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How to Guarantee Your Strategic Plan Will Fail, and What to do About It (Part 1)

by | Strategic Planning

I hear it time and time again

The overwhelming majority of bankers I talk to when I speak at banking conferences feel that their banks don’t get any real value out of their strategic planning process and the sad reality is—they’re right.

Because of this, strategic planning is often treated as a yearly burden that has to be endured every year.  Most bankers play along with absolutely no hope of ever seeing the plan correctly implemented and executed.

This doesn’t just happen in bad banks.  It happens to good banks with great employees.  This tells us that failed strategic plans are a result of a flawed planning process.

For the past 25 years, I’ve helped thousands of bank executives through their strategic planning process.  Over this period of time, I’ve identified 7 key mistakes that most banks make when it comes to creating a strategic plan.

In today’s video, you’ll discover three of the seven mistakes to avoid when creating your strategic plan this year.  Stayed tuned next week for part two of this video for the remaining four mistakes that most banks make.


Before tuning in for part two next week, take a minute now, to listen to the Strategic Planning Blueprint—a free audio toolkit for creating a plan you’ll execute, where everyone in the bank knows how they contribute to the bigger goals (profit) and each is accountable for their part.

After listening to this 30-minute audio, you will discover:

  • Three ways the regulators will dissect your plan, plus, how to know now if your plan will measure up
  • Why almost every bank misses the mark with their mission and vision statements.
  • How to “diagnose” your current plan and what to do to fix it, to ensure completion of all plan elements next year.
  •  What to do when your progress stalls. (Note: This little secret could be what saves your year next year.)
  • A “blueprint” for an effective strategic plan.

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