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Communicating with a Unified Corporate Image, Through Option Solving

Posted on June 12, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

Recently I was working with a group of executives who were struggling with the issue of developing a unified corporate image. When I suggested some time to consider all their options, they were intrigued. Their level of intrigue went up even higher when I suggested a more comprehensive framework for such an exercise: rather than pursue it in an adhoc manner.

When I asked them about some of the issues related to this important topic, they came up with ideas such as: Emotional attachment to existing image; multiple documents with multiple authors; having local identity/brand recognition; …until they had listed nine in all. By polling them individually (important in option solving), they highlighted the four most important. These included the “local identity/brand recognition” item but also: Fear of passing judgment on others; Relaunch of the corporate name; and Consistency of message. From these they were able to frame the right question (see latest example). You will also see the unlikely option “bookends” they chose, as well as one or two of their more viable options.

The most important realization they came to was; when they were allowed to utilize their intuitive intelligence (as encouraged by the exercise of Option Solving) the best solution emerged relatively easily. Why was this? Now we know it’s because our intuitive intelligence is very powerful: collectively it’s even more so. Given the right environment, it can be especially creative and consequently reveal possibilities not normally considered. And so their collective solution came forth without too much difficulty. Even more encouraging, was the fact that everyone more or less bought into it because they were consulted and involved in the decision. These are some of the true benefits of Option Solving.

Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: Best way to get along with my boss, through Option Solving. Make your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the author.)

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Taking a Better Approach to Quality through Option Solving

Posted on May 21, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

Not so long ago I was working with an important Regional group on its quality concerns. Although quality is an important item to many organizations: due the nature of this regional organization’s activities, quality was critical; almost a life threatening issue. It had just recently received a less than stellar review from a governmental agency, so was compelled to put things right.

It put together a cross section of about 13-14 people, including senior executives to ground-floor people, to consider this issue. It was important to have a good sprinkling of ground-floor people so that whatever course was taken, it would not be perceived as a purely executive mandate. Once together and once they understood the Option Solving concept, the group set about forming the right question: this was helped by taking into account certain considerations. These can be seen in the Latest Example (see blog tab) with a question such as: “What is our best approach to define (in a compelling/ inspirational way) and enable quality, to take XYZ Organization to the next level; considering the building of the right “top of the mind” culture, best practices, moving beyond compliance, becoming a “no-blame” enterprise, and using resources more effectively?”

Once this question was established, the group produced two bookends, one of which was, “Stay the way we are.” For the other you can see in the Latest Example. With these in place, the group parlayed the enormous capacity of the human mind to build other options/alternatives. They then proceeded to develop seven alternatives, one of which was (B) Recruit the Right Leader of Quality to Orchestrate to most Appropriate Strategy. There ultimate choice will be left unsaid because only the people who participated can appreciate the significant value of the choice they made: again see Latest Example and the Book. This is another way of seeing how Option Solving can be applied so well to any issue, personal or professional, owing to the power of the technique and the intuitive mind.

Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 3 weeks (after vacation): Best way to Communicate a Unified Image, through Option Solving. Make your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the author.)

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Better Quality, Solving Problems | Leave a comment »

Attracting the Right People to Seminars through Option Solving

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

The other week I was talking to a small group of people about their efforts to promote their particular organization through a series of talks. They operate in a big city where there is always plenty of competition for audiences who wish to listen to speakers on a whole range of topics. They had targeted a particular audience of family owned business leaders: where owners could listen to and meet interesting speakers on a range of topics particularly germane to their issues and needs.

As we talked about their challenge of attracting such an audience, they talked about their frustration of finding too many brokers, consultants, bankers and others turning up rather than the owners of family businesses. So we began to formulate a question: “What is our best alternative to attract owners to seminars…” but stopped there to consider some of the issues associated with such a need. We listed eight in all, with the top four being listed in the latest example question (see Latest Example).

With the question in hand, we then considered the most pertinent “bookends,” in order to get our combined intuitive insights into top gear for the different possible options. Those ranged from: Give everyone $1000 to attend, and at the other end, Charge People $1000 to attend. Being somewhat outlandish with bookends has the intent to stimulate the intuitive mind to switch into high gear. When you look at some of the question considerations, the latter is not such an outlandish thought. But now the real options really started to flow, which ended up with six different viable possibilities: three of which are shown in the Latest Example.

