This week, we begin our Tools for Clarity series. We are going to start our series off with the SWOT analysis. Some of the tools in this series might be difficult to visualize in your mind, so I’ve put together examples of each tool that you can use in your context on my website. Head to mcurtis.co/clarity to find worksheets for each tool as each episode is released.

What is a SWOT Analysis

• a formalized way of thinking through different parts of your organization
• The analysis is broken into four categories 
  • Strengths: what are you good at?
  • Weaknesses: what are you not so good at?
  • Opportunities: what are areas we can invest in that drive the mission
  • Threats: what things can sabotage your accomplishment of the mission 

What does the SWOT do?

• It clarifies and pinpoints specific issues that your team or organization need to be aware of. 

What doe a SWOT not to?

• A SWOT doesn’t give you a plan of attack. It simply identifies what you should attack.

Let’s walk through the sample SWOT

• Context
• Just taken over a team with a really bad reputation
• People didn’t want to work with us
• The team was frustrated and bitter, and we needed to change our behavior.
• This example is based on that season.

Keep in mind, while I was over a team, I was nestled deep into the organization at this point. I wasn’t in charge. No one told me to do this. This is a tool you can use at any level of the organization to help add clarity.