Option Solving Blog

Most parents find themselves caught up in their off-springs’ career decisions sooner or later. If we’re not careful Mom and Dad can find themselves in the middle of an emotional, no-win storm. This is where option solving can be most valuable because it encourages participation without any judgments, since, in the end, the decision should be up to the family member to make the final determin-ation not other family members. So just imagine yourself tied up with a son who has to figure out some short-term options on his career.

Since he’s already aware of the option solving technique, it is possible to frame an early question along these lines: “What is my best alternative for pursuing another career option via an interview right now, considering relocation back to Florida, there’s a limited time window to prepare, I wasn’t really prepared for this shift right now, and the need for a new “home” option with a dog?” These were around 50% of the discussed considerations, although these represent the ones chosen by the son.

With these in place, he had to come-up with two Yin and Yang “bookends” for framing other potential options and for sparking a range of more workable options. You will see them in our latest example as: “Go by bus or train,” at one end, while at the other end, “Pursue another career.” These were both highly unlikely, for the reasons given in our latest example. However, it gave him a useful starting point to produce other meaningful options.

It turned out to be six interesting options – see our Latest Example. The technique works best when you come up with a minimum of five options, so six was an extra bonus. One possibility turned out to be: “Relocate now. Take everything now and find a new home when there”…option B. Take a look at his other five options in our Latest Example. Maybe you can choose your option, but not before some emotional distancing, see below?

So he was entertained elsewhere as a form of emotional distancing before being invited to make his choice. In fact, in his case, he took a good afternoon nap before looking at his option solving picture again. Although he made a choice, he wanted to think more about his options within that option, so we moved onto peeling the onion. We will take a look at that in our next blog in two weeks. Already he was feeling much better, since he was guiding his own ship rather than relying on helicopter parents or other family members.

If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.
Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Peeling the Onion: Dealing with a new personal career decision?’” We’re always interested in your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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Countless families have had to deal with verbal abuse with elderly relatives. In this case, an aunt well into her eighties, has a live-in couple – rent free – to keep an eye on her, plus a daily care worker because the “live-ins” leave for work every day. However, there have been occasions when the “daily carer’ has witnessed strong verbal abuse upon the aunt from the female “live-in.” The live-ins have been around for many years, so the elderly aunt wishes to turn a blind-eye to the incidences. She instructs the daily care not to say anything to anyone, which puts the daily carer on the spot to share her observations without losing her job.

As a proponent of option solving, this left it open for me to consider our options with an opening question like: “What is our best option for resolving a verbal abuse situation by a live-in aid on an elderly relative, considering the elderly relative might fire the daily carer for reporting the abuse, there is a long history between the live-in aid and elderly relative, the live-in abuser attacks the daily carer for making the reports, the elderly relative doesn’t wish to do anything about it?” There were other considerations, but these were the most crucial ones.

Now I had these set up, I had to find two Ying and Yang “bookends;” to frame other more plausible options and to stimulate my most creative possibilities. In the latest example, I show them as: “Let sleeping dogs lie,” at one end, while at the other end, “Move the live-in abuser out.” Both were pretty much impracticable, for the reasons given in our latest example. However, they did help me become more open-minded.

I then figured out six other options – see our Latest Example. I usually encourage people to aim for at least five, so six was a bonus. One of these possibilities is: “Ask daily carer to wear a recording device”…option D. You can review my other five options in my Latest Example. What option would you choose in the circumstances?

If you don’t mind, after some due emotional distancing I made my choice, which I’ll keep to myself so I don’t encourage second-guessing. No one can precisely put themselves into my comfort-shoes.

If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.
Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Dealing with a new family career decision?’” We’re always interested in your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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At their prior Option Solving session, the two key owners had produced a decision-picture for figuring out their options for choosing the best way to get their Strategic Team members through the storming phase. After some emotional distancing, they decided upon option E: Work with Key team in pairs on a rotating basis to break down a number of walls. Since they weren’t sure of the best way to do that, they decided on a “peel the onion” exercise in order to flush out some optimal sub-options.

