Analysis Phase: introduction

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to", said the Cat.
"I don't much care where--" said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.
Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

If you're lucky, the inclusion work in your NA these days is going just fine.
You have no crises to deal with, no difficult issues to resolve, no shortage of funds, no staff turnover - it's just business as usual.

If, however, you can see challenges on the horizon for your inclusion work, if you are being asked to take on more work than you can handle or if your budget is under serious pressure, you need to figure out a way to bring the situation back under control. You need to plot a course of action in inclusion which maximises your resources and leads to the best possible results.

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When an organisation is under pressure, they tend to make one of two mistakes:

• They immediately start making a plan, or
• They immediately start taking action (without even bothering to make a plan first...)

There is a real danger in getting carried away and jumping into the middle of strategy development, especially if you are under time pressure, but remember you can't choose the right solution if you don't know what the problem is.

Earlier we stated that that the first step in defining a strategy is to stop and take stock of your current position. This can be formulated in the key question:

Where am I now?

To know where you are you must answer a series of sub-questions. What has happened in our inclusion work up to now? What has gone well, what has not, and why? What are the most important challenges we are facing in the NA right this moment?

A well-defined problem is a problem half solved. The purpose of the analysis phase is to show beyond any doubt exactly where your problem areas are.

A good strategy is based on facts - facts about your position (your strengths and weaknesses) as well as the position of key players around you. You can collect these facts by carrying out a "needs analysis".

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