Many organizations are working on planning right now. If you have ever taken a business class, written a case study, owned your own business, or been working in the business/public sector for a while, there is a great chance you’ve done a SWOT analysis.
A SWOT analysis helps to identify internal strengths (S), weaknesses (W), external opportunities (O) and threats (T). It is a good tool to understand your community or organization. But a SWOT has limits. A SWOT analysis is simply a snapshot that identifies positives and negatives in a working system. It does offer solutions to the problems a community might be facing. It won’t help strengths stay strong. It’s as inspiring as in inventory. It also tends to have an internal focus. Transforming the old SWOT into something that drives action is TOWS, which stands for threats (T), opportunities (O), weaknesses (W) and strengths (S). Now you may be thinking “What’s the difference? These are the same words just organized in a different manner.” It’s the change in emphasis and framing that makes all the difference. A SWOT analysis should be your community’s first step in identifying its own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A TOWS puts the spotlight immediately on the external game changers – the threatening monsters that will eat your face or the shining opportunities that will propel you to the next level. Your strengths and weaknesses become vital strategies to manage and survive given those external threats and opportunities. Questions that formulate out of TOWS start the conversation on how to use the information gathered from SWOT, things like:
Using these questions will help give direction. With this new direction, conversation will move toward identifying key goals and projects. Brainstorming will focus on how to measure if you are winning on the key performance areas that provide evidence of success or the need for redoubled effort. With clear optics on the external environment, your team will feel impelled to make those key changes that will help strengthen your community’s ability to tackle threats and opportunities. This video goes into more depth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8FANR-2u2Q Would better data about your community help you spot threats and opportunities and align stakeholders to meet them? Check out our nonprofit programs at www.cobalt360.org. |
For more information on how Cobalt can help you adapt and thrive in the changing demographic, economic and social environment, visit the Cobalt website or reach out to us by email. Let us know if you need anything at all for benchmarking or research data; we are here for you.
Cobalt Community Research is a national 501c3 nonprofit, non-partisan coalition that helps local governments, schools and membership organizations measure, benchmark, and affordably engage communities through high-quality metrics, mobile geofencing data, surveys, and dynamic population segmentation. Cobalt combines big data with local insights to help organizations thrive as changes emerge in the economic, demographic and social landscape. Explore how we can help.
Cobalt Community Research is a national 501c3 nonprofit, non-partisan coalition that helps local governments, schools and membership organizations measure, benchmark, and affordably engage communities through high-quality metrics, mobile geofencing data, surveys, and dynamic population segmentation. Cobalt combines big data with local insights to help organizations thrive as changes emerge in the economic, demographic and social landscape. Explore how we can help.