Option Solving Blog

On more than one occasion in recent times, your editor has discussed situations where people in key positions are not performing in the way they should. In one instance, a client had Mary acting in somewhat of an immature way; although he wanted to retain her talents and commitment within his company. He thought she had potential, if it could be developed in the right way.

Since he was fully aware of the option solving technique, your editor encouraged him to apply it in this instance. He therefore created his initial rational question, which came through as follows: “What is my best option for getting Mary onto an optimum career track; considering 1) she likes to be somewhat different, 2) she’s a relatively ambitious person, 3) she doesn’t take criticism too well, and 4) she’s a rather proud person?”?” Again, he was using 4 primary considerations, so as not make his overall question too complex for our general sensibilities.

He now created two yin and yang “bookends.”   These would serve as extreme unlikely possibilities. Such bookends would then help focus his intuitive faculties toward his most realistic options. Bookends like these are vital for preventing people’s imaginative intuitive minds from losing focus away from the issue at hand.

The yin and yang bookends that surfaced were: “Demote or transfer her to another area of the company” and “Send her on a personal sabbatical for 6 mths,” both of which were unlikely possibilities in the circumstances. However, they would again serve the purpose of inducing more realistic possibilities into his thinking – see our Latest Worked Example on the blog site.

Once his bookends were in place, they presented him with the necessary focus to produce at least five realistic options, so as to stretch the number of available possibilities. He ended up producing six, which aided pinpointing all likely and realistic possibilities. He then turned to emotional distancing to help choose an optimum solution. Feel free to review his potential six in our Latest Example, one of which was: “Option-B: Send her to Center of Creative Leadership in Colorado or Self-Reliant Ldrsp – latter in the wilderness.”

With his “pictogram” potentially ready for a decision point, he now pursued some emotional distancing: which could be a couple of hours, several hours, or end at “getting-out-of-bed-time” the following morning: a great time for an epiphany –providing you don’t then second guess yourself. If you second-guess yourself, you’ve pretty much lost the whole benefit of option solving.

Emotional distancing would allow him to utilize his intuitive mind to the fullest extent in scanning his sub-conscious range of options: against so many similar life experiences and choices, thereby seeking an optimal solution. What option would you have chosen?

Once he made that choice, he was advised to stick with it and then draw up an action initiative involving WHAT, HOW, WHO, WHEN and WHERE to go for allies, for advice, new ideas and encouragement.

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 week’s time: “What is our best option for pulling our re-vamped executive team together?” 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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