I.S.W.O.T.

The I.S.W.O.T. now proudly stares down at me from the noticeboard along with my organisational budget, term calendar and shopping list for next weeks refugee lunch. I've been missing the office over the bank holiday especially because on Saturday, something exciting happened. A volunteer came in to help out with the refugee lunch but the kitchen was crammed with people wanting to help so, knowing that he has some background in organisation planning, I invited him to do some project specific planning with me.

We never got on to the planning part because he had noticed that the I.S.W.O.T. and had a look at it. It identifies our website as a weakness. He asked me what I had meant and I showed him the website. He understood. (I will do a before and after post in a few weeks) So instead of planning the youth group we planned the website. I now have a web designer coming to the office once a week to build a new and improved website which will be worth showing the world.

I'm sharing this because I think its a valuable lesson. In community groups there are people from all walks of life who all have something to offer. They can only offer it if they know it is needed. The offer can only be accepted and made use of if we know what is needed.  The I.S.W.O.T. is how people can find out what is needed. Initially I assumed it would mainly be a reference for me. Now I see it has the power to harness peoples' potential and open up new opportunities for volunteers.

Talking strategy is bringing about concrete changes at this community centre. Talking change in a way that inspires, as opposed to isolates, people is a powerful way of beginning the process. Get the tone and pitch right and the whole organisation will be behind you. I've been thinking a lot about that over the last few days. My next post will share a few of my conclusions. Hopefully it won't all be hot air...