SOAR

Creative Tool with a possibility mindset

Sources

Anderson, H., Cooperrider, D., Gergen, K. J., Gergen, M., McNamee, S., & Whitney, D.(2008). The appreciative organization (Vol. 2). Chargin Falls, OH: Taos Institute Publishing.Cameron, K., Dutton, J., & Quinn, R.E. (2003). Positive organizational scholarship: Foundations of a new discipline. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.Glăveanu, V. P. (2023). Possibility studies: A manifesto. Possibility Studies & Society, 1(1-2), 3-8.Saint, D. K., Stavros, J. M. (2010). SOAR: Linking Strategy and OD to Sustainable Performance. In W. J. Rothwell, J. M. Stavros, R. L. Sullivan, & A. Sullivan. (Eds.) Practicing Organization Development: A Guide for Leading Change (3rd ed., pp. 377-394). Pieiffer.

Authorship

This site was compiled and created by Robbie Spofford for an educational and research purpose.
Last Updated: August 2026.

SOAR - Design & History

SOAR (Strengths - Opportunities - Aspirations - Results) is a creative problem solving tool that "integrates appreciative inquiry, positive organizational scholarship, and whole system- and strengths-based change" to foster strategic transformation (Saint and Stavros, 2010, p. 378). Developments in the field of strategy and organizational development are increasingly turning toward more strengths-based techniques to foster higher stakeholder engagement and drive better outcomes (Cameron, Dutton, and Quinn, 2003). SOAR implements these developments with a participatory approach and is built off the 5-Is framework from the field of appreciative inquiry: Initiate, Inquire, Imagine, Innovate, and Inspire.After initiating the use of the tool, the design is that each of the remaining four Is with a letter of SOAR to provide an affirming, strengths-based direction for team dialogue:
Inquire into Strengths
Imagine the Opportunities
Innovate to reach Aspirations
Inspire to achieve ResultsThe tool itself is rooted in stakeholder conversations. To understand how this looks in practice, use the button below to view an example.A predecessor tool to SOAR commonly used in creative problem solving, SWOT (Strengths - Weaknesses - Opportunities - Threats), is easy to conflate with SOAR, but it is fundamentally different. To understand the underlying characteristics between SWOT and SOAR, follow the other button below.

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SWOT (Strengths - Weaknesses - Opportunities - Threats) is a traditional tool for strategic analysis that is largely a matrix of two variables: externality and positivity. In other words, two axis can be drawn, one with labels "internal - external" and another with labels "positive - negative," and the four items of SWOT represent the four combinations of these terms:
Strengths - Internal, Positive
Weaknesses - Internal, Negative
Opportunities - External, Positive
Threats - External, NegativeAdvances in organizational development theory have brought to light that, in the course of strategic conversations, "any considerations of strengths implicitly considers weaknesses and, similarly, opportunities are developed in consideration of threats" (Saint and Stavros, 2010, p. 378). SOAR maintains the externality variable but replaces the positivity variable with possibility. This creates the following four combinations for SOAR:
Strengths - Internal, Current
Opportunities - External, Current
Aspirations - Internal, Possible
Results - External, PossibleBy using possibility thinking in SOAR, discovery and exploration of a wide spectrum of negative, positive, and neutral emotions can surface at any time in any step of the tool. This open exploration of persons intertwined with their environments, with a balanced focus on what is currently present and what is possible, makes this a tool for whole-system strategic planning. (For more info on the systemic nature of possibilities, see Glăveanu, 2023, p. 5, assertion 7)

