Structured Thinking: SLEPT, STEEPLE, MECE

• The text is about structured thinking including, SLEPT, STEEPLE, 360 feedback, and MECE process.

SLEPT Process

• Structured thinking is a process of placing a framework around an unstructured problem.
• A framework assists analysts with understanding macro-level problems, identifying areas needing deeper analysis.
• Structure helps analysts understand the destination and how to get there, including the tools required.
• It prevents situations where work must be redone due to overlooked segments.

Importance of Creating a Structure of Work

• Creating a scope of work document helps ensure all stakeholders are on the same page from the start.
• A scope of work typical document is between half a page to maximum of 2 pages.
• The scope of work should contain:
  • Background
  • Problem statement
  • Customers, sponsors, and stakeholders
  • In scope and out scope areas which is very important
• Once the document is created, ensure stakeholders provide their thoughts early to avoid issues later.
• Perform quick, rough calculations to determine if certain aspects should be analyzed first or removed.
• Establish data needs and hypotheses before examining available data to avoid restrictive thinking that may hinder optimal outcomes

SLEPT Analysis

• SLEPT framework assesses an organization's external environmental influences, considering Social, Legal, Economic, Political, and Technological factors.
• The Analysis identifies macro-environmental threats and opportunities for SWOT analysis, which further incorporates internal factors.
• This helps leverage opportunities, minimize threats, understand long-term trends, and improve strategic decision-making.

Social Factors

• Social factors relate to behavior, tastes, and lifestyles, significantly driven by changing consumer behavior in fashions and styles.
• Laws continually evolve across areas like consumer protection, environmental regulations, health and safety, and employment law.
• Businesses should be proactive, understanding societal trends to meet demands.

Legal Factors

• Legal Factors encompasses laws like antitrust, discrimination, intellectual property, consumer protection, employment, and regulatory mechanisms.
• Legal factors covers all legislative issues in the companies registered area, following applicable legislature.
• Analysis of the legal factor addresses company approach to legal issues and compliance.
• Firms are concerned with Employment Law and Marketplace Law (monopolies, mergers, consumer protection, sale of goods, food safety).

Economic Factors

• Economic Factors include growth, inflation, interest, and exchange rates; fiscal and monetary policies; and credit availability.
• Economic changes are closely related to social ones.
• Economic factors are considered the most important factor for a company operating in a certain economic environment.

Political Factors

• Political Factors involve government policies, stability, trade control, competition regulations, unions, and consumer/employment laws.
• Political decisions strongly influence national economy and business leading companies to seek political analysts for forecasts.

Technological Factors

• Technological Aspects include Technological Aspects such as R&D activity, Technology Incentives, Rate of Technological change, Infrastructure level, Access to Technology.
• Changes in technology have become important in the post-millennium world.
• Organizations need to be aware of the latest relevant technologies for their business.

Advantages of using the SLEPT Process

• The only cost of SLEPT analysis is time.
• Slept analysis is also straightforward and easy to do.
• Can give a deeper understanding by identifying overlooked direct and indirect aspects.

How to deepen understanding of the SLEPT process

• Encourages strategic thinking for better planning.
• Helps to analyze firms and be narrowed down for specific purposes.
• Raises awareness of potential threats.
• Thorough examination is needed to have the ability to develop plans to minimize any and all profit increase or damage

Relation Between SLEPT and SWOT Analysis

• SLEPT and SWOT are business analyis approaches related to business analysis.
• SLEPT looks at Political, Economic, Social, and Technological influences and SWOT is a situational analysis tool that involves assessing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

How it helps with strengths, opportunities, and threats

• SLEPT factors Correlate with threats component of SWOT as well as opportunity assement.
• SLEPT focuses on external environmental Factors that affect the business, and SWOT analysis focuses on both internal and external factors.

The "THREATS"

• It is coincidence that SLEPT and SWOT both end with a "T," but it is the "T" in SWOT that provides the greatest connection between these two strategic assessments.
• A thorough SLEPT analysis helps companies analyze the threats section in SWOT.

And the "OPPORTUNITY"

• Examining external political, logical, economics, social and technological factors can help businesses uncover potential business opportunities it can pursue.

MECE Process

• MECE means Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive and segments information into mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive sub-elements.
• MECE is a list with elements which are non overlapping but contains everything that belongs to it.
• The MECE Process helps to analyze the elements of a list avoids dependencies with the branches of problems and solutions.

How it Helps with the Issue Tree

• An issue tree is a substitute for statements.
• The statements can be ideas of problems.
• MECE by thinking of branches that dont overlap with other options.
• Applications of MECE with Issue Tree: MECE can be used in any kind of problem statement.

STEEPLE Process

• STEEPLE is Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, and Legal.
• It is a framework or tool used by marketers to analyse and monitor the macro-environmental factors so they have impact on an organisation.

Social Factors

• Socio-Cultural and Social Forces influence our attitudes, interests, opinions, moreover create our behavior and ultimately what we purchase.
• The structure of population, level of education, cultural diversity and standards all influence Social and Cultural Factors.

Technological Factors

• New
• Technological advances changed business operation.
• New technologies shorten Product life cycle and increase demand for new products.
• This revolution has increased information exchange.

Economic Factors

• National Interest rates and fiscal policy is set around economic conditions, besides has influence on purchasing power of consumers and structure of their expenditure.

Environmental Factors

• Environmental protection legislation, pollution, waste management and disposal, clean air and water, energy saving technologies, attitudes towards ecology in society are involved in Environmental Factors.

Political Factors

• They create advantages and opportunies includin political situation, and state interference.

Ethical Factors

• Involved duties, morality and integrity.

Legal Factor

• Involves the regulatory and its relation its outcomes for a business decision. It also identifies factors regarding legal invovment

Benefits and limitations of STEEPLE Process

• Its a way to create an easy framework for work and its easy to learn.

360 Feedback

• Method for employess to receive feedback from people they work with to improve from confidential anonymous results.

Key Facts About 360 Feedback

• Managers and leaders within organizations use 360 feedback surveys to get a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses.
• The 360 feedback system automatically tabulates the results and presents them in a format that helps the feedback recipient create a development plan.
• Individual responses are always combined with responses from other people in the same rater category (e.g. peer, direct report) in order to preserve anonymity and to give the employee a clear picture of his/her greatest overall strengths and weaknesses.

Uses for 360 Feedback

• When done properly, 360 is highly effective as a development tool.
• Is not always a great idea as difficult to properly structure if do not create an atmosphere of trust.

360 Feedback Measurements

• Measures behaviours , assesemnts, feedback.