Strategic Directions – NonProfit and Christian Ministry

Sustain, Delete, Rethink and Add-Innovate

This section includes the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) assessments from 3 teams; 2 from the nonprofit sector and 1 from Christian Ministry practice . Two of the organizations reviewed are from Canada, with one organization located in Nigeria. The team focused on discovering the strategic directions for the three organizations as an applied learning experience for the organizations and leadership teams doing the review. One nonprofit, from Nigeria and referred to as “L” Foundation, has a mission to raise awareness and spur affirmative action on issues affecting the survival and development of women, children and humanity in general. The  founder is also one of the leaders from the Eagle Vision team conducting the SWOT analysis. The second nonprofit team, CLEN, reviewed the practices and habits of a nonprofit start up organization called Zenyatta Ventures. It is a northern Ontario-based graphene solutions company. The final organization is a local church in Kelowna BC; The House. The House is a newer autonomous church organization beginning to think more strategically about putting together a larger ministry team to accommodate and maintain church growth. A member of The Practical Pastors team, conducting the SWOT analysis, is also one of the leaders from The House church being reviewed.

Following an Ethics Review, teams interviewed members of their respective organizations by interviewing members of different teams to conduct SWOT assessments. Processes used in the investigations were not included in their final reporting, only findings related to the analysis for each organization are recorded.

Teams reviewed strategic choices by ‘brain storming’ or ‘brain swarming’ to develop information and review SWOT principles in the assessment process. ‘Brain storming’ or ‘brain swarming’ allowed team members to gain understanding of methodologies for the SWOT process, and assist with developing effective strategic responses to the organizational assessment and the strategic influences guiding them into the future. This also helped teams identify the necessary skills for strategically planning to meet the challenges faced in navigating best practices for the future and gaining necessary skills for developing an effective strategic leadership toolkit for themselves.

Nonprofit and Christian Ministry leaders followed the SWOT analysis steps and used Richard Lepsinger’s 6 Bridge Building Principles in Closing the Execution Gap (2010), Hughes, Beatty and Dinwoodie’s assessment tools and six step after action review (AAR) process for assessing organizational capacity for change in Becoming a Strategic Leader (2014, pp. 130-134). Teams used the tools outlined in the texts and assessed developed strategies for each organization to determine the anticipated success or failure of suggested changes for each organization’s future practice and determine the anticipated success for the identified and suggested changes. Teams then submitted their results and findings to determine the likely success or failure in applying the changes to the organizations reviewed in the SWOT Process.