Option Solving Blog

Your editor bumped into someone facing job elimination pretty soon, as his whole group was likely to be eliminated shortly. You can imagine the individual was rather concerned about his future. So your option solving editor decided to introduce him to Option Solving as a means of giving him a short-term assist. He went ahead and outlined the technique to this unfortunate staffer, which was intriguing enough to this person that we both set to it right away.

He quickly learned that his first step was to create a rational question, which turned out to be: “What is my best transition career in light of my group’s likelihood of being eliminated shortly: considering, 1) limited number of good jobs available, 2) not a strong paying township, 3) would like to shorten my commute, and 4) current town has nice beaches?” Although there were other considerations, these were the most prominent ones which he decided to work with to keep the ultimate decision option relatively simple.

He was then encouraged to determine two fresh yin and yang “bookends.” These would further aid his focus. 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 properly focused.   

His two new bookends turned out to be: “Just ride it out and hope for the best,” although his current financial commitments are tough, and “Go to bank w/proposal to start own business,” although he has no cash reserves as leverage. Both remained his least likely options for the reasons given. Even so, they would help kick-start his intuitive mind to generate some realistic options– see our Latest Worked Example.

Then he was encouraged to come-up with a minimum of five to six reasonable alternatives A-F, so as to really stretch his possibilities. He assured us he would be ready to proceed with whatever option rose to the top. But first he had to immediately set aside some time for emotional distancing – a form of objective thinking- before making his choice…perhaps after 2 hours, later that day thinking, or first thing the following morning.

At that point, depending upon the option that rose to the surface, he would then immediately produce an action initiative, while things were still fresh in his mind: consisting of What, How, Who, When, Where (to go for allies). Once that was set he would forge ahead with it and not second guess himself, since that would completely undo all the value in this OS exercise.

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 are my options to promote my forthcoming book?” 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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