Option Solving Blog

Shortly before the recent end of year holidays an acquaintance was talking with me about how to handle her holiday quandary. It would be her first holiday party with this team and she would be the only female in a historically male dominated work unit. Her commute was pretty long so she was also concerned about potentially making a double trip. Her day would finish during the early afternoon, although the party would not start until mid-evening. She did not want to send bad vibes to the group after a pretty good start.
Once we got through understanding her situation, we quickly got down to formulating an appropriate question, which started out something like this: “What is my best option for handling my unit’s holiday party, considering…”
She now had to pinpoint the right considerations to accompany this question, which included: “Having limited funds to pay for it; it could mean a double journey; I will be the only female; having to return home late at night; and I do not wish to alienate my colleagues.” Her ultimate full question can be viewed in the Latest Example.
With this question in place, she now had to select two “bookends”…these would be her extreme options that would frame her overall option picture. She considered several bookends, but eventually narrowed it down to two: “Just don’t turn up,” which would imply ignoring her colleagues and “Make a full night of it” …equally unlikely. Her intuitive mind immediately wanted to reject these extreme options, but at the same time readied her to derive more plausible ones.
Ultimately she came up with five options; to be viewed in the Latest Example. Her fourth one was: “Go to the movies between work and the party, to spare me the extra trip.” Take a look at her four other options in our Latest Example.
Given that she had a few days to decide, she decided to sleep on her five options. That sleep time provided some “emotional distancing,” which is the art of stepping away from one’s choices to allow a certain amount of objectivity and intuitive activity to occur. Emotional distancing allows time for one’s intuitive mind to search through our inner database of past experiences to find similar scenarios and successful outcomes. The option picture she laid out was especially appealing to her intuitive mind because it loves to interpret pictures.
We won’t reveal her choice because that was something personal, based upon her own unique circumstances. Her final choice gave her “peace of mind” because she had now considered her most reasonable options and chosen an option that suited her best: a big advantage with option solving.
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 ‘What is my best approach to motivating my team right now?’” Let’s have your COMMENTS or go to peter@ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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