my swot

 Bad SWOT

I've seen several pitfalls that can lead to an ineffective SWOT analysis. Any one of these, if bad enough, can render the exercise ineffective, and might do more harm than good.

• Weak team feeling: If the planning group doesn't work well together, the effort to list strengths and weaknesses can lead to finger-pointing and defensiveness. If you're familiar with The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, any of the five dysfunctions can undermine a SWOT analysis: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, or inattention to results. Or it could go the other way, and you get satisficing effects, in which people offer easy responses or "expected” responses, instead of considered responses.
•  Lack of focus: If the exercise doesn't focus on anything in particular, answers can wander all over the place, because nobody will be clear on what the exercise is supposed to achieve. People start arguing over what to include or exclude because there's no common agreement on the scope or focus of the exercise.
• Quantity over quality: The group gets lost in the weeds trying to think of every possibility, leaving you with huge, unfocused SWOT lists that deliver no clear message. Even worse, everyone derives a different message, as they pick and choose their favorite points and ignore the rest.
• Lack of verification: Often enough, the resulting lists include assertions that need verification. Off-the-cuff assertions from a SWOT analysis could lead you down some bad paths if the assertions aren't actually correct.
• Lack of action: If you declare victory just for making the SWOT lists, you haven't accomplished much. You've missed a key goal of the process, which is to incite action. Nebulous actions like "Increase cooperation between departments” or "Improve our marketing” don't count, because you could have guessed them without a SWOT analysis, and you haven't given yourself a way to know when you've completed them successfully.

Good SWOT

 

 

When I've seen a SWOT analysis work well, it's the opposite of the above factors:

• Good teamwork: Your planning group works together well enough to have an honest, non-hostile discussion about strengths and weaknesses. The discussion could still get passionate, but it shouldn't become hostile or leave scars. If your team's not ready for a frank, constructive discussion of organizational strengths and weaknesses, you can eliminate the strengths and weaknesses part altogether, or you can limit it to hard facts, like money in the bank, head count, and supplies, while leaving out the more difficult areas like internal friction, behaviors and attitudes, and soft skills.
• Defined focus and scope: Pick something in particular as a focus for your SWOT analysis. Maybe you've got a strong need to reduce overhead by 15% within two years. Your SWOT analysis could focus on that. What are your internal strengths and weaknesses that help or hinder overhead reduction? What external opportunities and threats could make overhead easier or harder to reduce? Maybe you've got a less concrete organizational goal, like improving your reputation with customers, but you can still focus a SWOT discussion on that, and wind up with concrete actions for making improvements.
• Quality over quantity: Reduce each SWOT list to about 3-5 compelling items that fit your chosen focus and scope. Make sure they're items that prompt actions. Focusing on the critical few serves two purposes. First, having to choose makes the group think harder about what really matters. Second, you'll have an easier time generating actions if you've identified what matters most.
• Verification: In preparing for a SWOT discussion, arm yourself with relevant facts in case they'll be needed. At the end of the SWOT discussion, task someone with verifying any list items that are in question. Once someone has done the homework, eliminate or modify items as needed.
• Concrete action: Your SWOT analysis isn't done until you've generated actions in response to your lists. What can you do to apply your best strengths to your best opportunities? What can you do to mitigate the biggest weaknesses and threats? Make the actions concrete using SMART criteria: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

 

Strengths

Good drawing skills

Knowledge of Photoshop

Team player

Creative

Passionate

Focused

Take Initiative

  

Weaknesses

Dyslexia

Reading

Speaking

Remembering

Opportunity

Learning to use Z brush

How to use prospective drawings 

Learning game engines

Threats

Laid back attitude to work