SOAR Analysis

"It pays to be cautious," and "Don't get too excited!" are phrases you'll likely have heard echoing around a meeting room. And if they follow your presentation of your plans for the department's development, you might be feeling deflated and disappointed.

Of course, you need to be professional, sensible and fully aware of any hazards on the horizon when you're deciding on a strategy. But you need to inspire people, too. Inspiration is the energy that will keep them motivated, engaged and delivering, day in and day out. Without it, their ambition, innovation and creativity may simply dry up.

That's why, in this article, we look at a simple but effective tool for balancing rigor with positivity when you're thinking about your organization's future.

What Is SOAR?

Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results (SOAR) Analysis is a strategic planning tool. It combines data about an organization's current position with people's ideas and dreams about its future, so that you can build an energizing vision to work toward.

You will almost certainly have come across SWOT   (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis, and you'll immediately see some similarities to SOAR Analysis. But SOAR differs from SWOT in two important ways.

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