By Michael Hudson, Ph.D.
“You must be willing to let go of who you are to become who you are meant to be.
That is the path to epic outcomes.”
Randy Gage in Risky is the New Safe
One of my favorite exercises to use with strategic planning teams is the "Stop Doing Brainstorm."
The context is simple: The team is asked to brainstorm a list of things the credit union should stop doing without regard to how big or small the impact will be—the focus is simply on things the team thinks no longer need to be done.
The logic is basic: To free up resources to pursue new opportunities successfully, something has to be given up, and every organization has things that it does that are being done largely because they have always been done.
The impact is direct: Forcing people to think about what needs to be stopped makes them uncomfortable and pushes them to think about the credit union from a different perspective.
The results are valuable: The team ends up with a list of things to discuss, prioritize and act upon—often things that were never considered until the question was asked and the activity completed.
People who have never participated in this exercise often question whether the outcomes are significant.
My answer is an unqualified yes for several reasons:
- The simple act of planting the seed that it would be OK to stop doing certain things helps build a stronger strategic thinking mindset for the team.
- The exercise gives staff permission to think seriously about whether everything they are currently doing actually needs to be done.
- Once a team completes the exercise, they are very likely to do it again and to use the Stop Doing framework to help them make better decisions.
Granted, like most activities we undertake, the first time a team participates in the Stop Doing Brainstorm, the list they generate will likely be dominated by items that appear to be little more than low-hanging fruit—things that appear safe and easy that will likely create minor impacts.
But that is precisely the reason for completing the exercise.
When you speak with staff members regarding the areas that frustrate them most and get in the way of them producing more significant results, they tend to identify things that might seem trivial to the outside observer. But as they share these things, it becomes quickly apparent that these things are getting in the way of them focusing more energy on the important things they need to do.
The Stop Doing Brainstorm gets these items into the discussion and empowers staff to make the small changes they can quickly make. And in the spirit of Kaizen, the sum of the small impacts becomes very significant in its overall impact on the credit union’s culture.
That is not to say that teams completing the Stop Doing Brainstorm shouldn’t be challenged to add more big-picture, significant impact items to their lists. They should be and that is a key role the strategic planning facilitator needs to play—pushing the team to get out of their comfort zone and think about what really needs to be changed within the credit union’s business model and operational approach.
It’s not easy, and it will probably not happen in a single planning session or during a single iteration of the Stop Doing Brainstorm. But if the team will commit to seriously considering ways to differentiate the credit union and define a strategic vision for the future, it can be done.
Here are seven thought-provoking questions to use to push your team to identify the big impact items that should be on your Stop Doing list:
- What is the credit union doing today that you would not start doing if you were not already doing it?
- If you were creating the credit union from scratch to serve the base of members you currently have, what would you not do that you are currently doing?
- If you were put in charge and could do anything you wanted to better position your credit union for the future, what would you stop doing immediately?
- After clearing your mind of the legacy issues and concerns about how members, peers, competitors, and others in general will react, list the items you think your credit union should stop doing.
- What unprofitable products, services or locations should be eliminated from your credit union?
- What does the credit union currently do that frustrates members and what needs to be stopped to eliminate those frustrations?
- What would someone who works in another industry (not related to financial services) suggest that your credit union stop doing?
Michael Hudson, Ph.D., is founder and principal of CreditUnionStrategy.com. He is a frequent speaker at credit union industry conferences and facilitates strategic planning processes, culture interventions, and leadership development initiatives for individual credit unions.
Read more on this idea of not doing things in this Credit Union Management magazine online article.
Read another CUES Skybox post by Hudson.
Read more on CUES Skybox about Hudson's ideas on getting wishful to aid success in strategic planning.
Also read “Are we Still Carrying the Raft?”
