Improvement Cymru Academy

Toolkit Guide

Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, Threats
(SWOT) Analysis
Introduction
A SWOT analysis is a framework and a diagnostic tool that is used to help you
understand the external and internal factors which can influence a project or an
organisation. The name is an acronym for the four elements of a SWOT analysis
which are:

1. Strengths: These are positive contributions that have happened during the
timescale of an activity/project that should be celebrated. This would include
any advantages to the organisation such as upskilling, reputation, resources
etc…
2. Weaknesses: These are activities or areas that have been identified could be
improved such as any gaps, inefficiencies etc…
3. Opportunities: These offer any opportunities for improvement that will
contribute to strengthening your project or organisation that you could take
advantage of.
4. Threats: These are external factors that can negatively affect the
performance or survival of project. External means that they are usually
outside of the departments or organisations control.

Strengths and Weaknesses are seen as intrinsic within a project or organisation

whereas Opportunities and Threats are seen as extrinsic factors that occur outside
of the organisations control. A SWOT analysis allows you to generate information so
that you can evaluate the current situation, identifying areas to improve and grow
and address any challenges in achieving goals that have been created for a project
or organisation.

Rationale

A SWOT analysis is an opportunity for organisations to plan and make decisions to

identify strengths to help achieve goals, identify weaknesses to improve, identify
opportunities to create growth and to identify threats to manage the risk and
minimise the impact. A SWOT analysis can help you to assess the current situation
and help visualise where you want to get to in the future, it helps to generate ideas,
seize opportunities and overcome challenges. It is a useful communication tool when
engaging with stakeholders.
Background

The SWOT analysis was created in the 1960s at Stanford University by a research
team led by Albert Humphrey. They used data from leading companies who were
involved in long-term planning processes to create the framework. Originally, SWOT
analysis was termed SOFT analysis which was an acronym for Satisfactory,
Opportunity, Fault and Threat. The framework was later modified when ‘Fault’ was
changed to ‘Weakness’ and then it was term ‘SWOT’ analysis. There have been
variations of the acronym in some literature which include ‘WOTS up’ analysis and a
‘TOWS’ analysis. The letters within the acronym are the same but the order of the
letters is the difference.

When to use a SWOT Analysis

A SWOT Analysis can be applied to many situations and can be used for problem
solving, planning, evaluating a process or product, decision making, competitor
evaluation, generating ideas and solutions and workshop sessions. Whilst a SWOT
analysis is mainly used by organisations, it can also be used by individuals for
personal development planning.

How to use a SWOT Analysis

Step One: Determine the objective of the SWOT analysis.

The objective of the SWOT analysis could be to analysis the Strengths,

Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats for a project, production, service, department,
or organisation. You will need to have a specific and clear objective before you start
the SWOT analysis. When you are facilitating a SWOT analysis session, it is
important that this is defined before the session takes place and is circulated before
the session begins.

Step Two: Identify Stakeholders that will need to be involved in this analysis.

One of the advantages of a SWOT analysis is that it is a quick and effective tool.
However, whilst the framework may appear simple to apply, for a SWOT analysis to
be meaningful it does require significant time and resource. Undertaking a SWOT
analysis is a team effort and cannot be done by one person. When you are
facilitating a SWOT analysis session, you will need to invite the relevant
stakeholders so they can participate with the analysis.

Step Three: Gather Information

You will need to gather data to support your analysis. Data could be in the form of
quantitative data which is data that can be measured in numerical form and
qualitative data which is data that is not in numerical form such as surveys. You
should have a mixture of both qualitative and quantitative data, so you have a good
understanding of your situation. When you are facilitating a SWOT analysis session,
you will need to gather this information prior to the session so this can inform the
information that will be used in the SWOT analysis.

Step Four: Complete the SWOT Analysis matrix.

When you are facilitating a SWOT analysis session, you will need to define the
objective at the start of the session and establish ground rules for the session to
ensure that everyone can agree on what is expected from each other within the
facilitation session. The ground rules or ways of working can help you create a
productive and respectful space where you can communicate effectively with each
other.

With your stakeholders, brainstorm some information for each of the elements,
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, for your objective. You should
list as many factors as you can and prioritise them based on the importance and
relevance in relation to your objective. There are several ways you could perform this
in a facilitated session. It could be completed with the whole group, or you could
divide the participants into four groups and using flip chart paper, pens and post-it
notes, allocate one group to one of the elements and ask them to make notes during
a certain timescale before moving onto the next element. The illustration below
shows a template of what should be considered for each of the four elements.

.
 Strengths Weaknesses
Positive contributions within your Areas that have been identified within a
activity/project/process/service/organisation project/process/service/organisation that
that should be celebrated and highlighted could be improved internal within the
internal within the organisation. organisation.