To this extent, they posed the following question to their intuitive minds to get the ball rolling: “What is our best option for getting our Strategist Team working in pairs, as a way of enhancing full team collaboration; considering their domains focus on different things, there may be some resistance among certain pairs, we could resolve some valuable issues, it would highlight who likes working with who?” The four determined considerations were only 50% of those listed, but were the most important ones.

With this in place, they then worked-up two Ying and Yang “bookends;” as their most way-out options. These again would serve as frame-ends between which other possible options could emerge. Our latest example shows them as: “Just leave members to do their own thing,” at one end and at the other end, “Keep pushing to get them working together as a team.” In our latest example, you will notice why they probably wouldn’t work. Such extreme options were good for stimulating the partner’s minds to come up with some good, plausible options..

They then produced five different options – see our Latest Example. One of those options was: “Let pairs exchange views on each other’s domains and how they can help each other”…option A. You are able to see their other four choices in our Latest Example. What option would you see as the most promising?

Again, we turned over their peel the onion option-picture and talked about other issues as a means of allowing emotional distancing . After about 20 minutes we turned it over again for them to make their additional sub-choice. They seemed to feel good about their choice and immediately set about creating an action initiative while things were still fresh in their mind.

If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.
Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Dealing with verbal abuse by a live-in aid to elderly relative?’” We’re always interested in your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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I was recently involved with a staff PEACAM survey, which was designed to indicate the level at which “fires were being lit from within.” Although the outcome was reasonably good overall, some areas were not strong enough. To that end, she wanted to know more about what lay behind those particular areas, so we decided to look at her options. Since she was already familiar with Option Solving, we could proceed without further ado.

Consequently, we immediately started to work on an appropriate question and considerations, which turned out to be: “What is my best option for gaining insights and suggestions on recent PEACAM survey, considering that the indicators were reasonably good, want to keep it a positive experience, and I want them to take the ultimate lead on any initiatives?” There were more considerations than this, but we picked out the 50% most important ones.

With this in place, we then set about determining two Ying and Yang “bookends;” to act as the most extreme and unlikely options. They are designed to set her option limits, in addition to provoking her intuition to dig up the most practical options. In our latest example, you will pick these out as: “Leave things as they are and hope for improvements,” at one end and at the other end, “Give everything staff asks for.” Both were not acceptable, for the reasons stated in the “bookend” boxes.

Now we got to work on producing at least five options and in fact came up with six – see Latest Example. One option suggestion was: “Chat with staff one-on-one for insights and suggestions”…option B. Her other five choices are in our Latest Example. What options would you have come up within her circumstances?

We then proceeded to talk about some other important issues to give her intuition the space of emotional distancing and then she returned to this picture after about 15 minutes to make her intuitive choice. Once she did that, we discussed her action approach.

If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.
Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Using Option Solving to decide on ‘Getting our key team through the storming phase?’” We’re always interested in your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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Two years ago one of the owner’s daughters joined a client company to turn around the company’s sales and marketing fortunes. She, along with other team members, did just that and put the company on a fresh growth track. However, her special family status, as well as her high expectations style, has not helped the integration of the senior leadership team (Strategist Team). Despite efforts to get team members to work more closely together, there are particular difficulties between this young lady and the operations executive. The daughter faces a dilemma, since her father tends to side with the operations executive for historical and mindset reasons.

Since she was familiar with option solving, we could set right to in developing an optimal question, which was : “What is my best option for integrating with the Strategist Team, so it can largely run the company from a day-to-day perspective; considering poor group dynamics, lack of trust, family issues, and I bring good expertise/ experience to the company?” We listed about eight considerations in all, but she picked out the 50% most important ones so as not to make the question too complex.

Once this was established, we set about creating two Ying and Yang “bookends.” As the more extreme options, these would help set the option boundaries as well as nudge her creative intuition into coming up with the most likely options. Take a look at our latest example and you will find these as: “Turn a blind eye to everything,” at one end and at the other end, “Offer to buy the company.” Both were least acceptable, so their value in helping to prod some better options was assured.

