Option Solving Blog

Most organizations are faced with staff health and safety issues due to our current pandemic. One of their biggest challenges is getting everyone on board with a unified approach, so as not to unkow-ingly spread the virus and impact colleague well-being. Unfortunately there are a great deal of misconceptions and conflicting views on how to address the issue: so, wherever possible, a collective view will help all around. It therefore only remained to produce a band of options for your team to review and reach a concerted approach.   

Your editor then set out a proposed rational question to help get a team discussion going: “What is our optimum approach toward personal safety and health in our COVID world; considering our 1)???, 2)???, 3)???, and 4)???” Your editor didn’t insert any considerations as each organization and team would have its own unique considerations. It should still hold itself to four, to reduce the complexity of its decision-making when the moment arrives: despite there being other possibilities out there.

Now your editor had to derive two appropriate yin and yang “bookends”,as these would help keep any team’s intuitive minds 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 keep it properly focused on such occasions.   

Two bookends came to your editor’s mind as: “Let the Pandemic play out naturally” –could be lots of unintended casualties,and “Pursue a total lockdown” – many unforeseen casualties and economic consequences? You will note the italicized detractors associated with these least likely options. Even so, these bookends will now nudge any team’s intuitive thinking into high gear – see ourLatest Worked Example.

It was then important to come up with at least five realistic options, although your editor ultimately came up with six within a decent amount of time. Any team could  then pursue emotional distancing, which is a form of objective thinking, before making their choice sometime after that …perhaps after 2 hours, later in that day, or first thing the following morning. You can replace their proposed options with any of your own. You will note one of their possible options as: Option A: Encourage wearing masks to reduce virus impact.

In fact, your team members can come back to these within an hour or so, after discussing other important matters, and then make a choice. From there, they can put together an action initiative, while things are still fresh. It would also be possible to pursue Peel the Onion for even further clarity on the way forward. In the event they chose the latter, so we will pursue Peel the Onion the next time around.

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: “Peeling the Onion: What is our optimum approach toward personal safety and health in our COVID world?” 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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