Three or four weeks ago I found myself talking to an executive about his need to more consistently follow-through on key issues to make the greatest impact. Once this issue was out in the open, his obvious question was how he would accomplish this. He was already familiar with the Option Solving technique, so we readily started using it to figure out his best alternative.
We immediately embarked on developing the right question to prompt the options he needed for making the best personal choice. As part of that question we came up with a list of eight considerations, of which he chose 50% of them as more decisive than the others. Ultimately our question looked like this: “What is my best immediate approach in becoming more consistent in my focus, considering it’s easy to get mired in the day-to-day “muck,” my personal organization skills/discipline needs attention, to ensure………….see the Latest Example.
With this question in view, I now challenged him to develop “yin and yang” bookends, to not only frame things for his intuitive mind but also stimulate it to come up with the most plausible options. When you look at the latest example, you will see he picked: Don’t change and, at the other end, Back to earlier executive role. Since he wasn’t about to choose either, he gives the reasons for that.
Now his intuitive capabilities were primed to be as creative as possible, owing to the dissonance these two “bookends” caused. We then had a good creative discussion as he developed six options A thru F, again to be found in our Latest Example. Option Solving is clearly great for getting people to think out of the box, as you will see.
In our next blog in 2 weeks time, we will do a version of Peeling the Onion on his choice. You will see how Peeling the Onion helped him find further refinements in his approach. This can go on for several iterations, which will provide ever greater tactical refinements to his original dilemma.
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: “An executive’s best option for becoming more consistent in his focus- Peeling the Onion.” Let’s have your COMMENTS or go to peter@ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)
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