• Knowledge, Skills and Development • Knowledge, Skills and

within teams Development within teams
• Communication and Teamwork • Communication and Teamwork
• Culture and Values • Culture and Values
• Resources e.g. equipment, • Resources e.g. equipment,
technology technology
• Innovations • Innovations
• Internal procedures and processes • Internal procedures and processes
• Quality and safety • Staff turnover
• Why is this • Staff morale
project/process/service/organisation • Below recommended standards.
unique? • Quality and safety
• Internal disruptions

Opportunities Threats
Are there currently any opportunities for These are external factors that can
growth that you can take advantage of to negatively affect the performance or
grow? These are external opportunities. survival of project. External means that
they are usually outside of the
• Partnerships to be made.
departments or organisations control.
• Technology developments
• Training courses available • Regulatory Changes
• Opportunities to promote culture and • Legal Changes
values. • Changes in policies
• Opportunities to Scale and Spread • Natural disasters e.g. pandemics
to other areas. • Economic downturns: Funding,
• Advertising/Showcasing work at recession
meetings/conferences. • Innovations in technology
• Potential to publish current work.
Example: Healthcare Improvement Project that aims to implement a telehealth
system in a rural area

Strength Weaknesses
High demand and high satisfaction High cost to purchase and high
rates amongst patients and maintenance cost.
healthcare staff
Regulatory and legal issues related
Improved access to services to confidentiality and data security.
Enhanced efficiency and productivity
for staff
Staff acquired new skill set working
with technology

Opportunities Threats

Adoption, scale and spread telehealth What happens if the company

technology. supplying the technology and doing
the maintenance and updates comes
Collaboration and integration with off the market?
other telehealth networks
Changes in data policies
Changes in telehealth policies

Step Five: Analyse and Interpret your SWOT Analysis

You will now need to analyse and interpret your results. You will need to cross
analyse each of the elements to gain insight into the objective by asking the following
questions:

Strengths and Opportunities: How can you use the strengths identified to take
advantages of any opportunities you have identified?

Weakness and Opportunities: How can you overcome the weaknesses you have
identified by exploiting opportunities?

Strengths and Threats: How can you use your strengths to counter the threats?

Weakness and Threats: How can you maximise your weaknesses to avoid the
threats?
Step Six: Create an Action Plan

Based on your SWOT analysis, you will need to develop a plan to action to improve
the objective from the first step. You will also need to think about how you will
monitor and evaluate the progress and performance. When you are facilitating a
SWOT analysis session to develop the action plan, make sure that you circulate the
completed action plan with those involved in the session.

Limitations of a SWOT Analysis

There are many advantages to a SWOT analysis as outlined in the rationale section
of this guide however there any also limitations of a SWOT analysis to consider. The
SWOT analysis is subjective and biased because it includes stakeholders that are
involved in the item or process that is being analysed. Whilst you need stakeholder
to be involved in this analysis, it is important to use data to inform your thinking.
Other limitations that have been observed are that the SWOT is oversimplified and
vague, static and simply and does not address projects or organisations that are
dynamic. It also has a one-dimensional perspective that ignores the overlap between
elements. A strength could also be perceived as a weakness and an opportunity
could also be perceived as a threat.

What next?

Is there anything within your organisation or any projects that you are undertaking
that could benefit from a SWOT analysis? Start with choosing a process, service,
product, or project that you are involved with and involving all stakeholders to
perform a SWOT analysis. Use the information within this toolkit guide and the
SWOT template to assist you with this.

Helpful tips

Collaboration is key! – When analysing a process or organisation it is important to

include as many stakeholders as are relevant o the process (See our Involving
Others Toolkit Guide for more Information). This way, multiple perspectives will be
considered leading to a more effective and comprehensive analysis.

There are other templates that can be used in conjunction with a SWOT analysis:
 • A PESTLE analysis which is an acronym for Political, Economic, Sociological,
Technological, Legal and Environmental factors that externally influence an
organisation. This can be used in conjunction with the Threat element of a
SWOT analysis.
• Lewin’s Force Field Analysis is a technique that is used for planning and
managing change. It helps to identify forces that support or oppose the
change and prioritise them to find the best way to achieve the outcome.

Additional Resources

If you are interested in learning more about how improvement practices can benefit
your workplace, we offer a range of training courses. Visit our website for more
information.https://phw.nhs.wales/services-and-teams/improvement-
cymru/improvement-cymru-academy/ or email us
improvementcymruacademy@wales.nhs.uk to find about the improvement courses
we offer.

Further reading

Business Documents. (No date). How do I run a SWOT Analysis workshop?

Accessed from: https://business-docs.co.uk/scenario/how-do-i-run-a-swot-analysis-
workshop/ (Accessed 9 Jan 2024)

CIPD. (2023). PESTLE Analysis. Accessed from:

https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/factsheets/pestle-analysis-
factsheet/?_gl=1*xtjt80*_ga*MTA5NzQ3NDcwOS4xNjg0ODQ3Mjk2*_ga_D9HN5GY
HYY*MTcwNDgxODE1NS4xMi4wLjE3MDQ4MTgxNTUuNjAuMC4w (Accessed 9
Jan 2024)

CIPD. (2023). SWOT Analysis. Accessed from:

https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/factsheets/swot-analysis-factsheet/ (Accessed 9
Jan 2024)
Mark Connelly. (2023). Force Field Analysis - Kurt Lewin. Accessed from:
https://www.change-management-coach.com/force-field-analysis.html (Accessed 9
Jan 2024)

Minsky, L., Aron, D. (2021). Are you doing the SWOT Analysis Backwards?
Accessed from: https://hbr.org/2021/02/are-you-doing-the-swot-analysis-backwards
(Accessed 12 Jan 2024)

Strongitharm, J. (2022). What is a SWOT Analysis in Healthcare and why you need
it? Accessed from: https://venngage.com/blog/swot-analysis-in-healthcare/
(Accessed 9 Jan 2024)

White, J., Bottorff, C. (2022). What is a SWOT Analysis? Accessed from

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/what-is-swot-analysis/ (Accessed 9 Jan
2024)
Template: SWOT Analysis

Internal Factors

Strengths Weaknesses

External Factors

Opportunities Threats