SWOT Analysis is a type of 'strategic analysis' - a way of working out what are the big factors affecting the goal you want to achieve; and what the relationships between them are.
If your goal is the improvement of your neighbourhood, then strategic analysis is a way of looking at what things might stop you, help you, help someone else to help you etc, affect the resources available? Identifying these things and relating them will help you work out what are the important things you need to achieve (these are called 'objectives') and ways of working you need to adopt (these are called 'policies').
This method sheet is one of three looking at simple, but very effective, types of analysis. If you use the three together and with a group of people who know the area but have different ideas about it, then you should - after a few hours - have a very good picture of what the strategic objectives and policies might be to enable you to make the neighbourhood a better place to live.
What you Need
You can do all three forms of analysis presented here on your own, but they are best done in a group of half a dozen people. If you have many more than that, you might want to split them into two or more small groups. Ideally, you want people from different backgrounds and with different skills and interests.
To do SWOT Analysis, you will need:
- some large bits of paper (like a flip chart pad), a couple of packs of post-it notes and some pens.
- a venue to meet in and a table for the group to sit around.
- tea, coffee and whatever other refreshments seem appropriate should help.
If you use all three forms of analysis, you will need at least 2 hours of everyone's time. If you do only a SWOT analysis it can take less than an hour. It could, for example, be fitted in to a regular meeting or committee meeting.
How to do It
SWOT ANALYSIS
This is the form of strategic analysis in the toolkit with which most people are likely to be familiar or , at least, have heard of. SWOT stands for (your neighbourhood's):
- Strengths - things that make it good
- Weaknesses - things that make it bad
- Opportunities - things that could make it better in future
- Threats - things that could make it worse in future.
1. Take a large sheet of paper and draw a cross on it so it is divided into 4 areas. If you are artistic, you could draw a picture of the neighbourhood in the middle, otherwise just write its name. Put an S in one of the areas; a W in the next going in a clockwise direction; then an O in the next; and a T in the last area.
2. Give everyone a stack of post-it notes and a pen and put the large sheet of paper on the table.
3. Group leader starts off by saying they have come up with one strength, one weakness, one opportunity and one threat (from talking to people, going through the minutes of meetings or just from their own head) and they stick a post-it note with a few words or a picture on to recall each of those four in the appropriate areas
4. Passing clockwise round the table, the next person adds a strength, weakness, opportunity or threat OR gets to tick one that has already been put done to show they agree with it. This process continues for 10-15 minutes or until people have run out of steam.
5. The group leader then asks four participants to take charge of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats respectively. Their job is to sort them out into groups so that related things are bunched together. They can use a bit a wall to do this if they want. Other participants join whoever needs a second opinion. They can agree to set aisde any that they think are in the wrong area. This part takes about 5 minutes.
6. The group re-convenes to look at the groups of post its that have been put together. Go round the table to set if people agree the groupings (a grouping could be a single post-it or several that are closely related). Write the names of the groupings on the sheet of paper in the appropriate area. Top of the list should be the post-it grouping with the most post-its and ticks added together. This takes10 minutes.
7. The group leader then suggests one link between two of the groups in any area of the sheet. Everyone can comment on this suggestion; the group can reject or approve the link. Indicate an agreed link by drawing a line and writing the nature of the relationship on a post it next to the line.
8. Pass clockwise around the group adding links in the same way until there are about as many links as there are titles on the sheet or everyone is done. This takes about 15 minutes.
9. You now have an agreed picture of the current and likely future strategic factors (or issues) facing your neighbourhood and the links between them. You can use this as the basis for a plan or you as an input to firther strategic analysis (see Gap and SHEEP analysis, for example). If you can, put a version of the finished diagram on your website so that everyone can see and comment on it.
10. If you aren't doing any more analysis then you can use your completed diagram as the basis for the strategic objectives and policies in your plan. Policies will tend to be made in responmse to a SWOT factor and objectives will often come out of the relationships between SWOT factors. But there are no hard and fast rules.
Examples and Case Studies
| Checklist
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (current things, future things, positive and negative). In the case of a community neighbourhood plan you are listing the SWOTs for your neighbourhood. Be honest - don't try to make everything sound positive (or negative). Every neighbourhood has a mixture of both. As well as listing the SWOTs, the analysis is about drawing relationships between them. You should see after a while that threats can often be linked to strengths and opportunities to weaknesses in particular. But you can have links between factors in any area of the sheet. The group leader leads by example and sets out a SWOT of each sort to get the group going. They also suggest a link at the start of the linking go around. You need at least five people to work the SWOT group in the way suggested, but you can do it with 3-11 easily enough. You can do SWOT on your own or as a pair or in larger groups (with multiple tables) but you'll need to adapt the process accordingly. The process can take just under an hour. But it can easily take 2 hours if you want to do it at a more leisurely pace. Alternatively, if you are rushed, you can do a SWOT analysis on your own in 10 minutes. It won't be as good as a group version, but it will still be useful. Don't debate individual SWOTs (ones that no one else agrees with get voted to the bottom of the list anyway) and it is more important that everyone gets something down and takes part in the activity. But you should discuss the groupings and you should certainly be quite rigorous about making sure everyone is happy with the relationships between grouped terms. This is because a strategic factor is mainly important in relation to other things. SWOT factors (agreed groupings of post-its around a certain subject) tend to suggest policies (ways in which you need to do things), eg: if you have a SWOT factor which is to do with local schools being a strength in your neighbourhood then you might derive a policy from that of keeping in touch with the local schools and making sure they are informed about what you are doing. Relationships between SWOT factors tend to suggest objectives (things you need to do), eg if you have the SWOT factor above to do with schools related to another which might be, for example, the shortage of places to meet in your neighbourhood, then that might suggest an objective of getting one of the schools to act as the base for your community planning meetings?
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BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT METHOD SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-07-24 17:35:53 | by: admin | status: f published |