By Dick Mooney

How many of us complain about the problems our groups are having but throw in the towel before we analyze the problems and develop a plan to fix them? How many of us are inclined to charge off to implement a new program idea without really thinking it through and developing a sensible plan of action? These are very human traits but, unfortunately, they constitute real barriers to managing our groups effectively. One of our most important jobs as support group leaders is to shape the future of our groups. SWOT Analysis is a tool that can help us do that.

What Is SWOT Analysis?

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. SWOT Analysis is a structured way to analyze these four factors as a preliminary step to 1) developing a strategic plan to establish or improve our "business" in general, 2) helping us implement individual program improvements that are needed, and 3) enhancing our personal skills as leaders. 

SWOT Analysis is a must for leaders of new support groups. It will help them to get their groups off on the right foot from the very beginning and plan the group's development in a sensible way, instead of thrashing around trying different ideas or simply copying what others are doing. But SWOT Analysis is also helpful for established groups that may be in the doldrums or at a crossroads in their development.

SWOT Analysis isn't an end in itself. Rather it's a way to identify and define facts about our internal and external environment so we can rationally decide what needs to be done. Another way of saying this is that SWOT Analysis is a process that allows us to prepare to grab opportunities and guard against threats--to starve the problems and feed the opportunities, so to speak.

SWOT Analysis isn't new so don't shrug it off as just another Harvard MBA brainstorm. The term grew out of the strategic planning field when business leaders struggled to find a structured way to analyze their businesses' core competencies and liabilities in relation to their customers' needs and competitive pressure from other firms. The purpose of the strategy, of course, is to be really clear before taking a direction.

How To Use SWOT Analysis

The first step is to understand Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Strengths and Weaknesses are internal factors.

Your group's Strengths are things it does well--factors that enable it to meet the needs of its established members, new amputees, and the healthcare community in the area it serves. Effective leadership, strong finances, an active volunteer corps, interesting meetings, and thriving programs, such as peer visitation or a newsletter, might be strengths.

Your group's Weaknesses are things it does not do well. They may be limitations or deficiencies in your resources--both human and financial. They may consist of poor leadership skills, weak or nonexistent finances, lack of committed volunteers or team spirit, meetings that are poorly attended, absence of trained and committed visitors, lack of an effective outreach or marketing program, or they may simply be client needs or situations your group fails to meet well.

Opportunities and Threats are external factors.

Opportunities are things you would do if only . . . . They may consist of your clients' informational needs that aren't being met, changes in the managed care environment that your members need to be informed about, unexploited funding sources such as local businesses or foundations, or other sources of support such as alliances with local certified prosthetists, hospitals, or sources of volunteer help.

Threats are ticking time bombs that must be defused before they blow you out of the water. Threats may take the form of imminent leader burnout, fund sources that are drying up, a shrinking membership base, threatened loss of a free meeting place, a newsletter editor who has no backup, or disgruntled members who are talking about splitting off and forming a new group.

The next step is to take four pieces of paper and label them "Strengths," "Weaknesses," "Opportunities," and "Threats." Or you can divide one large sheet of paper in half vertically and horizontally and label the four sections.

The next step is to fill in the blanks. You can do this yourself, of course, but a method I've found particularly useful is to do it in a brainstorming session with your Board, a group of volunteers and/or active members, or even everyone at a regular group meeting. The interactivity of this method usually produces a more complete list. With a group, you will want to use a flip chart and broad felt tip pen or four flip chart pages taped to the wall. Either of these is better than using a blackboard since you won't have to transcribe all the entries to take them away for further study and analysis.

If you will be facilitating this brainstorming session, be sure to remember the hints about how to be a better facilitator that appeared in the December, 2000, Communicator. http://www.amputee-coalition.org/communicator/vol1no6pg3.html

Although a significant amount of research or discussion may lie behind the identification of each strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat, keep it simple when you fill in the form.

