LO2. Develop Reflective Practice

Information Sheet 2.1: Basic SWOT Analysis

What Is SWOT Analysis?

SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is a framework used to evaluate a company’s competitive position and to develop strategic planning. SWOT analysis assesses internal and external factors, as well as current and future potential.

A SWOT analysis is designed to facilitate a realistic, fact-based, data-driven look at the strengths and weaknesses of an organization, initiatives, or within its industry. The organization needs to keep the analysis accurate by avoiding pre-conceived beliefs or gray areas and instead focusing on real-life contexts. Companies should use it as a guide and not necessarily as a prescription.

  • SWOT analysis is a strategic planning technique that provides assessment tools.
  • Identifying core strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats leads to fact-based analysis, fresh perspectives, and new ideas.
  • A SWOT analysis pulls information internal sources (strengths of weaknesses of the specific company) as well as external forces that may have uncontrollable impacts to decisions (opportunities and threats).
  • SWOT analysis works best when diverse groups or voices within an organization are free to provide realistic data points rather than prescribed messaging.
  • Findings of a SWOT analysis are often synthesized to support a single objective or decision that a company is facing.

Components of SWOT Analysis

Every SWOT analysis will include the following four categories. Though the elements and discoveries within these categories will vary from company to company, a SWOT analysis is not complete without each of these elements:

Strengths

Strengths describe what an organization excels at and what separates it from the competition: a strong brand, loyal customer base, a strong balance sheet, unique technology, and so on. For example, a hedge fund may have developed a proprietary trading strategy that returns market-beating results. It must then decide how to use those results to attract new investors.

Weaknesses

Weaknesses stop an organization from performing at its optimum level. They are areas where the business needs to improve to remain competitive: a weak brand, higher-than-average turnover, high levels of debt, an inadequate supply chain, or lack of capital.

Opportunities

Opportunities refer to favorable external factors that could give an organization a competitive advantage. For example, if a country cuts tariffs, a car manufacturer can export its cars into a new market, increasing sales and market share.

Threats

Threats refer to factors that have the potential to harm an organization. For example, a drought is a threat to a wheat-producing company, as it may destroy or reduce the crop yield. Other common threats include things like rising costs for materials, increasing competition, tight labor supply. and so on.

SWOT Table

Analysts present a SWOT analysis as a square segmented into four quadrants, each dedicated to an element of SWOT. This visual arrangement provides a quick overview of the company’s position. Although all the points under a particular heading may not be of equal importance, they all should represent key insights into the balance of opportunities and threats, advantages and disadvantages, and so forth.

How to Do a SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis can be broken into several steps with actionable items before and after analyzing the four components. In general, a SWOT analysis will involve the following steps.

Step 1: Determine Your Objective

A SWOT analysis can be broad, though more value will likely be generated if the analysis is pointed directly at an objective. For example, the objective of a SWOT analysis may focused only on whether or not to perform a new product rollout. With an objective in mind, a company will have guidance on what they hope to achieve at the end of the process. In this example, the SWOT analysis should help determine whether or not the product should be introduced.

Step 2: Gather Resources

Every SWOT analysis will vary, and a company may need different data sets to support pulling together different SWOT analysis tables. A company should begin by understanding what information it has access to, what data limitations it faces, and how reliable its external data sources are.

In addition to data, a company should understand the right combination of personnel to have involved in the analysis. Some staff may be more connected with external forces, while various staff within the manufacturing or sales departments may have a better grasp of what is going on internally. Having a broad set of perspectives is also more likely to yield diverse, value-adding contributions.

Step 3: Compile Ideas

For each of the four components of the SWOT analysis, the group of people assigned to performing the analysis should begin listing ideas within each category. Examples of questions to ask or consider for each group are in the table below.

Internal Factors

What occurs within the company serves as a great source of information for the strengths and weaknesses categories of the SWOT analysis. Examples of internal factors include financial and human resources, tangible and intangible (brand name) assets, and operational efficiencies.

Potential questions to list internal factors are:

  • (Strength) What are we doing well?
  • (Strength) What is our strongest asset?
  • (Weakness) What are our detractors?
  • (Weakness) What are our lowest-performing product lines?

