The SOAR Effect (How Shared Strategy Transforms Results at Every Level)

A practical guide to building shared strategy that positively impacts culture and performance.

The SOAR framework has been used for over twenty years in business, government, education, healthcare, and community settings.

Strategy is most powerful when the people responsible for delivering it shape it. Yet, strategy often breaks down because the people expected to implement it were never involved in its creation. Valuable knowledge goes untapped, people become disconnected from decisions, and strategy struggles to translate into meaningful action. The SOAR Effect offers a better way forward.

Developed by Jackie Stavros and grounded in more than two decades of research and global practice, SOAR helps readers build strategy through strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results. The real-world stories and practical guidance demonstrate how shared strategy fosters trust, collaboration, purpose, and alignment.

Readers learn how to do the following:

• Bring the right people into strategic decision-making
• Identify the strengths of a team or organization to create value
• Explore opportunities to expand possibilities for growth and innovation
• Articulate aspirations that give people clear direction and a future they care about
• Define meaningful results and connect them to action plans
• Build shared capability so people at every level can think, plan, lead, and act strategically

With case studies, questions, sample designs, and companion resources, this book gives readers a repeatable approach for creating a strategy that lives in the organization long after the planning session ends.