Author: Laiza N. Otero, MSOD, Organization Development Consultant
What’s a vision board? In a nutshell, a vision board is a visual representation of one’s desired future with the goal of “if I can see it I can achieve it.” One of the many things I love about vision boards is how they beautifully intersect with the philosophy of Appreciative Inquiry (AI). Following are a few AI and vision board basics to support you in envisioning and acting on your ideal path forward.
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Author: Laiza N. Otero, MSOD, Organization Development Consultant
Lately I’ve been thinking about how the clarity of the vision and the sense of team within an organization interact with each other. To help me sort and structure my thoughts I created the matrix below. It is based on my personal and professional experiences within organizations, and not any formal research. However, it is undoubtedly influenced by many great thinkers in organization development studies. In particular, the work of John Kotter, William Bridges, and Patrick Lencioni. Continue reading
Author: Laiza N. Otero, MSOD, Organization Development Consultant
Over the last year, few models have impacted the way I conduct my work more than S.O.A.R.
Developed by Jacqueline Stavros and Gina Hinrichs, S.O.A.R. is a simple yet powerful tool for framing dialogues within organizations. A lot of us were trained long-ago in the use of S.W.O.T. analyses. In the latter, the discussion traditionally revolves around identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. What I kept running into was that the dialogue got stuck in the weaknesses and threats, and I found it difficult to excite myself and the audience around the strengths and opportunities.
Then a consulting trip last year to Johannesburg, South Africa, changed my world. While there, I got to work with three amazing consultants whose work is based on Appreciative Inquiry: Anastasia Bukashe, Enrique Zaldivar, and Joep C de Jong. It was through them that I learned about S.O.A.R. Continue reading
Envision and Act 