With these in place, we set about reaching into her thoughts to come up with at least five options. You will see she came up with six – something that rarely happens with conventional problem solving – where one of them turned out to be: “Swap roles with Jack”…option D. Jack was the Operations Executive and I offered this option since I had seen it work rather well in more than one instance of feuding executives…the two parties then are more likely see the issues associated with each side. You are able to see her other five choices in our Latest Example. What would you do in her circumstances?

She proposed to “sleep on it” as a form of emotional distancing and I haven’t had the opportunity to find out what option she chose. No doubt I will sooner or later.

If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.
Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Using Option Solving to decide on ‘Obtaining greater staff insight from a recent survey ?’” We’re always interested in your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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In my last blog, I shared how a brokerage client felt he was suffering because, the two marketing people at his new firm were not acting quickly enough with insurance carriers, to feed his clients with competitive quotes so that he could retain their business. This was naturally hurting his income potential. We went through an initial round of option solving to figure out his best primary approach – see blog for April 12th. Overnight, with some emotional distancing, he decided to opt for option B: Get real close to 2 current mktg people to win their active support.

Now that he was familiar with option solving, we were able to dive right into figuring out an appropriate question, which turned out to be : “What is my best option for getting closer to the two current marketing people, considering the current marketing team is self-absorbed and showing limited urgency, I’m still new to the firm, resources are limited right now, I’m losing business, and there could be a good future for me at this firm?” He again decided to keep all his considerations in place, rather than just go for 50% of them..

With his question in place, he started working on two Ying and Yang “bookends.” These spelt out the two more extreme options to give his forthcoming plausible options some sort of framework. They would also firmly nudge his intuitive juices to come-up with a good range of worthy options. . In our latest example, you will see his new two were: “Leave them to their own devices and hope for the best,” and at the other end, “Ask for one of them to be specifically assigned to me.” He also gave indications, in our example, as to why these wouldn’t be viable.

Once these were ready, to keep probing his experience base, he could now figure out his most workable options. He eventually dug-out five, where one was: “Request for daily updates with Ken involved.”…option C. You are able to see his other choices in our Latest Example. What would you do in his circumstances?

He informed me that he made his choice later that afternoon, along with an immediate action plan. He had now started to peel the onion and could go to further iteration, to hone down to a complete strategy, if he so desired. He felt that wasn’t necessary and that his choice was now working rather well.

Please refer to our Latest Example to view his overall picture for a solution.
If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.
Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Using Option Solving to decide on ‘Options for handling an executive feud?’” We’re always interested in your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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During recent times, a new brokerage client was sharing his frustrations of having insufficient attention from the firm’s marketing team. This was causing him to lose client business. The two key marketing people were supposed to shop his clients’ insurance requests around among the Carriers to find the most favorable option. Although they were doing some of this, it was not quick enough relative to competitors which meant him losing out. Since he was new to the firm, he was not wanting to rock the boat unnecessarily.

As he wasn’t familiar with option solving, I started probing him about his options and, when that was proving to be an immediate struggle, I then got him to focus on the right question. After some discussion, this ended up being: “What is my best option for handling my Carrier marketing dilemma, considering current marketing team self-absorbed and showing limited urgency, am still new to the firm, the principals are nice people, I’m losing business, and there could be a good future for me at this place?” You will notice the five key considerations. I did try to get him just to use 50% of them, to simplify the question, but he felt he wanted to include them all.

Now that the question was formulated, I challenged him to come-up with two Ying and the Yang “bookends.” You will notice they are two extreme options which would provide a framework for his most plausible options, as well as help stimulate the appropriate option creativity. You will see in our latest example, his two were: “Walk away from the firm,” and at the other end, “Sit tight, work within the current system, and hope for the best.” We also indicated, below the line in each case, why these would be least workable.

With these in place, he was poised to produce his most plausible options. It was a bit of a stretch, but I challenged him to come up with five options. You will notice that one of the five was: “Promote a current Account Executive into the marketing role. Work on that relationship once in place.”…option D. You can review his other options in our Latest Example.

