Option Solving Blog

A professional friend is experiencing business and growth difficulties and wants to figure out his best course of action in the circumstances. Fortunately, he was already aware of the option solving approach, so we were able to get right to it.

He promptly set about  producing a rational question to spark possible options, which turned out to be: “What is my optimal professional office option: considering 1) local demographics have changed, 2) Great Recession still has lingering impact, 3) staff are borderline, and 4) beginning to think about retirement?” He came up with other considerations, but felt it was best to stick with four key ones, without overly complicating his ultimate decision dilemma.

We immediately got him to produce two “bookend” choices to serve as his yin and yang extreme possibilities. These would hem-in his intuitive mind to concentrate on his most realistic set of options. The bookends he selected were: “Just let office fritter away” and “Find partners to invest in practice in a significant way,” both of which he felt were least probable outcomes. Our intuitive minds can so easily be distracted, so such bookends help keep them on track and focused – see our Latest Worked Example.

His next challenge was to come-up with at least five realistic options for stretching his options to an optimal degree – you will see he produced six.  Look at our Latest Example and you will see those six options, one of those proposed was: “Option F – Bring in a professional CEO to run practice, turn it around – I just remain owner and practice.”

With his “pictogram” now in place, indicating all six options, it was now time for him to engage in some emotional distancing. Emotional distancing would allow his intuitive mind to sub-consciously ponder his six options, now they were all in place. It will also enable him to be more objective when he returned to this pictogram to make his optimum choice. Once he made that choice, it would be important for him to stick with it and create an associated action initiative, while it is still fresh in his mind.

Which option would you have chosen, if you were in his shoes?

If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.  Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting will be in two weeks time: “Peeling the Onion: What is my most reasonable professional office option?” 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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How many times have you heard about people’s marketing woes? Almost as many times as you’ve heard about the fish that got away, no doubt? Your writer was listening to John the other day, when he shared his difficulties in getting people to respond to his survey activities. He was trying to figure out how he could increase the number of survey participants. So we discussed the option solving approach, which seemed to resonate with him.

Pretty soon we set-about producing a rational question to spark possible options. After discussing his situation, his question became: “What is our best shot at increasing survey participants: considering 1) have exhausted “committed” listing, 2) word-of-mouth is best marketing, 3) need the strongest branding metaphor, and 4) participants relate to their output?” Although we produced other considerations, John learned it was best to keep it to the latter four key ones without overly complicating his decision dilemma.

Now we had to get him to produce two “bookend” choices to serve as his yin and yang extreme possibilities, so as to hem-in his intuitive mind for concentrating on his most realistic set of options. The bookends he selected were: “Keep going with current mode” and “Find financing for expansive publicity program,” both of which he felt were least likely to occur. However, his bookends would serve the purpose of nudging his intuitive faculties into selecting more realistic but challenging options. Our intuitive minds can so easily be distracted, so these bookends help keep them on track and focused – see our Latest Worked Example.

John’s next challenge was to come-up with at least five realistic options for stretching his options to the maximum degree – you will see he produced six.  Look at our Latest Example and you will see those six options, one of those proposed was: “Option F – Create real-life client stories that resonate.”

With his “pictogram” now in place, indicating all six options, it was now time for John to engage in some emotional distancing. Emotional distancing would allow his intuitive mind to sub-consciously ponder his six options, now they were all in place. It also enabled him to be more objective when he returned to this pictogram to make his optimum choice. Once he made that choice, it would be important for him to stick with it and create an associated action initiative, while it was still fresh in his mind.

Which option would you have chosen, if you were in John’s shoes?

If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.  Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting will be in two weeks time: “What is my most reasonable professional office option?” 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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Derrick recently discussed with me a symposium he attended, which was also serving as a networking event for his company. There wasn’t the greatest amount of time available for networking, so he created a somewhat unique informational card to help carry his message. He intended to strike-up conversations and then share his cards to get attendees to follow-through.

When the occasion came, it appeared to work with three participants. But, after a week, despite apparent interest, there was no follow-through contact. Now Derrick was wondering how he could regain contact with these individuals.

He became interested in the idea of option solving. So we set-about producing a rational question to trigger possible options. After due deliberation of his situation, his question turned out as: “What is our best shot at re-connecting with 3 symposia contacts: considering 1) 10 or more days have passed, 2) used an untried approach initially, 3) would like to turn things around, and 4) they appear to be interesting potential?” Although he produced other considerations, he learned it was best to keep it to the above four key ones without overly complicating his decision dilemma.

We then focused him on producing two “bookend” choices to serve as the yin and yang extreme possibilities, to hem-in his intuitive mind to concentrate on the most realistic set of options. The bookends he selected were: “Just let it go” and “Throw a financial incentive their way,” both of which he felt were least likely to occur. However, his bookends would serve the purpose of nudging his intuitive faculties into selecting more realistic but challenging options. Our intuitive minds can so easily be distracted, so these bookends help keep them on track and focused – see our Latest Worked Example.

Derrick’s next challenge was to come-up with at least five realistic options for stretching his options to the maximum degree – you will see he produced six.  Look at our Latest Example and you will see those six options, one of those proposed was: “Option D – Send package in mail with a special message.”

With this “pictogram” now in place, indicating six options, it was now time for Derrick to engage in emotional distancing. Emotional distancing would allow his intuitive mind to sub-consciously ponder his six options, once they were all in place. It also enabled him to be more objective when he returned to this pictogram to make his optimum choice. Once he made that choice, it would be important for him to stick with it and create an associated action initiative, while it was still fresh in his mind.

Which option would you have chosen, if you were in Derrick’s shoes?

If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.  Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting will be in two weeks time: “What is our best option for increasing survey participants?” 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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