External Factors

What happens outside of the company is equally as important to the success of a company as internal factors. External influences, such as monetary policies, market changes, and access to suppliers, are categories to pull from to create a list of opportunities and weaknesses.1

Potential questions to list external factors are:

  • (Opportunity) What trends are evident in the marketplace?
  • (Opportunity) What demographics are we not targeting?
  • (Threat) How many competitors exist, and what is their market share?
  • (Threat) Are there new regulations that potentially could harm our operations or products?
Strengths
1. What is our competitive advantage?
2. What resources do we have?
3. What products are performing well?		Weaknesses
1. Where can we improve?
2. What products are underperforming?
3. Where are we lacking resources?
Opportunities
1. What new technology can we use?
2. Can we expand our operations?
3. What new segments can we test?		Threats
1. What regulations are changing?
2. What are competitors doing?
3. How are consumer trends changing?

Companies may consider performing this step as a “white-boarding” or “sticky note” session. The idea is there is no right or wrong answer; all participants should be encouraged to share whatever thoughts they have. These ideas can later be discarded; in the meantime, the goal should be to come up with as many items as possible to invoke creativity and inspiration in others.

Step 4: Refine Findings

With the list of ideas within each category, it is now time to clean-up the ideas. By refining the thoughts that everyone had, a company can focus on only the best ideas or largest risks to the company. This stage may require substantial debate among analysis participants, including bringing in upper management to help rank priorities.

Step 5: Develop the Strategy

Armed with the ranked list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it is time to convert the SWOT analysis into a strategic plan. Members of the analysis team take the bulleted list of items within each category and create a synthesized plan that provides guidance on the original objective.

For example, the company debating whether to release a new product may have identified that it is the market leader for its existing product and there is the opportunity to expand to new markets. However, increased material costs, strained distribution lines, the need for additional staff, and unpredictable product demand may outweigh the strengths and opportunities. The analysis team develops the strategy to revisit the decision in six months in hopes of costs declining and market demand becoming more transparent.

Information Sheet 2.2: Strategies to Improve one’s Attitude in the Workplace

Develop a Positive Attitude in the Workplace

  • Developing a positive mindset at work can help you achieve success. 
  • Being encouraging and empathetic of others and yourself will help build and maintain a positive attitude. 
  • Making an effort to avoid negativity is important in building a positive mindset. 

Embracing a positive outlook at work helps to create a collaborative and supportive culture that fosters productivity and personal growth. Positivity benefits not only you but also your employees, co-workers and customers. 

How to develop a positive attitude and mindset

Having a positive attitude can provide a crucial benefit for your workplace, but this helps only if you can develop the right kind of perspective. The stresses of work can make it difficult to sport the best possible mindset every day. Here are some strategies for how to develop a positive outlook.

Be encouraging and empathetic. 

Developing a positive attitude in the workplace can start with how you interact with your associates, regardless of their place in the hierarchy. Whether it’s celebrating the small victories or helping deal with a bad case of the Mondays, injecting optimism and encouragement into the workplace can benefit everyone.

It’s important to not just develop a positive outlook but also to maintain it. It’s easy to be positive when things are going well, but sometimes, people will be going through tough times. Showing your employees, co-workers or clients empathy and respect demonstrates you care about their well-being.

Be a team player.

Your workplace is full of people working toward a common goal; you’re all acting as a team, whether directly or indirectly. Talk with your employees and co-workers to see how you can assist them. Helping others lighten their load, within reason, can strengthen your team.

Work with the right people. 

Surrounding yourself with positive people in your work life can dramatically improve your attitude. Negative people can increase your stress level and make you doubt your ability to maintain success at work. 

Focus on what’s in your control.

Realistically, you cannot control every single aspect of your work. You can be the beacon of positivity, but some people at your job will still be negative. But while you can’t control how people behave, you can decide how you let it affect you. 

Focusing on what you can control will help you manage the amount of stress you allow in your life. Your mission at work is to get your job done as effectively as possible, so focus on the factors you can oversee. 

Treat yourself positively. 

No matter what stress you are experiencing in your work or personal life, you should always remember to be your biggest supporter. Practice positive self-talk. Framing daily events in a more positive light will help limit negative thinking. One way to approach this is to not say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to anyone else. It’s important to be gentle and encouraging with yourself. 

If you start to think negatively, evaluate these ideas rationally. Replace defeatist thinking with affirmations of your strengths. Think about things you’re thankful for in your life, and reframe obstacles or roadblocks as opportunities for growth.

The importance of a positive attitude in the workplace

Whether it’s you or a co-worker who is going through a hard time, try to keep the negativity at bay.

“Misery may love company, but negativity has never lifted anyone up,” Sweeney said. “You feel better when you surround yourself with positive people. They encourage you to reach for the stars, work hard and stay focused on fulfilling your dreams. Positivity begets more positivity. Over time, you may find that even the most stubborn person in the office who refuses to enjoy something has a change of heart and changes to be more positive, all because you had such a great attitude.”

