Option Solving Blog

At the end of our last all-party panelist session, they decided to pursue a second round “Peeling the Onion” to develop deeper insight options on how to create a national vision. By now the panel was very familiar with the seven steps involved with option solving, so they headed straight into a discussion about a likely question.

Following some considerable debate, with the help of their facilitator, the question and considerations they came up with were : “What will produce the best Peel the Onion option for agreeing on a consensus country vision + 1 vision from each major party + a national debate and referendum: considering the sheer challenge of creating a consensus vision, major parties coming up with extremist visions, getting people interested in a national debate, and encouraging people to turn out for a referendum vote?” These considerations were the key 50% of the eight listed.

With their question in place, they immediately produced two Yin and Yang “bookends” as a least-likely, option framework to eventually tease-out their more likely options. In our Latest Example, we also show the reasons why these two extreme options don’t “cut the mustard.” The “bookends” produced by the panel were as follows: “Make it all happen very quickly and get it over with,” at one end, with, “Make it a long drawn out process” at the other. You will see why the panel thought they were inappropriate.

They now had to develop at least five plausible options to build a picture of the best alternatives. You will find one of those options as: “3 months to produce 3 visions + national debate during election cycle + referendum during normal voting” …. which was Option E.

The panelists’ Option Solving pictogram was now in place. It was now time for them to take an emotional distancing break for allowing their minds to work through all the trade-offs with their options. Following roughly 20 minutes making phone calls and chatting about other things, they returned to the meeting table again to look at their pictogram on a large screen.

From there they were invited to take an anonymous vote on their most intuitive choice. Once the vote was in, they opted for creating a proposed action initiative while the whole issue was still fresh in their thoughts. You can make your own choice and action initiative, too.

If you have an issue example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.
Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Your best option for sticking with your New Year’s resolution.” We’re always interested in your COMMENTS or go to peter@ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

Filed under: Uncategorized |