Strengths - Don't be modest. Spell them out. If you do this with others, you might begin by brainstorming key words that characterize your group and writing them down as fast as people say them. You can easily expand these into complete thoughts later.

Weaknesses - Be honest. It's better to face the bad news now than to construct an unrealistic analysis that won't do what you want it to. You can use the same keyword method if you wish.

Opportunities - When you look at your group's "market" what do you see? What isn't your group doing for its constituents that they need? What does the group do for its constituents that they don't value? Involving member groups for this part of the process is particularly valuable.

Threats - What trends do you see that could wipe you out or could damage your ability to deliver needed services or make them obsolete? 

Developing a Strategic Plan - The Most Important Step

The listing and analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is by no means an end unto itself. It is only a statement of what you have going for and against you. Without developing a plan to maximize strengths and opportunities and minimize or eliminate weaknesses and threats, the analysis has only philosophical value.

The first step in developing a strategic plan is to select important strengths and opportunities that should be maximized and important weaknesses or threats that should be minimized or eliminated. (Those are the strategic items.) Separate these for further work.

The next step is to take each strategic item separately and analyze it in terms of the internal factors (the tools you have to build with) and the external factors (the damaging forces you have to contend with) that you identified earlier.

The final step is to develop a plan to deal appropriately with each strategic item. Remember that good plans need a goal, a time for completing it, a person to be responsible, and a series of action steps leading to completion.

An Example:

Although this is a contrived example, it might be helpful to illustrate the process.

The officers and a few invited active members of the Upland Cities Amputee Support Group got together and completed a SWOT Analysis. An important weakness they identified was the group's address list, which was in bad shape. This was also identified as a threat to continued growth. The list was being maintained manually and only included names, addresses, and telephone numbers. There was no information kept about which were amputees and which were healthcare professionals. There was no information about gender, amputation cause and date. The peer visitor records were separate--also manually maintained. This was considered a strategic item because, without more complete, automated records, 1) newsletters and other mailings had to be hand addressed, 2) the collection of dues and donations was made very difficult, 3) marketing media could not be tailored for sending to various constituencies, 4) membership-building efforts were hampered by lack of demographic information, 5) the visitation program could not be managed effectively, and 6) needed management reports could not be made when the Board requested them.

Among the strengths and opportunities identified in the SWOT analysis were good relations with local certified prosthetists and medical equipment dealers, and a significant number of active volunteers and supportive members--some of them having computer experience. Lack of a computer and the failure to capitalize on fund raising opportunities were listed as weaknesses. An apparently ready but unexploited number of local business donors was listed under opportunities.

The group decided the time was right to develop a plan to expand and automate the records. Accordingly, the following draft plan was developed:

Goal 

By December 31, implement an automated record keeping system that can be used to address newsletters and mail, manage the peer visitation program, support dues and donations collection, and provide information needed by the Board.

Action Plan

Obtain and install necessary computer hardware and software

• Make a priced list of what is needed (John - by 8-1-01)
• Establish a fund raising goal (John - by 8-1-01)
• Make a list of potential donors (Louise - by 8-1-01)
• Prepare a "pitch" to prospective donors (Louise - by 8-1-01)
• Contact prospective donors (John, Louise, Becky, Ed - begin 8-15-01)
• Complete raising funds (11-15-01)
• Purchase and install necessary hardware and software (John - by 12-1-01)
• Install and test database management system (John - by 12-15-01)

Ready manual records for automation

• Decide on the information needed for each record (Harriet and Board- by 8-1-01)
• Bring existing manual records up to date (Harriet, Ruth, Jean - by 10-1-01)
• Integrate visitation records with member records (Harriet, Ruth, Jean - by 10-15-01)
• Complete data entry of up to date records into computer (Harriet - 12-31-01)

The bottom line is, whether or not you choose to use the SWOT technique I've described here, effective program improvement can only be assured if it's preceded by thorough data collection, analysis, and planning.