Option Solving Blog

Last blog we were dealing with a project manager’s challenge to have enough technical resources in her pocket to deal with the many software projects coming her way, although her company couldn’t afford to have people waiting around for new projects to emerge: see further details on the last blog below this piece.

Once her question was complete, she was able to take the next option solving step, namely, deriving “bookends.” Bookends are those extreme options, the ying and yang extreme possibilities that would help frame a cluster of likely options. The pair she chose was: “Not wait for technical resources to appear” and “Disregard deadlines.” Why don’t we finish her story in the next blog, see below.

With these in place, her bookends, along with her comprehensive question, quickly nudged her to come up with at least five different options (experience has shown that a minimum of 5-6 options will help ensure that sufficient creativity will occur). Three of her five were: “Outsource possibilities,” “Always have a team in reserve,” and “Have on call a part-time team of people available.”

With the five she picked, she participated in some emotional distancing to take her focus away from these options for 5-10 minutes. We talked about some other interesting things going on in her life at that moment in time, quite unrelated to her dilemma. Ten minutes later we returned to her option picture and, following a quick reread of her question and bookends, to intuitively pick the option that would work best for her company. We’ll leave you to guess what that might have been.

In any event, I heard back 3-4 weeks later that she had pursued her option with the company’s leadership and they were quite willing to help her bring it to fruition. There is no doubt her case was helped by thinking through her options in this coherent way, rather than potentially using a complaining or non-constructive approach.

Please refer to the Latest Example to view the overall picture of this dilemma and its potential solution. If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.
Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks : “Using Option Solving to decide on ‘President Obama’s options to deal with Osama bin Laden?’” We will appreciate your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Getting more technical resources |