest that now is not the time.
It's important to recognize that you cannot do everything you want at all at once. Some ideas require others to be prioritized first to succeed.
5. Engage stakeholders early and often
Don't build your strategy in a silo. Involving leadership, board, staff, members, and even community partners helps ensure your plan is realistic and supported.
- Invite diverse perspectives.
- Build buy-in.
- Avoid surprises during implementation.
Strategic planning should include everyone at your credit union, as each employee and board member will touch the plan in the execution process. Engaging members is also crucial to ensuring your goals align with member and community needs.
6. Build a detailed implementation plan
Strategy must lead to action. Assign responsibilities, set timelines, and outline how progress will be tracked. This is also a great place to apply project management tools or frameworks like Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).
This is where most plans fail. Those who invest more time in strategy execution are more likely to see success in the implementation process.
7. Monitor, evaluate, and adapt
The best strategies evolve. Establish a rhythm for reviewing your goals—monthly or quarterly—and be ready to adjust based on results, data, or market conditions.
- Monitor KPIs regularly.
- Adjust strategies as needed.
- Celebrate wins and learn from setbacks.
Strategic planning is a process, not a checklist item to set and forget. If objectives are not going well or KPIs are not being met, dig deeper to figure out why. If KPIs are being easily exceeded, again, dig deeper to figure out why. You may not be tracking the right areas, or the goal may be easily attainable.
Final Thought
A strong strategic plan isn't just a document—it's a living framework for making smarter decisions, staying aligned, and moving forward with purpose. By focusing on the most essential parts of the process, your organization will be better equipped to turn strategy into sustained success.
More on strategic planning:
Get prepped for strategic planning on a deeper level at the Strategic Growth Conference this August in Austin.
Take strategic planning from an annual process to a daily practice with these trends and tips.