SOAR - Significant Orientations, Amazing Results

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Mary-Alice Arthur is a facilitator for inspired change.
The word ‘facilitator’ comes from the Latin root ‘facile’ – ‘to make easy’. Mary-Alice’s key focus is in creating spaces for people to do their best work together. ‘Inspired’ hearkens to the ability she has to help people to look at their situation from the perspective of positive possibility. ‘Change’ comes when people are supported first to honour, and then move from their strengths, to common and then higher ground.
Mary-Alice is New Zealand’s leading narrative practitioner, and at the heart of her work is the practice of recognising, working with and transforming the personal and group stories, conversations and inquiries that impact on success.

Mary-Alice

The name of Mary-Alice’s business reflects the value she places on the ability to take a fresh look at things.

SOAR stands for ‘Significant Orientations, Amazing Results’ – it’s how you look at things and what you choose to do with what you see, that matters.

SOAR’s powerful results from a Telecom merger project were written up in the 2006 book Wake Me When the Data is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results (ed: Lori Silverman).

Download article Appreciative Inquiry.

The key strands of SOAR’s work are:

• People technologies for emerging and positive change
The ‘soft stuff’ is the hard stuff in any business. Using the methodologies of Appreciative Inquiry, Future Search, Open Space and a variety of narrative practices, people are supported to find their strengths, refocus their vision, name their goals, and create powerful strategies for taking hold of success. These are powerful people technologies that forge new ways of working and bring out the best in people.

• Innovative and transformative processes for groups of all sizes
Looking for ways to kick-start your future fast? The answer lies in working together with in-house teams and organisational networks to create events and facilitate meetings that generate cohesiveness and action. Mary-Alice is a ConferenceWeaver, adept at creating meetings that get results in innovative and interactive ways.

• Powerful questions and creative sparks to galvanise focused action
Wondering how leadership can take hold? Working with the key skills of powerful questioning and innovative creativity assists leaders at every level to refocus their visions, re-energise their teams, and open the door to new fields of action and success.

• Stories for the heart, mind, soul and the journey
At the core of every success lies a powerful story. Today’s organisations need a powerful core story that will be a beacon for success and a touchstone for times when the going gets tough. Today’s leaders need to be able to tell that story well and use stories that build rapport, create vision and reinforce values. At any moment, the right story can motivate, inspire and transform. Finding, developing and learning how to tell these is a key skill.