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Week 3 through 7 – Team Assignment 2

Strategic Leadership Team Project (15%)

Strategic Directions – Sustain, Delete, Rethink and Add-Innovate

Submission is due Day 7 of Week 7 at 23:59 PST

This assignment is intended as an applied learning experience using SWOT in conjunction with either a ‘brain storming’ process or the newer approach of ‘brain swarming’ to develop your information.

SWOT analysis is a long standing strategic process used successfully by various and varying organizations for many years.

SWOT Analysis however, is in declining use as are Brain storming processes.

Its underlying methodology often criticized as contributing to group think.

 

Review of these principles allows learners to gain experience with methodologies critical in developing an effective strategic leadership toolkit.

A newer process of Brain Swarming focuses attention on a Sustain, Delete, Rethink, Add, Innovate process based on a shift of thinking process included in Brain Swarming and represents a different approach to the discipline of strategic thinking.

https://hbr.org/video/3373616535001/brainswarming-because-brainstorming-doesnt-work

Brain swarming rejects gathering everyone in a room to force a solution in an environment not necessarily suitable for everyone. While Brain Storming is the practice of sharing ideas while withholding judgment, Brain Swarming asks: Why do we need to talk in the first place?

How brain swarming works:
Assignment Parameters

Using Lepsinger’s 6 Bridge Building Principles in “Closing the Execution Gap (2010) and Hughes, Beatty and Dunwoody’s assessment tools for assessing organizational capacity for change in Becoming a Strategic Leader (2014) from Exhibits 3.5, 3.6, 3.7 (pp. 130-133) and the AAR six step process outlined on p. 134;

Assess the suggested strategies developed for the organization reviewed in your SWOT analysis of the organization chosen to determine the anticipated success or failure of the changes suggested for the organization’s future practice and suggested strategies determined for change in the organization.

You can use a brainstorming or brain swarming approaches for reviewing the questions in the SWOT analysis. (Whichever tool your team uses is acceptable as long as the team is comfortable with the tool chosen – both are supplied for your review – direct any questions to me in the Q & A section of the course page if you experience any challenges with the process.)

Each team must submit the results of a SWOT analysis for an organization in line with the requirements mentioned above. The analysis will use Lepsinger’s (2010) 6 Bridge Builders (pp. 25-203) and the questions contained in Hughes, Beatty and Dinwoodie (2014) – Exhibits 3.5, 3.6, 3.7 (pp. 130-133) and the AAR six step process outlined on p. 134; to determine the success or failure of the organization to apply the changes discovered by the team in the SWOT Process.

The team lead (or a team agreed designate) will assign all materials related to team reviews and is responsible for submitting the finalized material to PressBooks for grading.

The PressBooks material must include descriptive notes where the graphics do not explain the material fully and include clear referencing, citing all reference materials used in the exploration and conclusions for the materials covered.

The team will:

  1. Select an organization to review using a SWOT analysis. (The organization can be fictional or actual that team members have awareness of.) In the case of an actual organization, the choice for naming the actual organization or the organization remaining  anonymous is solely at the discretion of the organization. If anonymous, reviewers need to ensure anonymity is protected throughout the assignment and the remainder of the course (including all published results).

– For the purpose of time the choice and identity of the organization needs completion by the team for the middle of Week 3 (Wednesday)
2. The team will develop their SWOT Questions, as they relate to the four quadrants of a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) and arrange an interview with a significant leader of the organization for the end of week 4 (Sunday)
3. The team will review interview responses and how they relate to the 4 quadrants by the end of Week 5.
4. Compile findings and results by the end of Week 6 (Sunday)
5. The team LEAD (or a team agreed designate) will post PressBooks materials with full references and conclusions to the PressBooks environment by the Week 7 due date (Sunday)

NOTE: If you have any challenges with the PressBooks environment in completing the assignment, contact the instructor immediately to assist you in completion of the assignment within the time frames established.

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