Option Solving Blog

When I had written a recent article about organization “in-breeding,” where enterprises get so wrapped up in themselves that they begin to atrophy, I was wondering what picture I could use to illustrate the point. I already had two or three options on file and I created another diagram that I thought would be interesting. I also had the option of finding out what possibilities my daughter may dig up. However, it wasn’t an easy choice, so I decided to make use of my own decision-medicine and apply option solving.

So, as I often advise others to do, I set to work on developing a rational question with considerations, since it’s the first step within option solving, so as to create a framework for any likely possibilities. After some thought, my question looked like this: “What is our optimum picture for use in article: considering 1) daughter put in effort to come up with interesting choice, 2) picture needs to capture people’s interest, 3) topic is not easy to pictorialize, and  4) may open new doors?” There were other considerations, but these were the most important ones so as not to make things too complicated.

With my question in place, I set about producing two appropriate likely yin and yang “bookends” to act as a framework for any viable options. These bookends were as follows: “Drop article all-together” and “Start all over again.” Neither of these seemed appropriate in the circumstances, for reasons indicated – go to our Latest Worked Example. However, they would serve the purpose of stimulating my mind to come up with the most viable options.

I then set about conjuring-up a minimum of five options, in order to stretch my mind to fathom a minimum number of helpful options. I inserted a sixth option to allow any relatives to inject their proposal(s).This would help entice other family members to take part in the decision process. You can see these six alternatives in our Latest Example, where one is: “Option E: Power Point with graphs showing improving- declining performance.”

Once I had received thoughts from family members, I turned my pictogram over on the table and went about my other business for a while to allow emotional distancing to occur. Emotional distancing allows my sub-conscious mind to mull over all my options. When I returned to it, somewhat later on, my intuition was ready to make a choice, where I chose option B. Which option would you have chosen?

With my choice I was ready to act and insert it into my article. I thought it was interesting enough to capture people’s attention, even if it wasn’t the most illustrative possibility. To that extent it served its purpose.

If you would like to review a copy of the article, “The Good Sense of Avoiding In-breeding,” then please contact the author at peter@ileadershipsolutions.com

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: “Another business development dilemma to solve?” Let’s have your COMMENTS or go to peter@ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger. Also consider buying the book: “Smart Decisions: Goodbye Problems, Hello Options” through amazon.com)

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