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:

  1. Draw the four quadrants: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.
  2. 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?
  3. Give the team time to write down notes for those areas.
  4. Read all strengths and weaknesses out loud, clarifying if needed, but not fostering discussion yet.
  5. 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?
  6. Give the team time to write notes for those two areas.
  7. 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.

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