Your nonprofit has begun your strategic planning process. You just completed the SWOT exercise [SWOT = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats]. You are confident in your analysis and you understand your strengths and weaknesses.

Now, where do you focus your efforts?

Do you leverage your strengths, getting ever stronger and dominating the competition?

Or do you spend your resources converting your weaknesses to strengths, building a broad base of expertise?

This issue applies to individuals as well as nonprofit organizations.
It even applies to sports teams. Do you want some superstars with a weak bench or do you want a generally competent team with a strong bench?

There are lots of resources that tell you how to do a SWOT analysis, but almost none that tell you what to do with it.

The answer, of course, is “it depends.” It depends on a lot of things. Are you looking at the short term (use your superstars) or the long-term (build your bench)? Do you even have the resources to invest? What are your opportunities and how real are they? What are your threats and must they be countered?

You must consider the absolute magnitude of your strengths and weaknesses. Are you strong in an area, but just barely? Are you weak in most areas? Maybe you need to build up that one strength. Maybe you need a broad program to build any strength.

You also need to consider the depth and life-cycle of your strengths. I know a for-profit company that employs around 100 people, but 85% of their sales come from a certain salesman. They dominate their business. The salesman is an employee, not an owner. He is compensated very well, but what happens if (when) he his hit by the proverbial bus. Is 85% of their business gone over-night? They need a bench-building strategy.

I know of a nonprofit, with over episodic 3,000 volunteers, but all of the key work is done by a single executive director. He is 69 years old. If he were to leave today, the organization, which is praised nationwide, would die in about 6 minutes. They need a bench-building strategy.

I know of another nonprofit that has a great bench. They have a clear vision, a defined mission, and well-thought out strategies. But they have no superstar to carry them to even greater service. Everyone is happy to do what they are doing and leave me alone. They need a superstar.

Clifton and Harter¹, of the Gallup Strengthfinder organization, assert

that individuals are able to gain far more when they expend effort to build on their greatest talents than when they spend a comparable amount of effort to remediate their weaknesses.

But the disciples of Organizational Force Field Analysis would compare the organization to a truck driving up a hill. The engine is moving it forward, but some hanging brakes are holding in back. It’s moving, but not as fast as it could be. Is it better to get a bigger engine or to fix the brakes. They would argue that you should fix the brakes. But, again, it depends. How much are the brakes slowing you down? How much would it cost to fix the brakes? How much would it cost to get a bigger engine? It depends.

SWOT analysis seems to be a part of everyone’s plan, but it is usually just a fill-in-the-blank (or box in this case) exercise. Moving to the next level and using it to develop stronger strategies requires effort and thought. It requires meditation and inspiration and brainstorming and critical thinking to be useful.

The effort is difficult, but that effort can be the heart of your strategic discussions. The rewards can be great, if done right. Don’t ignore the SWOT.

¹Clifton, D. O., & Harter, J. K. (2003). Strengths investment. In K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton, & R. E. Quinn (Eds.),Positive organizational scholarship. (pp. 111-121). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.