SWOT Analysis Teamwork in Emergency Department Improvement

Introduction

This is a report of a teamwork experience gathered after participating in a discussion on SWOT analysis of the Accident and Emergency department at the nursing facility where I work. I was part of a team of 10 professionals mandated by the hospital management to compile this report for the transformation of the facility. The rationale behind the group size leans on the opinion of Dye (2017) who argues that although there is no fixed number of participants in a group, it is advisable to have between 6 and11 for cohesion and ease of communication. The team, therefore, settled for 10 in order to achieve collaboration and cooperation. According to Schellens et al. (2009), a small team reaps the benefits of interdependence and easy assignment of tasks in a setting that promotes reinforcement and advice. These were some of the reasons that informed our choice of the ten members to discuss the SWOT analysis of the Accident and Emergency department at our hospital.

A critical evaluation of the team’s activities reveals how the goals were achieved. By the end of the discussion, a compilation of the assignment was ready for presentation to the management of the hospital. It is, however, important to point out that the achievement of the goals was due to certain factors. First, the group elected a chairperson who clarified the topic and formulated the rules of the teamwork. This was in line with the opinion of Dye (2017) who underscores that effective teamwork must be guided by rules. Further, each member was urged to respect the opinions of each other thus many points were freely given by all participants. As the secretary wrote the agreed points, the team was successful in ranking the opinions in order of priority. Reference to the research of Schellens et al. (2009) indicates that the success of teamwork is evident when members are all engaged in the ownership of the project assigned to them. In our case, everyone gave undivided attention to the compilation of the final report on the SWOT. The entire exercise took two and half hours.

The members of the team I participated in upheld certain values as described by Dye (2017). For instance, I noticed that commitment characterized the entire session of SWOT analysis. Each member showed their creativity by contributing points about the Accident and Emergency department in a unique and thoughtful manner. Members were motivated to contribute based on the insightfulness of each speaker. It is equally noteworthy to mention that commonality of the discussion was evident in every member’s point.  According to West (2012), teams that have a commonality of understanding are sure to subscribe to similar thoughts when undertaking a project. Aside from this, effective communication was observed in the team. Particularly remembers engaged in active listening by observing the body language of each speaker hence supplementing verbal and nonverbal communication.

One other aspect that was equally utilized effectively was the wrap-up. According to Dye (2017), the end of a task is equally as important as the beginning. At the end of the SWOT analysis, the members accepted responsibility for the issues addressed and agreed to undertake further assignments if the need would arise in future.  This commonality of purpose was effective in achieving the objective of the teamwork. The justification of these evaluations is based on the fact that the management acknowledged the collaborative effort and congratulated the secretary who communicated to the members on the commonality of purpose.

In order to be more effective and productive, the team should have embraced certain values. To begin with, time management was not properly observed. Dye (2017) argues that time is a ravenous eater of teamwork projects. In future, it would be necessary to plan adequately and break the tasks into manageable chunks so that members do not rush to meet deadlines. As West (2012) rightly argues, time management is an indispensable component of every project and members of a team should endeavor to structure their meetings in a manner that allocates adequate time for each activity. The second area that requires improvement concerns the format of the discussion. It was noted that because the discussion did not have a format, members followed no particular order in giving the points. As a result, many contributions had to be reserved in the parking lot. In future, affinity diagram should be embraced to prioritize the ideas of the discussants.

The decision-making protocol is another area that needs adjustment in future projects. It was noted in the meeting that a number of members were occasionally arrogant while others expressed contrary opinions that triggered conflict in the group. Baker et al. (2010) advise that effective teams must control divergent opinions so that conflict does not arise. In the context of the project on SWOT, it is evident that imbalanced decision making made some more experienced members treat others with no decorum. Future projects should be carefully planned beforehand so that decision-making protocol is defined elaborately. These can transform the teamwork activities immensely.