Because we had another joint meeting to attend at this point, I asked him to take a photocopy of the option solving picture and then sleep on it overnight as a form of emotional distancing. I would follow-up in a day or two to find out his intuitive choice. When I did so, a couple of days later, he had made his choice: although was more interested in discussing his best mode for doing it rather than making an immediate action plan.
We therefore proceeded with a peeling the onion exercise over the phone. He was creating the picture and content, while I just acted as a sounding board. Please refer to the Latest Example to view the overall picture of a potential solution and make your own best choice, if you were in his shoes. If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.
Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Using Option Solving to decide on ‘Peeling the onion: Handling the marketing role myself?’” You’re your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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Not so long ago, I was working with a key member of a client’s fairly new commercial team. As part of being cost effective, during these more challenging business times, she was having to share support from the company’s customer service team with it’s government teams. At the same time, she articulated the differences between government and commercial customers, where there’s an expectation of much greater responsiveness from commercial customers. This presented her with a dilemma, since, as a relatively new person to the scene, she could not impose her will on a well established team and its protocol. How could she best handle some clear education needs?

With her prior knowledge of option solving, we immediately set about creating a suitable question. This ended up being: ““What is our optimal approach toward gearing our Customer Service Teams to handle commercial customers, too, considering that these teams are not directly led by us, they are used to handling government customers (a different breed), and they might feel ‘put-upon’?” You can see her key considerations, which ultimately shaped her intuitive reaction to her dilemma.

Once she had resolved this question, she created two Ying and the Yang “bookends.” These are two extreme options which would ultimately frame her most plausible options, as well as stimulate her intuition to be as creative as possible. Her two were: “Just leave things as they are,” and at the other end, “Put together a full-blooded Commercial Customer Service training module.” In our Latest Example we show why these were the least workable.

At this point, she was ready to figure out at least five credible options. By finding at least five, she reached her limits of reasonable options. One of her five was: “Develop training framework: then pursue on an ad-hoc basis”…option A. See her other four options in our Latest Example.

We then spent twenty minutes discussing some other issues, as a way of involving emotional distancing, while her option solving picture was turned over. When we turned it face up, she briefly reviewed it and made her choice. We then discussed her next steps while the whole issue was uppermost in her mind.

Please refer to the Latest Example to view the overall picture of a potential solution. If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.
Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Using Option Solving to decide on ‘Handling the marketing role myself?’” You’re your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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I found myself in a client’s office recently, where he had already established and activated an innovation team to explore additional key activities. His trouble was: although the CEO had called for the initiative, he was now tending to pull back and was also not convinced about the areas the team was exploring because they impinged on current business areas. My client was debating what to do next. My retort was option solving. Fortunately he was already familiar with the technique.

We plunged right into creating the appropriate question, which came out as: “What is my best option ‘now’ for innovating a new business venture, considering that it is a challenge to get my boss’s endorsement, it’s tough to get time from other innovation team members, I have other key priorities drawing on my time, and we will be stretched to find people to ‘build’ anything?” You can begin to realize his conundrum, although it already helped him to lay out the question and issues. These were what he considered were the most important of eight considerations, so he chose the top 50% to make the question less complex…see our latest example.

With these in place, we worked up two ‘bookends’, the Ying and the Yang possibilities, which were deliberately extreme options so as to give maximum spark to our later option selection. The two we developed were: “Walk away from the project,” and at the other end, “Boss turns over the reins to me.” Our Latest Example shows why these were the least workable.

Now we were ready to search for more plausible options and we worked hard to come up with at least five; knowing that by stretching at least to five, we would have fairly tested the limits of viable options. One of the five we developed was: “Spend more time clarifying new business parameters with my boss”… see Latest Example for our other choices.

We then spent fifteen minutes discussing some other issues, as a form of emotional distancing, and I left it to my client to make up his mind on the most appropriate option by the following morning. At least he felt much more relieved when I left because he had unearthed all the realistic possibilities. I heard his choice at a later time, but we will leave that with him as he acts upon it.

Please refer to the Latest Example to view the overall picture of a potential solution. If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.
Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Using Option Solving to decide on ‘Enhancing customer service team skills?’” You’re your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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