Option Solving Blog

A female acquaintance was sharing with this editor how she was frustrated with a service provider she had been working with for 3 plus years and was not living up to expectations…in fact had not really lived up to expectations all along. She was wondering what could be her optimum approach to start a dialog to either get improvements or end the relationship. So it was natural for your editor to introduce her to option solving.

He encouraged this acquaintance to formulate an appropriate option solving question: “What could be a person’s optimal course of action in dealing with a frustrating service provider; 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 competent assistance?” Again, it’s appropriate to focus on just these four considerations to reduce complexity in its eventual decision, when that ultimate moment arrives – despite there being many other possible considerations out there.

Your editor then tutored her into producing the following 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 realistic options, which turned out to be six  – A thru F – 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 – Option A: Send follow-up email/ letter to challenge provider to respond to recent reply. She did pursue emotional distancing with your editor’s advice that, once she revisited his 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 had 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: “Peel the Onion: What is an individual’s best course of action against a service provider?”  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)

Filed under: Uncategorized |