Option Solving Blog

Like most US Presidents who face a national crisis, the current President is taking a lot of heat through not miraculously resolving the COVID Pandemic. He also faces re-election within 5 months and has to restore his image as much as possible during that time to have a decent chance of re-election. He therefore needs to consider his options for doing this, in order to make an optimal move.

By calling upon the option solving technique, it will help for him to consider the following question: “What options does the US President have to restore his national election image; considering 1) overtaken by George Floyd crisis, 2) very strong counter-narrative by mainstream media, 3) need to reinvigorate the economy, and 4) key public figures are denouncing him?” We have again opted for four key considerations that are most likely to affect his decision.  By keeping it to four, it reduces the complexity of his decision-making and recommendation when the moment arrives: despite there being others.

We then invited him to put together two yin and yang “bookends,”as these will help his intuitive mind to remain focused. Bookends such as these are vital for preventing our fertile intuitive minds from wandering and losing concentration. We are mostly unaware of how powerfully valuable but foot-loose our intuition can be unless we can properly keep it focused.   

His bookends turned out to be: “Just sit and take it on the chin” –negators pull down further,and “Denounce people who oppose him,” creates further enemies. We italicized detractors associated with these least likely options. Even so, they will nudge the President’s intuitive thinking into high gear – see ourLatest Worked Example.

We challenged him to produce at least five realistic options, although he promptly produced six – prior to any emotional distancing, which is a form of objective thinking, before making his choice …perhaps after 2 hours, later in the day, or first thing tomorrow morning. You can replace his proposed options with any of your own. You can see one of his options as: Option C –Reinvigorate the economy by whatever means: include further stimulus.

Now he has produced this pictograph, the President and his advisors need to make a collective decision based upon their anonymous votes. From there he and his team can put an action initiative together, while things are still fresh in their minds, or pursue a ‘Peel the Onion’ exercise.

If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area or contact him at peter@ileadershipsolutions.com .  Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Our next posting will be in two week’s time: “Peel the Onion: What options does the US President have to restore his national election image after an inadequate Pandemic rating?” 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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