Option Solving Blog

At a recent workshop involving a bunch of CEOs, it suddenly became apparent that one business owner was struggling with getting his tech team to accept a better approach toward client maintenance issues. He was anxious to resolve this as soon as possible, since their current approach was likely to cause their company to go out of business. As the attendees has just learnt about option solving, they felt it looked like the perfect tool for resolving their colleague’s issue.

They were then encouraged to use their rational thinking to come up with an appropriate question, which proved to be: “What is our best alternative for getting my tech team on-board, considering they would like to keep client maintenance as is, we could potentially go out of business if we remain as is, with proposed changes we will be more prosperous, and we could grow much faster with the right client maintenance model?” There were other considerations but these were the most important ones.

Once this question was in place, the group split into two to come up with two “bookends,” so as to set boundaries for their future options. After some sub-group discussion and comparisons between the two, they produced: “Continue with current maintenance approach,” at one end, with, “Use outside maintenance org” at the other. Why these were unacceptable is indicated in our Latest Example.

It was explained to the group why it had to come up with at least five altern-atives so as to test its creativity as much as possible. Again, in two sub-groups, they produced five between them. One of these turned out to be: “Have option solving session with tech team to devise optimal solutions”… Option C. You are free to view the other four options and see if you could have come up with others.

The resulting pictogram (see Latest Example) was then turned over and put out of sight to give the CEOs a break for talking about something else for a while. It’s rather important to use emotional distancing as a means of allowing our intuitive minds to chew over the options and all our past experiences. About 30 minutes later, the group returned to the pictogram, quickly sized it up, and made their anonymous vote. Their colleague now had the “wisdom of the crowd.” What would be your choice in the circumstances?

Once the group made its choice, it helped the CEO immediately figure out an appropriate action initiative to make the most of the situation.. 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: “Transforming our company?” We’re always interested in your COMMENTS or go to peter@ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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