Option Solving Blog

There is a degree of political turmoil and hesitancy about how to proceed with the new, highly contagious Covid Delta variant racing through the population. There is a debate going on as how to contain its spread and deal with the economic fall-out. Your editor will now go ahead and complete an option solving exercise to share with the country’s political leadership to help it make an optimal decision.

Your editor now posed the appropriate question, which turned out to be as follows: “What is our political leadership’s optimum option for minimizing Covid’s impact; considering 1) new variants are highly contagious, 2) possibility of vaccine’s wearing-off potency, 3) resistance by some to vaccination, and 4) impact on economic recovery?” It was appropriate for him to stick with only four considerations to reduce the complexity of any eventual decision – when the ultimate decision moment arrives – despite there being other possibilities out there.

He then set about creating two fresh appropriate yin and yang “bookends”,as these would help keep his intuitive minds focused against mental distractions. 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.   

His two most immediate bookends that came to mind were: “Let Covid run rampant” – Death rate politically unacceptable;and “Close everything down again” – Could lead to world economic catastrophe.  You will note the italicized detractors associated with these least likely options, which therefore put these out of consideration. Even so, these bookends will now again nudge his intuitive thinking into high gear to find more promising options – see ourLatest Worked Example.

It then demanded that he come up with at least five new realistic options, although he ultimately came up with six after additional thought. Our political leaders would then be in a position to 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 his proposed options with any of your own.

While they are all quite interesting, your editor was now initially particularly drawn to – Option F: Quarantine all those who are not vaccinated for 10 days every 2 months. The pictographseemed to offer the most immediate promise for getting our political leadership’s input and attention, especially with regard to “other” possibilities. We can then consider pursuing the other options as time moves on.

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: “What is my best option for keeping book ‘followers’ involved until an initial publisher is secured?” 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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