We wrap up our exploration of the change process by Dr. John P. Kotter with the need to institute the change. Organizations face a wide range of challenges when implementing change. The only way to know that the new culture is becoming infused throughout the organization is to go everywhere across the organization and fully engage with its employees.

A successful company working through organizational change must continue to work at creating enthusiasm for the process. As the organization celebrates short-term wins, momentum should accelerate the process as others are encouraged to join the movement and more employees accept the invitation. As employees engage in change activity, the guiding coalition should provide various ways to support them so that they enjoy it and gain personal and professional satisfaction.

Leaders looking to drive transformational change must establish a positive environment where success in generating short-term wins occurs early and often. We can enhance the work to develop these desired actions by increasing our knowledge of brain science. Understanding the natural tendency of our brain to focus on the negative allows us to understand the need to pay proper attention to the mental aspect of change.

Leaders agree that they have employed management practices that are bureaucratic nuisances that impede employees' freedom to create real impact. It is essential to remove barriers to improve efficiencies and reduce time wasted on dealing with them as an opportunity to enhance employee motivation and promote collaboration. Adopting a robust critical thinking process will allow for improved business operations by eliminating barriers if adopted across and at all levels of the organization.

The current workforce wants to move beyond surviving to a workplace that allows them to flourish, be happy, and have an opportunity for fulfillment. But, unfortunately, the American workforce engagement at 33% is startlingly low compared to the 70% result for the world’s best companies. Therefore, we are responsible for developing an organizational environment of employee flourishing.

After crafting the vision, the owner or leader should be able to describe the company's future state succinctly. In addition, successfully communicating the defined vision to the organization's internal and external stakeholders is required. The ability of the various organizational stakeholders to embrace the vision is enhanced when they can see how it changes what has been known to them.

Effective and efficient change leadership must be embedded at all levels and across all disciplines in the organization. A guiding coalition's success improves by including critical stakeholders' representation. Switching from change resistance to an energized cadre of zealous drivers of organizational transformation requires a well-developed guiding coalition.

Creating a legitimate sense of urgency is essential to carrying out transformational change. The work requires a delicate balance of what I describe as optimal tension. A state where leadership lifts the workforce to the level of their highest potential for maximum impact through developing a plan that fits the varied needs of each employee to be their best self.

Leaders looking to accomplish significant organizational transformation must utilize an efficient and effective change management process. However, success in doing so requires understanding by leadership that this work follows the development of robust strategic and tactical plans. Only then will the desirable outcome of lasting change become the reality of a future state of excellence in high-impact operations.

Successful outcomes of using the SOAR framework for strategic planning need a subsequent step of effective tactical planning. A team with balanced thinking preferences will lead to more effective and efficient tactical plans to ensure success in implementing the organization's strategy. The work is enhanced by following a series of action steps.

Defining the Results to track is essential to achieving the organization's identified Strengths, Opportunities, and Aspirations when utilizing the SOAR framework. In addition, these Results will benefit all internal and external stakeholders of the organization positively. The organization benefits significantly from the deep commitment of all stakeholders as they were active participants throughout the process.

Asking for and aligning the Aspirations of the workforce inspires them to achieve levels of success atypical of conventional approaches to strategic planning. Leaders shift from looking to manipulate people to achieve goals while ignoring them as human beings. Instead, they must collectively embrace their employees' similar aspirations, dreams, fears, and hopes.

Strategic planning work using the SOAR framework uses a strengths-based positive focus. However, the weaknesses and threats of the SWOT framework are not ignored but reframed as opportunities. Therefore, it is crucial to do extensive research to fully leverage our Opportunities to understand our organizational challenges, industry sector, business in general, and society.

Strategic planning work should begin with a focus on strengths. The perspective reinforces the positive mindset crucial to maximizing the ability of the team to realize an ideal future state of a human-centered organization.

The SOAR framework builds on a foundation of Appreciative Inquiry (AI). AI built into a strategic planning framework creates a transformational process that inspires organizations to SOAR. The SOAR framework for strategic Inquiry and decision-making uses AI to bring stakeholder dialogue into strategic planning.

The SOAR framework focuses on institutional strengths. It is a shift from the traditional SWOT analysis where we reframe weaknesses and threats as Opportunities that generate positivity. Leaders benefit from creating positive energizers by enabling optimistic relationships during strategic planning.