Preparation

You have been asked to conduct an analysis of your care setting that will result in two potential pathways toward a strategic plan to improve health care quality and safety in your organization, department, team, community project, or other care setting. To accomplish this, you will take two approaches to the analysis:

1. Complete the discovery and dream phases of an appreciative inquiry (AI) project.
2. Conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis.

To help ensure that your analysis is well-received, the requester has suggested that you:

• Present your analysis results in four parts:
  • Part 1: Appreciative Inquiry Discovery and Dream.
  • Part 2: SWOT Analysis.
  • Part 3: Comparison of Approaches.
  • Part 4: Analysis of Relevant Leadership Characteristics and Skills.
• Your analysis should be 5-8 pages in length.

As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment.

One key aspect to being an effective leader, manager, or administrator is an awareness of your leadership strengths, weaknesses, and style.

• How would you assess your general leadership, communication, and relationship-building skills?
• How would describe your leadership style?

Imagine the future for a care setting that is your place of practice or one in which you would like to work.

• What aspirational goals can you envision that would lead to improvements in health care quality and safety?
• How well do these goals align with the mission, vision, and values of your care setting?

Part 1: Appreciative Inquiry Discovery and Dream

• Synthesize stories and evidence about times when a care setting performed at its best with regard to quality and safety goals.
  • Collect stories from your care setting. You may collect stories through interviews or conversations with colleagues or provide your own.
  • Explain how your stories are related to quality and safety goals.
  • Describe the evidence you have that substantiates your stories.
  • Identify the positive themes reflected in your stories.
  • Describe other evidence (for example: data, awards, accreditations) that validates your care setting’s positive core.
• Propose positive, yet attainable, quality and safety improvement goals for your care setting.
  • Explain how accomplishing these goals will lead to ethical and culturally-sensitive improvements in quality and safety.
  • Explain how your proposed goals align with your care setting’s mission, vision, and values.

Part 2: SWOT Analysis

• Conduct a SWOT analysis of your care setting, with respect to quality and safety goals.
  • Provide a narrative description of your analysis.
  • Identify the assessment tool you used as the basis of your analysis.
  • Describe your key findings and their relationships to quality and safety goals.
• Describe one area of concern that you identified in your SWOT analysis—relevant to your care setting’s mission, vision, and values—for which you would propose pursuing improvements.
  • Explain how this area of concern relates to your care setting’s mission, vision, and values.
  • Explain why you believe it will be necessary and valuable to pursue improvements related to this area of concern.

Part 3: Comparison of Approaches

Compare the AI and SWOT approaches to analysis and reflect on the results.

• Describe your mindset when examining your care setting from an AI perspective and from a SWOT perspective.
• Describe the types of data and evidence you searched for when taking an AI approach and a SWOT approach.
• Describe the similarities and differences between the two approaches when communicating and interacting with colleagues.

Part 4: Analysis of Relevant Leadership Characteristics and Skills

Analyze the leadership characteristics and skills most desired in the person leading potential performance improvement projects, taking both an AI and SWOT approach.

• Explain how these characteristics and skills would help a leader facilitate a successful AI-based project and a successful SWOT-based project.
• Comment on any shared characteristics or skills you identified as helpful for both AI and SWOT approaches.