Get Moving on Your 2016 Strategy. Here’s Some Help.
You’re right on time to begin planning for planning season. To help you kick off your conversations, have a look at the Planning Canvas developed by THINK Lab presenters and strategic consultants Jeanette Thebeau and Ivan Askwith, that helps you assess your current situation, set relevant and achievable goals, and begin the process of executing.
Why open the canvas now, if planning doesn’t begin for a few months? “If you do the exercises in the canvas from left to right, you’ll be doing the prep work that will make the planning process less daunting,” says Thebeau. Better still, you’ll have time to bring others in on the process. “Set up a time every week to get together with your team and do an exercise. Assign homework every week, and in eight weeks you’ll be in really good shape to begin planning [in earnest]. This is also a time to try ideas out in focus groups, or talk to your target audience and find out what they’re thinking and what they want.
“By starting the planning process together and working through it, that’s how you get the team to buy in and take ownership,” Thebeau continues.
START HERE
Begin your planning process by looking at engagement. If you’re using the Planning Canvas, this is the first section on the left. Using a scale of 1 to 10, rate your credit union in the following categories:

- Product offerings
- Branches & locations
- Customer service
- Social responsibility
- Branding elements
- Marketing & communications
- Overall