Peeling the Onion – To figure out how to attract the greatest number of participants to a meeting: using Option Solving?

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Peter Arthur-Smith

I met with my acquaintance a couple of days later for an early breakfast to discuss her chosen option. We intended to peel the onion on that choice and help her identify the most interesting person as a guest at her forthcoming meeting, in order to attract a good number of participants.

We initially developed a suitable question: see Latest Example.  As part of this activity, we came up with three key considerations that would help provide the right context.

With our question in place, we moved to produce two yin and yang “bookends,” which turned out to be “Focus on someone special within participant group” and “Bring along the biggest VIP in our community (Mayor?).” In both cases, you will see we indicated key reasons for not pursuing either, even though they are both clearly options.

These two bookends would now spark us to come up with at least five new plausible sub-options. Our bookends would provoke our intuitive minds into high creative gear: that’s why option solving is so valuable. It stimulates more creative solutions than traditional problem solving inhibits.

You can see in the Latest Example, how she came up with five alternative options (the minimum suggested): one of which was: “Invite the President of the Local Community College” who she knew quite well.

At this point, I turned over our option solving picture and started to talk about some other topics of mutual interest in order to induce emotional distancing. Pressing conversation about other issues provided another key moment for her intuitive mind to subconsciously consider her five alternatives. Ten minutes later, we came back to her picture. She knew, from the first time around, to quickly scan the contents and then trust her intuitive powers to make an optimum choice.

Once this was done, she was satisfied with her choices to date and therefore willing to consider Next Steps while the whole issue was at the forefront of her mind.  She felt she had the solutions that she struggled to see earlier and so was ready to map out her approach from here forward. She was pleasantly surprised at the numbers of people who turned up. Her meeting was a great success.

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: “Best option for dealing with a disruptive team member and turning him/her into a more productive member” Let’s have your COMMENTS or go to peter@ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

 

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Figuring out how to attract the greatest number of participants to a meeting: using Option Solving?

Posted on July 6, 2012 by Peter Arthur-Smith

Recently over lunch, I was discussing with an acquaintance about her attempts to set up a new style of meeting. She had already set up two sessions with a group of people she knew and was now hoping to move the approach along further. However, she was getting far fewer responses and was faced with the dilemma of how to change the situation. I therefore introduced her to option solving as a way of producing an optimal solution.

As a means of producing the right context, I encouraged her to develop an appropriate question. It was also a means of reframing her issue so it would inspire her creative, intuitive juices to start flowing. Hence we came up with a starting point for the question as follows:  “What is my best option for attracting the greatest number of participants to a designated meeting, considering that…” At this point, we selected three out of five possible considerations that would have the greatest impact, which you can view in our Latest Example. One of interest was: “The genie is out of the bottle.” Our thinking here was that, since she had already introduced the fresh meeting concept, she couldn’t use the element of novelty to attract people to her meeting.

Now we moved to produce two yin and yang “bookends,” which turned out to be “Drop the meeting idea altogether for now” and “Come up with a significant inducement.” In both cases, you will see we took the step of indicating strong reasons for not pursuing either, even though they are both clearly options. Having these two bookends in place would now help us to come up with at least five more plausible options: option that would spur my subject’s intuitive creativity to develop a range of alternatives rather than the typical “two” possibilities. This is what causes option solving to be a more creative solution approach than other more traditional approaches.

 Again, with the Latest Example, she came up with five alternative options, one of which was: “Bring along a particularly interesting guest.” Her other four options are there for viewing.

We then turned over our option solving picture and took some time away for emotional distancing to talk about other things. Quite apart from an interesting conversation about other pending issues, it provided a great moment for allowing her intuitive mind to subconsciously mull over the alternatives. After about fifteen minutes, we came back to her option solving picture. She rapidly absorbed it again and then made her choice without any undue deliberation: relying again on her intuitive powers.

With this done, she considered the option of either Peeling the Onion on her choice or discussing Next Steps. She opted for the former, so we can deal with that in two weeks time.

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: “Peeling the Onion on her best option for attracting more participants to a designated meeting.”  Let’s have your COMMENTS or go to peter@ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

 

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  • Six Principles of Option Solving

    1. Ask the right contextual question and frame the possibilities through bookends
    2. Be imaginitive and think "Out of the Box"
    3. Avoid asking "how, why, when or where" until the best option is identified
    4. Avoid excluding any option until all options have emerged
    5. Allow participants to support a less than conclusiv option
    6. Accept hunches or gut feelings