SOAR
WORKSHEET
SOAR
A process tool rooted in Appreciative Inquiry, designed to assess organizational
strengths, and initiate change.
Please read the following to better understand what the SOAR tool is. Once you have read through the
document, each person participating in the collaborative should:
Write down your response to the questions on the last page.
Compare your response to the other responses on your collaborative team.
Bring the sheet with you on November 6.
At some point, ask all staff to review, provide feedback, and answer the questions.
SOAR: Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Results Analysis
Description (from the American Society of Quality)
A strengths, opportunities, aspirations, results (SOAR) analysis is a strategic planning tool that focuses an
organization on its current strengths and vision of the future for developing its strategic goals.
This tool differs from the commonly used SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis.
SOAR engages all levels and functional areas of an organization, while SWOT is typically a top-down approach.
With SOAR, the focus is on the organization and enhancing what is currently done well, rather than
concentrating on perceived threats and/or weaknesses.
When conducting a SOAR analysis, the basic questions to be answered are:
1. What are our greatest strengths?
2. What are our best opportunities?
3. What is our preferred future?
4. What are the measurable results that will tell us we’ve achieved our vision of the future?
SOAR is about…
Action
Strength based
Be the best (good to great)
Innovation
Engagement
Planning-implementation
Results
Plants seeds vs. pulling weeds
Achieving the good vs. avoiding error
