WHAT MATTERS ALWAYS
Thursday, Apr. 23, 2020
How can we chart a wiser future?
Don’t dial 911, don’t wait for SWAT guys, let’s call for SWOT.
SWOT analysis methodology is familiar to everyone involved in planning – committees or boards, private sector/public sector, or charities. Best when outside facilitators help, someone skilled in SWOT, not trapped/mired in minutia of the subject or organization.
Examining Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats – undertaken in calm, without pressure or urgency, pounding policy tent-stakes to anchor and delineate the tent. Seeking consensus around what matters most, and why, what success looks like through multiple lenses, competing or conflicting viewpoints; then refining purposeful statements, plans, and delegation of responsibilities.
Objectivity rocks, especially when dealing with passionate people. Process you can trust, stakeholders’ viewpoints aired, and their vision/dreams articulated. No judgment. Facts, ideas, opinions, and feelings acknowledged and valued. Things you have time for when not standing in a pool of emergency.
Some of our emergencies cry-out for SWOT.
Nursing homes, meatpacking plants – for example, seem to need profound and dramatic reinvention; right now, they are COVID nightmares, but there are surely significant systemic problems there, across jurisdictions in many countries – and I worry that band-aid solutions will be applied when reinvention might be called for.
There is no reason we cannot use SWOT to triage urgency v. essential. There is room for more than ‘return to normal’ vis-à-vis ‘fresh approaches.’
We all know so much, need information so much, and individually having little control.
We can have a lot more control over our circumstances, and how we feel, by applying proven methods of drilling down to what matters most, what matters first, and what matters always.
Reader feedback:
Oh my...so well crafted, every phrase, every nuance; thank-you Mark...I will admit to loving my peaceful, full of beauty, leisure, mornings in contrast to your ‘filled with inspiration ones...your message was full of joy, that was a ‘take away’ for sure, regardless of the time structure!, SF, Lethbridge, AB
I’m not a morning person, but get much more done later in the day. Love the analogy of what some news is only good for. LH, Lethbridge, AB
