Option Solving Blog

At another recent workshop involving a group of CEOs, one business owner became quite interested in the idea of transforming his business. He was unclear as to the best way to go about it and so it was appropriate to look at his options for doing so. Once he and his colleagues became clear on the option solving technique, they decided to use it to help him determine his best approach.

After some due rational thinking and discussion, they developed an appropriate question that turned out to be: “What is our best option for transforming our company, considering that we’re operating as a typically managed company, have not normally involved my people in decision making, we need to go in a new direction, and our future looks rather foggy?” The considerations used here were about 50% of those listed, but were the most important ones.

Now they had the right question, the group split into three entities, based on the number involved, to come up with two consensus “bookends.” Such book-ends define the boundaries for any future options, since they are least likely to be considered. Following some sub-group discussion and comparisons between them, the three sub-groups agreed upon: “Continue to stay on our current course,” at one end, with, “Seek merger with more successful competitor” at the other. The unacceptability of these two becomes pretty clear in our Latest Example.

With these in place, the sub-groups were challenged to produce at least five alternatives and, in fact, each group produced two as can be seen in our Latest Example. So you will notice six options, one of which was: “Staff retreat on transformation: use compability exercise to enlist involvement and commitment to fresh approach”… Option D. Take a look at the other five options and see if you can come up with others.

We invited the CEO concerned to take away the resulting pictogram (see Latest Example) for him to sleep on it, as a form of emotional distancing. This would allow his intuitive capabilities some sub-conscious time to reflect upon it. He was advised to look at it briefly before he went to sleep and then look at it again when he woke up? Whatever intuitive view he came to at that point, he should go with that option, since it has the best probability of being the right one in his circumstances. You can also decide which one you might pursue if you were in his shoes.

That very same morning, he will be well advised to put an immediate action
initiative together, while it is still fresh in his mind and then act upon it. 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: “My Next Career Move?” We’re always interested in your COMMENTS or go to peter@ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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