With an Option Solving topic like this, coupled with the right, fairly large group of people to look at all the alternatives, then even more interesting options could emerge. Having sufficient people in the room, would bring out the real “wisdom of the crowd” to come up with an optimal, creative solution.

Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: Taking a better approach to Quality, through Option Solving. Make your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the author.)

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Getting Sales Meetings without Alienating Prospects through Option Solving

Posted on April 9, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

During these recessionary times securing sales meetings is tougher than usual. Even after a salesperson gets the ball rolling, building relationships through subsequent meetings can be equally challenging as prospects have to make difficult decisions about whether they can afford to proceed. This is where skill and finesse is required by the salesperson.

It is more than likely salespeople will look to their sales leaders for advice and coaching on how to handle the situation. Talented sales leaders will not be drawn into just giving their “charges” the answer; they will challenge their team members to come up with their own answer. This way their salespeople will more likely act on their choice, as well as discover their best option: which they won’t then forget in a hurry.

So, firstly, sales leaders, following the Option Solving technique, will work with their salespeople to come up with the right question: see the Latest Example. Once this is has been hashed out, then sales leaders can encourage their sales team members to come up with bookends: the least likely options like – “Forget the idea” or at the other end “Camp outside his/her door:” find out more in the book.

Such extreme options help to stimulate the intuitive intelligence to come up with its best alternatives. In this example, we have: “Leave alone for a month,” options B-E, and “Approach an ‘outside’ Janice friend and ask for 3^rd party advice.” We deliberately left the other options open, since there is no one set of alternatives. Once the range of reasonable options is in place, then sales leaders will encourage their salespeople to pick the best alternative option. This is the one that their sales people should now pursue with all due skill.

Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: Attracting the right people to seminars, through Option Solving. Make your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the author. )

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Getting Sales Prospects, Not Alienating Prospects | Leave a comment »

Recruiting Celebrities through Option Solving

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

Recruiting the right people is never easy, especially if you’ve been challenged with the task many times because – the more you do it, the more challenging you realize it is and the more luck you know you will need. In this instance, I am thinking about a recent option solving exercise with a successful professional, who is thinking about starting a non-profit. He has secured the necessary legal requirements, so his breakthrough challenge was how to recruit the necessary celebrities he would need to get his long dreamed about project off the ground.

We spent a good deal of time formulating the question. In fact, to get our intuitive juices flowing, which would assist us with the necessary creativity, we started out listing down some of the issues associated with his celebrity recruiting challenge (see the “Smart Decisions” book): such as, picking people who have access to celebrities, the time factor involved, who has spheres of influence, and so on. With these in mind, he was able to begin putting together an appropriate question, like “What is my best alternative in gaining access to celebrities, through picking people with the right spheres of influence (who have access to celebrities), so that I can recruit the right celebrities in the shortest possible time?”

Once the question was established, he was challenged to come up with the two bookends: potential options but were quite untenable to him; like, at one end, “Happenstance contact” or at the other end, “Secure Oprah Winfrey to help.”

With these in place, his intuitive mind was provoked into high gear because of the question and the bookends challenged him to think of options that were more realistic. He came up with seven viable options, as opposed to the two or three we typically dredge up, when faced with a similar situation. And then he chose what he thought will his optimum option one after some “emotional distancing” (see the book). Believe you me; with the choice that he picked, he is likely to be way more successful in recruiting his desired celebrities. Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: Getting meetings without alienating people, through Option Solving. Make your COMMENTS to connect with the author. )

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Giving Advice through Option Solving

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

We’re all asked for advice from time to time and the question is, “Will the other party listen and take your advice on board?” This is where option solving can come in very handy.

Instead of providing advice, ask the advice seeker, “What do you see are your options in this instance?” By asking them a question in reply, you’ve automatically got them into a listening mode. More often than not, the person will start sharing one or two of their immediate options but you will quickly notice he/she is frustrated with those answers, which is why he/she has come to you.

Your challenge, other than in an emergency, is not to give advice seekers advice off the bat. There is a big chance your offering will not gel with them anyway, even if it’s very sound, because deep down people prefer to act on their own advice not upon the advice of others. They have to experience an emotional buy-in to any advice and they are more likely to do that when they have discovered it for themselves.

