Aligning Leadership at a Midwest Bank

The Insight phase of the project was focused on identifying the current state of the business both at the organization level and in each of the bank branches:

• Stakeholders at the home office along with regional bank presidents were interviewed to discuss their aspirations, challenges, and near-term opportunities.
• Open space workshops were facilitated to identify the top 20 factors that were both positively and negatively impacting the bank.
• B|G worked with leaders to develop a profound understanding of internal and external forces using PESTLE and SWOT analyses.

B|G and the bank developed an organization strategy and unit level strategies that would provide the organization with clear strategic direction:

• The executive team, board members, bank branch presidents, and managers participated in open space workshops to develop organization objectives and establish high-level initiatives for the enterprise.
• Balanced scorecards and high-level initiatives were further refined through regular workshops with the executive team.
• Understanding the autonomy and unique challenges facing the regional bank presidents, B|G facilitated unit level scorecard workshops with regional banks along with the enterprise business units.
• Unit level scorecards were customized for each region.

B|G ensured all members of the organization, including members located in rural branches had an understanding of the strategy developed during Innovation:

• B|G supported the roll-out of the enterprise scorecard to the full bank and its Board of Directors through multiple communication sessions.
• B|G ensured the proper systems were in place to collect data to measure the objectives in the scorecard that were identified by the organization.
• A comprehensive guide was developed to ensure a common understanding of the complete strategic planning process.

All areas of the bank had clearly articulated strategies that aligned to the vision of the organization:

• Participation in the development of the bank’s strategy cultivated trust and buy-in from the bank’s regional branches.
• The bank had a clearer understanding of the most pressing initiatives to pursue that would ensuring they would remain a financial backbone for the communities they serve.