A brilliant strategy is worthless without execution. During the recent Caribbean Islands Credit Union Educational Cruise, Tom Glatt confronted attendees with a startling reality: 90% of strategies fail not because the vision was wrong, but because the execution was poor.
The primary enemy of strategic progress isn't a lack of vision or a bad plan. The enemy is "Business as Usual"—the "Whirlwind" of daily operations. Strategy requires focus, but daily operations require distraction. Unless credit union leaders carve out protected space for their strategic initiatives, the Whirlwind will eat them alive every time.
Here is a deep dive into the concepts from Tom's session, "From Strategy to Action," detailing how credit unions can bridge the gap between boardroom vision and frontline execution.
1. Diagnosing "Project Obesity"
Most credit unions suffer from a chronic condition we call "Project Obesity". The primary symptom is having 45 "High Priority" projects sitting on the roadmap for the year.
The reality is that when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. To effectively execute, leadership teams must embrace the "Rule of 3": an organization can typically handle only 3 major strategic shifts at one time. Everything else on the docket is simply "maintenance".
2. Outcomes vs. Outputs: The Map and the Vehicle
To cure initiative fatigue, we must fundamentally change how we think about goals by understanding the difference between Key Results and Initiatives. Confusing the two leads to a dangerous focus on activity over impact.
- The Key Result (The Outcome): A Key Result is a measurable outcome that describes a change in member behavior or business performance. For example, "Increase mobile loan applications by 25%". Think of the Key Result as the destination on your map.
- The Initiative (The Output): An Initiative is a specific output or project—the work you do to try and achieve the desired outcome. For example, "Launch a new '3-Click Loan App' marketing campaign". This is the vehicle you choose to get to your destination.
There may be several potential vehicles that could help you reach your destination, but the project itself is not the goal. The goal is the outcome.
3. The Impact vs. Effort Matrix and the "Kill List"
Before any project gets funding, it must pass the Matrix Test. By plotting projects based on Impact and Effort, credit unions can filter their roadmap ruthlessly.
- Quick Wins (High Impact, Low Effort): Do these immediately.
- Major Projects (High Impact, High Effort): Plan carefully, and pick only 1 or 2.
- Thankless Tasks (Low Impact, High Effort): Kill these. This includes tasks like rewriting a policy manual that nobody reads.
The most difficult discipline in strategic execution is learning to subtract before you add. You must identify projects currently on your roadmap that consume resources but deliver zero member value or strategic lift, and add them to a "Kill List".
Why is this so critical? Because execution is a zero-sum game of talent. Boards approve budgets measured in dollars, but managers must manage capacity measured in hours. If your bottleneck department—usually IT or Marketing—is assigned to 12 different "Critical Projects," you have scheduled a failure.
4. Avoiding the Sunk Cost Trap: The "Zombie" Project
One of the greatest hurdles to executing a lean strategy is knowing when to fold.
Consider a credit union that spent two years trying to build a custom CRM. They fell into the Sunk Cost trap, reasoning, "We've already spent $200k, we can't stop now". The fix required the board to ask a clarifying question: "If we started today, would we approve this project?". Because the answer was no, they killed the zombie project, bought a Salesforce license, and were live in 90 days. Strategic courage is knowing when to quit.
5. The "Living" Roadmap: Sprints vs. Marathons
Finally, execution requires abandoning annual marathons in favor of quarterly sprints. Don't launch every initiative in January. Instead, sequence your work—for example, using Q1 for foundation and data clean-up, Q2 for the system build, and Q3 for the launch. If you miss the Q1 milestone, the roadmap must adapt and push the Q2 start date.
To monitor this execution, boards should avoid tracking "percentage complete," which is usually a guess. Instead, track clear milestones using a Red/Yellow/Green rule:
- Green: On track.
- Yellow: Risk identified, mitigation in place (No Board action needed).
- Red: Roadblock (Board help or decision required).
In a healthy execution culture, "Red" is not a failure; hiding a "Red" until it explodes is a failure.