So, once you have them sharing their initial options with you, then ask the question, “What is it you are trying to accomplish with this issue?” This is going to encourage them to reach into their intuitive intelligence and imagine what they are really looking to resolve. Help them formulate an appropriate question (learn about this in the book).

Then get them to spell out their least likely options (what the book calls “bookends”). Once these are in place, which will move their intuitive mind into high gear, then ask them, “What are your most likely options?” Now they will start looking at wider possibilities, including the one or two that they offered at the outset.

When they have exhausted their ideas, this is when you can insert the idea/piece of advice that you would have liked to have given them in the first place. Now they will really listen and most likely buy into your suggestion. And now they are ready to choose their best option, especially when you ask them, “Now intuitively pick the best option for you?” No analysis. No agonizing. Just choose the one that makes the most intuitive sense.

Hey presto! They suddenly find they’ve arrived at their best possible choice. They have also emotionally bought into it. They will be so grateful to you for listening and helping them along the right track. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: solving a recruitment issue with Option Solving. Make your COMMENTS to connect with the author.

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Developing New Revenue Streams using Option Solving

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

Let’s think of any well established business that’s trying to build new revenue streams. It brings to mind a successful company that already has two well established and profitable legs to its business and believes it should have a third one. One of its senior executives is assigned to initiate the issue, so he pulls out his copy of “Smart Decisions” (see Order Book) and gets to work.

His first task is to pull together an appropriate group of people from across the company and then put the issue of finding a third revenue stream before them. It took them a good 40 minutes to hash out the appropriate question (see Latest Example): the book also has some useful tips on how to approach establishing the right question.

With this in place the group of eight participants brainstormed about appropriate “bookends” to tease their intuitive minds into becoming as creative as possible. Because, with bookends like: “Just stick with existing core business” and at the other end “Commit to very aggressive expansion” (see Latest Example): there was no way either would fly with their CEO.

Now they had a good framework to come up with the most compelling alternatives from which they could independently and confidentially make their choice (see Latest Example). You will see they came up with six alternatives, although we won’t see them all so you won’t be tempted to second guess their choices. (NOTE: They are in the best position to understand their particular circumstances and their specific alternatives. We just need a flavor of their thinking, so that any of us can take a fresh perspective with our own situation.)

Once they had come up with their own Option Solving scenario, they were then in a position to share it with their CEO and their other colleagues. It certainly created a lot of debate in the company and eventually an approach was decided upon. The whole technique got most people’s attention and a good degree of input. This company is now ready to move ahead and pursue its next distinctive revenue stream.(Next posting in 2 weeks: Revisiting Giving Advice through Option Solving…Please also make COMMENTS for connecting with the author.)

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Repositioning Financial Controller: using Option Solving

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

A CFO for a fast growing entrepreneurial network engineering company was being challenged by her President to relieve herself of most of the day-to-day tasks of running her financial group. He wanted her to step up and become more strategic and future oriented, assisting with acquisitions and better financial packaging of the technology products that were used in client solutions. To step up she also had to get her people to step up, particularly her controller. Her controller had to take on more of the day-to-day financial activities, in conjunction with being more responsible for the development of her small financial team.

The CFO’s challenge was how to achieve this, especially as her controller was home grown, like herself, and was immersed in the daily detail and routines without looking much at the bigger picture. If you go to the Latest Example, you will see the relatively simple question the CFO posed with an objective sounding board. This brought about the two “bookends” – “Leave controller acting as she is” and at the other end “Consider outsourcing the financial function.” Neither was obviously appropriate but they were another important step to framing the issue that needed to be solved.

Once these were on paper and in the open, the CFO’s mind started racing, drawing upon her considerable intuitive intelligence accumulated over the years. Even though she may never have been posed this exact same issue before, her intuitive mind could find many parallels and similar situations which would help her come up with the most realistic options. As can be seen again in the Latest Example (as well as in the book “Smart Decisions”), the CFO came up with six alternatives before exhausting her options. Then she set them aside for a while, as she worked on some other related matters, to emotionally distance herself from the possibilities. Other activities allowed her intuitive mind to process the information and possibilities in a more subconscious way.

