Plansmith Blog

Planning for Change: A Lesson from Charles Darwin

Posted by Bill Peck on 9/14/18 12:33 PM

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

- (Not) Charles Darwin

It’s true.

Although this is a pretty great quote, Darwin never actually said it. It was an attempt by Dr. Leon C. Megginson, Louisiana State University Professor of Management and Marketing, to capture the essence of Darwin’s seminal “On the Origin of Species” for a 1963 speech to the Southwestern Social Science Association. The text of the speech was subsequently published in the Association’s quarterly journal, and the rest is quote-misattribution history.

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15 Ways an Outside Facilitator Can Save Your Next Strategic Planning Session

Posted by Kevin Stang on 7/24/18 3:01 PM

We’ve all been in meetings that weren’t exactly productive. You know how it goes…

  • The meeting begins with little to no agenda
  • You waste most of the time discussing off-topic subjects
  • Debates over seemingly meaningless items end up derailing progress
  • Someone ends up creating more questions than solutions
  • The meeting takes an hour longer than it was scheduled for
  • The team walks away with no clue what to do next
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5 Simple Tweaks to Build a Better Strategic Plan

Posted by Megan Plis on 7/20/18 3:23 PM

Only part of a successful strategic plan lies in the plan itself. A good plan, just like a recipe, is important. But any good chef will tell you, choosing the right ingredients is only half the challenge. The rest lies in executing the recipe properly.

So, how can your bank or credit union make a better strategic plan?

Here are some simple tweaks to the ingredients and execution of your strategic planning recipe.

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Your budget is NOT your Strategic Plan

Posted by Mike Bilyeu on 6/12/18 9:40 AM

We’ve heard these questions hundreds of times. “Why do we need a strategic plan? We already have a budget.”

Instead of developing a plan for their organization, many banks and credit unions operate using their budget. The budgeting process is already in place, line items are easily moved from one year to the next with minor changes based on anticipated revenues and initiatives.

So why isn’t this a good idea?

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The 3 Reasons Strategic Plans Fail

Posted by Tom Parsons on 11/14/17 3:17 PM

Why does strategic planning matter? Jim Fugitte, Director of Strategic Advisory Services, explains that banks with a strategy outperform their peers – when they execute the plan.

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Planning Never Stops

Posted by Craig Hartman on 7/7/17 3:36 PM
Why is it that we, as humans, essentially plan every minute of every day, yet find it difficult to do similarly in our business?  We are planning, whether we realize it or not, while walking down the street.  We are looking ahead, anticipating other peoples' movements and planning our actions, albeit subliminally.  When we are driving, we constantly look ahead watching the cars around us and the road ahead.  Not only are we constantly planning but we do so to adapt to our environment and make course corrections to either avoid a problem or take advantage of changing circumstances.  In other words, planning never stops.
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Planning to Build Trust in Your Bank

Posted by Craig Hartman on 3/1/17 8:02 AM

Virtually every business prepares a budget and calls it planning. Some actually develop strategic plans every couple of years to go through an exercise in search of new ideas and approaches. Very few, if any, reap or even appreciate the benefits of planning outside of the financial benefit they hope to realize. While the intentional outcome of these efforts is profit-based, the other powerful benefits are often overlooked. This includes building the necessary buy-in and trust within the organization to achieve the financial goals. For many organizations, this is the missing key that’s needed to support effective execution of the plan. It’s the lack of genuine buy-in that confines the plan to the top shelf of a bookcase somewhere.

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Torque Guest Post: How proposal software is defining our brand

Posted by Kevin Masi on 1/25/17 1:23 PM

Read this guest blog by Kevin Masi, Co-Founder & CMO at Torque Digital, to learn how proposal software is defining their brand and could influence yours.

Since I started my business in 1992, we’ve always looked for ways to improve our marketing, our finances and our operations. As we’ve gotten better, what I’ve also found is that these three areas are much more interconnected than I had ever considered. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that because of growing competition, the need to differentiate ourselves from competitors is more critical than ever. Brands are the expression of what makes a business different and valuable to the market. And we are beginning to see all the ways that operations affect our brand – and seeing how our handling of financial matters also affects our brand.

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Another Reason to do Strategic Planning

Posted by Tom Parsons on 11/18/16 3:46 PM

I’ll Take BOSS for $1,000, Alex

Answer: “Because the OCC says so.”

What is “Why should I care about strategic planning?”

More specifically, Thomas J. Curry, Comptroller of the Currency says so. 

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Think | Plan | Execute

Posted by Tom Parsons on 10/19/16 2:07 PM

You've seen the Home Depot ad: "More Doing," and we agree. We think it's time for more doing, or in Plansmith parlance, execution. But what exactly do we mean?

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