Option Solving Blog

We’ve all experienced this: where we have built an important relationship with a certain resource and then they become elusive. A friend was recently sharing such an experience the other week, so your editor introduced him to option solving as a means of uncovering his optimum option.

He was initially encouraged to come up with the following question: “What is my optimum possibility to make contact with an elusive expert resource; considering 1) we had dealings in the past, 2) person may be personally overloaded, 3) there may be hidden issues, and 4) it’s in my best interest to make the connection?” By pursuing these top four considerations, despite several others, it will reduce undue decision-making issues when he draws any final conclusions.

It didn’t take him too long to come up with his optimum question, so then he set-about creating two yin and yang “bookends” as outlier possibilities, he felt it would help focus his intuitive, decision-making mind on his most realistic options. Bookends such as these are vital for preventing people’s fertile intuitive minds from wandering and losing focus. We are mostly unaware of how powerfully valuable but foot-loose our intuition can be unless effectively focused.   

His two bookends came out as: “Just sleep on it until the time is right” and “Send him/her a tempting bribe”: both of which were his least likely options for the reasons given. Even so, these bookends would challenge our option solver to consider and produce his most realistic options – see our Latest Worked Example.

He was then challenged to produce at least five reasonable options, so as to stretch his range of possibilities as much as possible. In fact, he came up with six reasonable options and you can view them as an example. Your editors favored option, off the bat, was: “Option- D: Speak with friend/person’s leader to get a referred assist?”

With this “pictogram” now in place, he was then encouraged to set some time aside for emotional distancing – a form of objective thinking – before making any choice…perhaps after 2 hours, later that day, or first thing the following morning. Whatever that choice, he could then decide whether to “Peel the Onion,” in order to expand the number of sub-insights on how to move forward, or create an immediate action initiative while everything was still fresh in his mind. He chose the latter.

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 my best option to help celebrate Mother’s Day?” 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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