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SOAR is a tool for strategic thinking, grounded in the dialogue of stakeholders of an organization, group, or movement. As described on the Design & History page (linked via button here), the tool is used in tandem with the 5Is approach: Initiate, Inquire, Imagine, Innovate, and Inspire.Initiate:
For this demonstration, consider there is a group of doctoral students at Buffalo State University that wants the effects or implications of offering free tuition for doctoral students. They come together, set aside time to use SOAR to think strategically, and generate the following:Inquire into Strengths:
The students discuss among themselves and inquire what strengths may be present for making tuition free for their program:
- Doctoral students attending Buffalo State would have more available financial resources
- Low-no cost doctoral programs would engage a broader audience of potential students
- More applicants for doctoral programs would likely strengthen the admitted students each year
- Less administration would be needed to handle the processing of funds, so more time and resources could be put towards growth of programmingImagine the Opportunities:
The students then imagine what free tuition for doctoral students might afford and create:
- Encourage and sustain a more diverse student body (no longer driven by financial constraints)
- Doctoral students with financial need would be supported without them having to use resources to explain their circumstances
- A natural re-assessment of staffing needs could help the institution learn how much administration is truly needed to keep programs running smoothlyInnovate to reach Aspirations:
Students then would discuss how potential innovations could help make the idea of free doctoral student tuition a reality:
- Program fund-raising could become a collaborative effort among students, instead of the traditional, individual burden
- Doctoral students could vote on what components of the program they believe are truly necessary to keep or not and therein better align the program to student needsInspire to achieve Results:
Lastly, the students would find ways that could inspire themselves, faculty, staff, and all stakeholders to practically reach this potential result of free doctoral student tuition:
- Doctoral students would share a more positive reputation of the school, as one that really cares about the financial well-being of its students
- Buffalo State could compete with institutions that offer funding packages
- International acclaim could come from having such a high-quality, low-cost doctoral program
- The learning and research processes would be more enjoyable for doctoral students, without the financial burden of tuition
- More diverse and representative cohorts would improve the quality of the programIt's important to remember, that as with any creative thinking tool, SOAR can be customized to meet the circumstances. This example primarily looks at positives, but SOAR can similarly be used to assess and strategize how to avoid or prepare and anticipate negative aspects of an idea or situation too. For more details, see "Using SOAR" below:

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When a group forms and initiates the SOAR process, it's often helpful to organize both questions and the related responses into a grid format, as shown below:

In each quadrant, start with questions related to each of the four sections, and progress in the order of the acronym through all four parts. This starts the group with the internal, current reality and moves incrementally toward less certain sections: externally, and then toward future possibilities. Questions should be primarily open-ended and tailored to the given context. Demonstrating with the topic provided in this website's example:Strengths:
- What might go well if tuition were to be free for doctoral students?
- How might we realize benefits from a decision to make tuition free for doctoral students?Opportunities:
- What might be all the ways having free tuition afford more resources to the program or its students?
- How might making tuition free for doctoral students create new partnerships or opportunities for more diverse academic relationships?Aspirations:
- How might Buffalo State remain financially stable, even if tuition is free for doctoral students?
- In what ways might program expenditures be reduced to compensate for free tuition for doctoral students?Results:
- How might we be confident in the long-term stability of the doctoral program, if tuition was free?
- In what ways might there be flexibility after tuition is made free for doctoral students, so the program can be resilient to unanticipated consequences?After questions are developed, shared, and used to generate responses for each of the four quadrants, in order, each quadrant can then be reviewed individually. Top ideas the entire team agrees upon should be denoted, but those with disagreement should not be ignored. While the purpose is to build consensus and momentum toward a goal, acknowledging and leaving room for differences of perspective and healthy conflict is vital to ensuring SOAR does not deviate from its strategic purpose. Group facilitators or leaders should dedicate time for those ideas group members don't agree on separately, even if short, as not to fully distract from how the group is progressing through SOAR.As review progresses through each quadrant, differences and conflicts are addressed, and group members vote on their favorites to highlight, facilitators can also confirm with the group if something is in the correct quadrant or not. It's not uncommon for ideas to percolate during one phase of the process,
but then actually be more applicable in another.After conflicts have been addressed, some question responses have been re-categorized if needed, and the top 2-4 responses in each quadrant are selected, other tools can take this 4-quadrant output from the SOAR process into the next step(s) of the creative processes, as time and resources provide.

• Home
• SOAR Design & History
• From SWOT to SOAR
• Example of SOAR