How Can We Encourage Supervisors to Complete Assessments?

Dear SWOT and Miss,

There could be many reasons why your supervisors are hesitant to complete SWOT assessments of other child care centers. I can take a wild guess, and any of the following might apply:

• Lack of skill:Your supervisors may not know how to assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Have you done a SWOT assessment of your own center that they can use as a model?
• Lack of accurate data:Your supervisors may not have a good “line of sight” into the other centers. As professional educators, they may feel that their evaluation would be unfair without solid observations.
• Lack of confidentiality:Your supervisors may fear that their feedback about another center would be used to injure them with regulators or agencies that control their funding.
• Lack of context:Do your supervisors know why you’re asking for this information? Have you told them what you intend to do with the information, and how important it is to know the market in which you compete?
• Lack of business exposure:Your supervisors may not understand that it’s common practice to assess your competition as part of a strategic planning process. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your competition allows you to better position yourself and your unique offerings to attract customers who really need what you have to offer.

To get a handle on the real reasons getting in the way of getting your supervisors’ help with a competitive analysis, consider asking them directly for the reasons they have not responded to your request. Once you know their feelings, it’s easy to supply the necessary context, rationale or support they need to help you position your center effectively in your child care market.

SOURCE: Patsy Svare, president, the Chatfield Group, Northbrook, Illinois.