An hour or two later, she returned to her sheet, see Latest Example, and made her intuitive choice. It’s interesting to see a few months further on how both people have made some significant strides. The CFO is getting much more involved in acquisition moves, as well as positioning the company better with its major suppliers. The controller is stepping up to handle more of the daily financial issues, including finding a way to present monthly financials earlier in the month. (Next week’s posting: Looking at the best option for developing a New Financial Stream…Please also make COMMENTS for connecting with the author)

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Enhancing IT: using Option Solving

Posted on February 12, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

IT groups are under scrutiny like never before within the current difficult market conditions. They are expected to produce a whole lot more with less capital invested. So the IT executive I have in mind works for a sizeable financial house with an IT Group of around 75 people. His CEO is challenging him mightily hard to reduce costs significantly, still meet the business demands of producing new and upgraded projects on time, and still retain good internal relations with his senior peers.

He now gets his “Smart Decisions” book out and begins to frame the right question as discussed in Chapter 3 (see what he comes up with in the Latest Example). If he poses the right question, it will really make him start thinking outside the box. He didn’t choose to involve his team at this point because clearly more than one option would likely include a certain amount of downsizing (with one option on his mind as much as 30%) and he didn’t want to make people nervous until he had his ducks more lined up. So he chose to work with an outsider as a sounding board to start with.

Once his question was in place, he picked two bookends; one was “Remain as we are.” The other was equally a stretch – see Latest Example. However, these really started to tease his mind to come up with reasonable alternatives. With further thought he and his “speaking partner” came up with six, of which three are in the Example given. Because of the emotional challenges in making the right choice (he may have to let some people go), he chose to sleep on it –“emotional distancing” – see Chapter 7.

With his mind made up the following morning, he now had to sell it to his CEO and his peers. He walked them through his Option Solving framework, so they understood the question, bookends and alternatives. At this point he had to be open-minded and flexible to other options and in fact they came up with one he hadn’t considered before. He replaced his B alternative with this one. He then took a straw poll of his colleagues, while they were available, to draw on their “collective wisdom.” Fortunately their choice agreed with his choice and he told them so.

Now he went to meet with his own key team for their consideration and buy-in. This was naturally a much more emotional session owing to the possibility of cutbacks. Even so, he walked them through his question, bookends and options to allow them to add to everything. Once completed, he asked them to remain silent overnight and come back in the morning with there best intuitive option. This they did with a split in opinion, once the confidential straw poll was taken. One faction backed his choice another faction came up with another choice. It was close.

After a quick break, he invited participants (there were 8) to state their intuitive thoughts about one or the other. Allowing time for a fair amount of discussion he asked if people were ready to independently poll again. (He recused himself from contributing to the discussion, since he didn’t want to unduly influence anyone.) A majority wanted more time to think it through, so he invited them to take another night to sleep on it.

Back again the second morning, he took another straw poll and this time the majority went in his direction (at which point he informed them of his own choice). By and large the minority went along with the majority because their voices had been heard. And so now it came time to talk about implementation. (Next week’s posting: How a CFO had to reposition her financial manager/controller…Please also make COMMENTS for connecting with the author)

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Significant Non-Profit Financial Crunch: using Option Solving

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

Non-profits are facing enormous funding challenges right now unless, of course, they are directly connected with the Haitian earthquake disaster. This is combined with their particular challenge in recent years, where the donor trend has been toward making specific spending requests for their donations. Such reasonable requests have severely reduced the amount non-profits can spend on general administrative and running expenses. Added to this, for most not-for-profits, have been their income reductions during 2009 and now with the Haitian disaster most giving is going in that direction.

By mid-year 2009 an important international arts festival in a large north east US city was facing an impending squeeze on its state and local funding. It was fretting over how it was going to be able to sustain its incredible success over the years. Its executive director found herself pondering, with a couple of objective outsiders, how the festival could position itself, going into its summer festival, to avoid major cuts in its fall budget negotiations.

There was considerable discussion about the key question to be asked (see book “Smart Decisions”) and Latest Example. Once this was decided it was easier to determine the two bookends: again see Latest Example. Both were clearly unacceptable.

With these in place (see Latest Example), the executive director was able to see her immediate options. In this case, the proximity of the discussion to the actual event inhibited her ability to apply the best alternative. But the discussion helped her to see how valuable this exercise could be, so she requested a separate option solving session with her board members (post-the-event), where a new “one-mind” consensus could be hashed out on the best way forward. (Next week’s posting: How an IT executive solved his latest upgrade and downsize issues…Please also make COMMENTS for connecting with the author)

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Non-Profit Financial Crunch | Leave a comment »

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