Oct 11 (edited) in Analysis Techniques
Intro to SWOT
It is a truth universally acknowledged that an organization in pursuit of growth must pursue change.
Yes, I know, Jane Austen will be spinning in her grave. I’m not wrong though.
Simply due to inflation, if an organization makes no progress, then it is going backwards: as costs rise over time, with no change, profits will diminish. Therefore, organizations must constantly change to stay competitive.
This also applies to personal development. If you do not work on yourself then you become less marketable in your career or your relationships. Why should you be employed when a new starter will be cheaper and keener?
So, now we know change is needed, what should be changed? Maybe you or someone in the organisation has an idea, maybe not. In either case, some basic analysis is needed to support the transition from now to the future state.
What is needed is perhaps the most basic technique in a Business Analysts’ toolkit… SWOT Analysis!
Oh, you knew that already as you read the header… good job!
So what is SWOT Analysis?
SWOT is an acronym for “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats”. It’s a framework that can be applied to help focus attention on factors affecting you and your organization. It is most often displayed in a 2x2 grid with one of these titles taking up a frame.
You’re probably thinking Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, are quite explicit terms.
Give yourself five minutes to pick something you want to work on (product/service, niche, or yourself) and try to fill these boxes. Don’t worry I’ll wait…
How did you go?
You may have been able to put a few ideas down, maybe you still have a blank page.
How to use the framework
Simple frameworks, like this 2x2 matrix support idea generation once we know the rules. So, let’s learn a bit more about how the structure of the boxes can help us fill them:
- The top row is for Strengths and Weaknesses. These are the internal forces i.e. what you, or your organization, are currently doing. The two boxes in the bottom row are external forces i.e. what is happening with competitors and market forces.
- The first column with Strengths and Opportunities are helpful (positive) factors. The second column is the counterpoint, Threats and Weaknesses are the hindrances (negative) factors.
Five more minutes on the clock for you… and GO!
Hopefully, you have a few more ideas down.
Balance and Framing
Quick question, looking at the boxes, do they seem balanced in terms of the number of quality of your ideas? Chances are they are not - and not just because of time constraints.
In my experience, using SWOT Analysis as part of a workshop, or group-work situation, you may find some people are more inclined to fill in some of these more than others.
This may be down to a whole host of other factors, including but not limited to mindset (optimist or pessimist), level of engagement, and role within the workplace.
Sometimes this works in your favor, because averaging across the group may give you discussion points in each section. But its likely that you will still find biases towards one or two sections.
In one session I ran, there was a strong focus on Strengths and limited other answers. Many of these were also fairly surface-level responses, i.e. not a unique service offering or protected intellectual property.
Now, my advice at the start had been to fill each section with single or multi-word statements, and there were no bad ideas. After some prompting, we discussed how all points could be relocated elsewhere depending on how you frame the narrative.
Balance is not something you find, it’s something you create.
- Jana Kingsford
After some encouragement, the initial Post-It note with “Great staff/colleagues” had spawned a number of others, and the group were more interested to discuss the point in relation to:
- Weakness - Is there a danger of groupthink with limited new ideas or approaches?
- Opportunities - How do we attract more great staff to work here?
- Threats - What if they leave the organization?
As you can see, the use of questions in these three sections is also key - when it comes to identifying potential risks and benefits.
Just the start
Now you should have a good basis to conduct SWOT analysis and help guide your analysis.
If you tried this for a work problem, try doing this again for a personal issue, like your New Year’s Resolutions, or considering some home improvements. Vice versa, if you looked at self improvement first.
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Intro to SWOT
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