Managing Change Toolkit

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          OverviewDeveloping a Change StrategyImplementing ChangePeople in Change    

Develop a Change Strategy
bullet Gap Model
bullet Key Change Issues
bullet Mission & Visions
bullet Identifying Issues
bullet SWOT Analysis
bullet McKinsey 7S model
bullet Structuring of Organisations
bullet On Decentralisation
bullet Top-down & Bottom-up
bullet Change Strategy Document

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Lindsay Sherwin

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SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis (analysis of strengths and weaknesses) was developed by Igor Ansoff in his book Corporate Strategy and became a cornerstone of corporate planning. It is still used, particularly in change management, marketing and product appraisal and also in personal development.

For a consultant, it is a useful technique to use to help a group to review the organisations  capabilities in terms of its internal Strengths and Weaknesses, and the external Opportunities and Threats which it faces, and then clarify the key development/change issues it needs to tackle. The process is summarised in the following diagram.

SWOT overview

Carrying out a SWOT analysis simply involves the following

  1. In an Internal Appraisal,
    • identify the organisations Main Strengths - skills, capabilities, delivery,  performance, etc. As a group, select the most important - often  five or six.
    • Then identify the teams Main Weaknesses. Again selecting the most important. This completes the Internal appraisal.
       
  2. In an External Appraisal,
    • identify Main Opportunities that face the organisation. Again selecting the most important.
    • And then Main Threats that face the organisation. Again selecting the most important.
       
  3. In the confrontation, these issues are then put onto a board or table in a matrix as shown below and the following questions asked:
    • For each Opportunity - which strength helps us to take advantage of this (+) and which weakness inhibits us from doing so (-)
    • For each Threat - which strength helps us to fight this (+) and which weakness inhibits us from doing so (-)


SWOT confrontational matrix - College

The balance of + and - signs highlights quite clearly what are the main issues that should be addressed within the team.

This can be carried out by an individual but is best done with a group - management team, working group, project team, or focus group. We have carried it out with a group of fifty - the whole senior management of an operation using the following process.

The best way to carry out a SWOT analysis
is to use cards or Post-its as follows:

Main Strengths

  • Each person to identify what they see as our Main Strengths and to write these on the post-its which are then struck to a board.
  • When all post-its are on the chart, the team groups together any duplications that exist.
  • Each person has 5 votes to indicate what they feel are the most important of all the strengths identified on the Chart. Simply tick those 5 post-its which you feel are the most important.
  • When everybody has voted, the post-its with the most votes are kept. The remainder put aside for the time being.
  • Those on the board represent what the group feels are our main strengths.
The whole process from is then repeated for
  • our perceived Weaknesses.
  • the main Opportunities for the operation
  • the main Threats which it faces
The cards for the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are then used to create a SWOT Confrontation Matrix as above, which is in turn used to identify the organisations' key change issues.