Option Solving Blog

Not so long ago I was working with a group of executives to share the benefits of Option Solving. We agreed to find a common topic to use as a practical example, which is where the issue of the inevitable tensions between sales and manufacturing came up.

With a healthy amount of discussion we arrived at an appropriate question: “What
is our best option for dealing with the inevitable tensions between sales and
manufacturing , considering differences in product understanding, working
with different goals, and insufficient understanding of each other?” (Note: The
three considerations that were incorporated into the question. Initially there were
more than three, but we honed them down to the most important ones.)

Once the question was ready, we sought to develop “bookends” (see the Latest
Example). You can see these are extreme options that participants used to frame the
exercise, so that they would nudge their intuitive minds into high creative gear.
Now they were in the best position, along with their question, to eke out the best
range of options. Among the seven they created, were “Involve operations in the
sales development process,” “Complete/Insure common objectives,” “Swap
roles ” and “Manufacturing report to sales.”

Once their choices were in place, we took a 10 minute natural break for some
emotional distancing and then invited independent polling among all the
participants. The group made their choice and then seemed comfortable with the
outcome. The exercise brought sudden clarity to their perspective and they were ready to move ahead. We immediately defined the steps they would take at the outset, while the momentum was there. This only added to their satisfaction with the result.

Please refer to the Latest Example to view the overall picture of this dilemma and its
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 education situation in our State?’” We will appreciate your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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Yes, even the White house uses Option Solving, although it might not be aware of this technique in its more formal sense. By absorbing the reports in the New York Times immediately after the recent event, I am able to speculate how President Obama arrived at his final three options. From a likely scenario we can reasonably extrapolate how the White House’s team went through an option solving exercise of its own.

If the team had been aware of the option solving technique, it would have started
out with a question like: “What is our Best Option today to capture/kill Osama
bin Laden in Pakistan, considering…” Then, of course, we have to speculate about
the presidential team’s considerations, such as: Raid into another country’s
sovereign territory (international law?), Minimize US casualties, Possible
confrontation with Pakistani forces, and Irrefutable evidence Osama bin Laden
has been dealt with. Take a look at the Latest Example to see how this fits in.

Now that the team’s question has been framed, we can speculate about the two
Bookends it may well have used (bookends are those extreme Ying and Yang least
likely options). These could look like: “Sit tight and wait for the most opportune
moment” and “Ask Pakistani Forces to take care of it.” Using such bookends
would help the president’s team to maximize their intuitive creativity to produce a
series of creative but realistic options.

It is more than likely he and his team came up with a whole series of options,
although newspaper reports show they came down to at least three, which were:
“Helicopter assault using American commandos,” “Strike with B-2 bombers to
obliterate compound,” and “Joint raid with Pakistani Intelligence Operatives
informed only hours before.” In the normal course of option solving, we would
come up with at least five options to encourage maximum out-of-the-box thinking,
but we can leave you to conjecture about the other two.

Reports also went on to explain how he used emotional distancing to make his final
choice, even though he probably didn’t quite see it that way. Since at the end of the
option consideration meeting, he was reported to have said: “I’m not going to tell
you what my decision is now – I’m going to go back and think about it some more.”
He added, “I’m going to make a decision soon.”

16 hours later he had made up his mind. Early next morning, four top aides were
summoned to the White House Diplomatic Room. Before they could brief him, he cut
them off. “It’s a go,” he said. (As reported in the NY Times, May 3rd, 2011) So you can
see that by sleeping on it, his intuition was able to work it through overnight and aid
him with a “gut decision” the following morning. This is a great example of creating
some emotional space after your option creation. It also demonstrates the power of
our intuition to make an optimal choice considering all the various factors and
trade-offs that need to be made. Our intuition was built for doing this.

Please refer to the Latest Example to view the overall picture of this dilemma and it
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 Conflicts between Sales and Manufacturing?’” We will appreciate your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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Faced with the recent challenge of stimulating a client executive into action, after a couple of month lull, option solving appeared to be my best “option” for figuring out how to handle the situation. Often there are subtle complexities to such scenarios, where a little misstep can set you back some, even when there’s a good deal of residual good will. Also, executives too often have their hands full from many quarters, so moving your topic up their priority listing is always a significant challenge.

After pulling out a blank sheet of paper, I set to work with option solving. Expressing the first part of the question came relatively easy: “What is my best option for stimulating Jack into action, considering…” But then I had to figure out the key considerations in this situation, which needed a certain amount of additional thought. These eventually turned out to be: “…potential company financial pressures, he’s under considerable time constraints, and he may believe his group’s prior turmoil was now stabilizing.”

By way of background to these considerations: his company had enjoyed robust results (even during the Great Recession) owing to smart positioning, but the company’s profitable status was now deteriorating. Since my client is central to most fiscal matters, changes and adjustments are his key priority. A few months back his group experienced a fair amount of turmoil as a former key player left.

My question and considerations formulated, it was now time to produce “bookends” or more extreme options to frame my current dilemma. These would help stimulate the creative side of my intuitive intelligence to produce in-between options. Two which fairly readily came to mind were: at one end, “Say hello (by phone), listen and offer to talk more another time,” at the other end “Give him an all encompassing proposal.” As the Ying and Yang extreme options, they started my sub-conscious intuitive computer searching its data bank for realistic alternative possibilities.

The search brought up five options of which I will share three. Again, if I reveal all of them, you wouldn’t be able avoid trying to second-guess me. That would be unfair of you because you weren’t in my exact circumstances at the time and it would take too much time to explain all the nuances involved in my final choices.

Anyway, one option was, “Seek a lunch meeting to discuss his options.” Another was, “Focus on a conversation topic; set up another call to discuss more fully.” And yet another was, “Refer to pre-holiday turmoil and how to mitigate this with the sales group.” Once I had fleshed all five out, I then set my sheet aside for ten minutes for some emotional distancing.

Emotional distancing allows time for your intuition to mull over your options (in my particular case, five) and make the sub-conscious trade-offs necessary for making your final optimum choice. After about ten minutes, where I focused on something quite unrelated, my mind was relaxed enough to make a good choice. (NOTE: Our intuition doesn’t work at its best when under pressure.)

Ultimately, I opted for one of the five and obviously pursued it a couple of days later with my client. By feeling that I had made the best choice, I approached the phone meeting with a quiet confidence that it would go favorably. It did.

Please refer to the Latest Example to view the overall picture of another recent 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 ‘Filling some vacant storage space?’” We will appreciate your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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