Maintaining a positive attitude takes work

Developing a strong positive attitude and mindset is a key to achieving success at work, but maintaining it isn’t always easy. To do so, you must not allow negative thoughts and energy to affect your daily progression.

By keeping your workforce in the right frame of mind, making your workplace as stress-free as possible and prioritizing the well-being of your workers, maintaining a positive attitude at work can be another challenge you conquer. 

Information Sheet 2.3: Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle/Model (Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion, and Action Plan)

One of the most famous cyclical models of reflection leading you through six stages exploring an experience: description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan.

Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle was developed by Graham Gibbs in 1988 to give structure to learning from experiences.  It offers a framework for examining experiences, and given its cyclic nature lends itself particularly well to repeated experiences, allowing you to learn and plan from things that either went well or didn’t go well. It covers 6 stages:

  • Description of the experience
  • Feelings and thoughts about the experience
  • Evaluation of the experience, both good and bad
  • Analysis to make sense of the situation
  • Conclusion about what you learned and what you could have done differently
  • Action plan for how you would deal with similar situations in the future, or general changes you might find appropriate.

Below is further information on:

  • The model – each stage is given a fuller description, guiding questions to ask yourself and an example of how this might look in a reflection
  • Different depths of reflection – an example of reflecting more briefly using this model

This is just one model of reflection. Test it out and see how it works for you. If you find that only a few of the questions are helpful for you, focus on those. However, by thinking about each stage you are more likely to engage critically with your learning experience.

The model

This model is a good way to work through an experience. This can be either a stand-alone experience or a situation you go through frequently, for example meetings with a team you have to collaborate with. Gibbs originally advocated its use in repeated situations, but the stages and principles apply equally well for single experiences too. If done with a stand-alone experience, the action plan may become more general and look at how you can apply your conclusions in the future.

For each of the stages of the model a number of helpful questions are outlined below. You don’t have to answer all of them but they can guide you about what sort of things make sense to include in that stage. You might have other prompts that work better for you.

Description

Here you have a chance to describe the situation in detail. The main points to include here concern what happened. Your feelings and conclusions will come later.

Helpful questions:

  • What happened?
  • When and where did it happen?
  • Who was present?
  • What did you and the other people do?
  • What was the outcome of the situation?
  • Why were you there?
  • What did you want to happen?

Feelings

Here you can explore any feelings or thoughts that you had during the experience and how they may have impacted the experience.

Helpful questions:

  • What were you feeling during the situation?
  • What were you feeling before and after the situation?
  • What do you think other people were feeling about the situation?
  • What do you think other people feel about the situation now?
  • What were you thinking during the situation?
  • What do you think about the situation now?

Evaluation

Here you have a chance to evaluate what worked and what didn’t work in the situation. Try to be as objective and honest as possible. To get the most out of your reflection focus on both the positive and the negative aspects of the situation, even if it was primarily one or the other.

Helpful questions:

  • What was good and bad about the experience?
  • What went well?
  • What didn’t go so well?
  • What did you and other people contribute to the situation (positively or negatively)?

Analysis

The analysis step is where you have a chance to make sense of what happened. Up until now you have focused on details around what happened in the situation. Now you have a chance to extract meaning from it. You want to target the different aspects that went well or poorly and ask yourself why. If you are looking to include academic literature, this is the natural place to include it.

Helpful questions:

  • Why did things go well?
  • Why didn’t it go well?
  • What sense can I make of the situation?
  • What knowledge – my own or others (for example academic literature) can help me understand the situation?

Conclusions

In this section you can make conclusions about what happened. This is where you summarize your learning and highlight what changes to your actions could improve the outcome in the future. It should be a natural response to the previous sections.

Helpful questions:

  • What did I learn from this situation?
  • How could this have been a more positive situation for everyone involved?
  • What skills do I need to develop for me to handle a situation like this better?
  • What else could I have done?

Action plan

At this step you plan for what you would do differently in a similar or related situation in the future. It can also be extremely helpful to think about how you will help yourself to act differently – such that you don’t only plan what you will do differently, but also how you will make sure it happens. Sometimes just the realization is enough, but other times reminders might be helpful.

Helpful questions:

  • If I had to do the same thing again, what would I do differently?
  • How will I develop the required skills I need?
  • How can I make sure that I can act differently next time?

Adapted from

Gibbs G (1988). Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit. Oxford Polytechnic: Oxford.