Option Solving Blog

Your editor’s female acquaintance opted to pursue a Peeling the Onion exercise before taking any further steps with her provider, in the hope of finding an amicable solution. She therefore adapted her question accordingly as follows: “What could be a person’s optimal course of action in dealing with a frustrating service provider: Option A – Send follow-up email/letter to challenge provider to respond to recent reply; considering the two parties have 1) a binding contract between them, 2) been working together for 3+ years, 3) not been in contact for almost a year, and 4) ) responded to recent email and requested amicable termination of contract?” Again, it’s appropriate to focus on just these four considerations to reduce complexity in her eventual decision, when that ultimate moment arrives – despite there being many other possible considerations out there.

She agreed to sustain the same fitting yin and yang “bookends,”as these help to keep people’s minds focused against other immediate 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.   

Those “bookends” turned out to be: “Just sit and wait for time to resolve the situation” – Haven’t got years to wait;and “Pay him off” – She doesn’t have funds to pay him off and he doesn’t deserve that. You will note the italicized detractors associated with these least likely options, which shows why they are not a particularly good idea for consideration. Even so, these bookends will now hopefully nudge her intuitive thinking into high gear and focus to come-up with a range of realistic options – see ourLatest Worked Example.

From there, she now set-about coming up with at least five plus realistic sub-options – AA thru FF – that were then ready for some emotional distancing, Emotional distancing would allow her to take a couple of hours or more of quiet reflection, or even sleep on it, beforecoming to any final conclusion/decision. You can replace these proposed options with any new ones of your own.

While these six options looked especially interesting, she was particularly intrigued by – Sub-Option EE: Draft next amicably toned email/letter to send…to be closely followed by AA. She did pursue emotional distancing with your editor’s advice that, once she revisited her sub-options, she should stick with whatever choice her intuitive mind arrived at. It would only likely work against her to second-guess herself once her initial decision has been made…no matter the challenges ahead.

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: “To what degree should friend stick with testosterone pills?”  Let’s have your COMMENTS or go to peter@ileadershipsolutions.com . Allow time to connect with the blogger. Also consider buying the book: “Smart Decisions: Goodbye Problems, Hello Options” through amazon.com)

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