SWOT is a team-building activity that helps team members better understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as find opportunities and threats they might face together. It is a good activity for when a project is starting or when new members have joined an existing team.
Running the activity:
- Draw the four quadrants: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.
- Introduce the first two areas:
* Strengths: write down what you feel you do well that can help the team.
* Weaknesses: what are the things that you could improve? - Give the team time to write down notes for those areas.
- Read all strengths and weaknesses out loud, clarifying if needed, but not fostering discussion yet.
- Introduce the other two areas:
* Opportunities: given the team’s strengths, what can you capitalize on and take as a lead to be successful?
* Threats: with those weaknesses, what are the obstacles you will have to overcome? - Give the team time to write notes for those two areas.
- Group discussion.
We found this activity on Innovation Games. It has been an effective exercise to get team members to know each other better and work as a group to improve. Often, team members will find opportunities in others’ strengths, which they hadn’t thought about before!
Remote-team advice: This activity works well for remote teams. Use a remote board of your choice.