Option Solving Blog

This blog is about Option Solving and option solving is a much better way for younger folks to make their career choices, than so many of the traditional modes. In a moment you will see why.
Younger folks have picked up a tremendous amount of intuitive wisdom in their lives to date –from friends, family, schooling, college, early work experiences, and so on. Intuitive wisdom provides an incredible bank of information to draw upon when the time comes for choosing careers. The trick is to access that bank of information in the most effective way: how do I access that mind boggling level of intuitive wisdom I’ve gained over the years? That’s where Option Solving comes in.
The first step is to come up with an appropriate question. Perhaps one like: “What’s the best career choice for me now?” You can learn more how to pose the right questions from the book, although this also should include some vital considerations; like…how far can I travel, my minimal compensation package needs, and what is my dream job?
Your next step with Option Solving is to set your mind an additional framework known as bookends (find out more about these from the book). But two likely bookends could be: 1) Do nothing and just hope the right job comes along. 2) Follow the career path decided by my family and friends. The idea behind bookends is to choose extremes you’re least likely to follow: hence the ones stated above.
With these extremes your incredible intuitive wisdom will kick in, as it wants to reject these bookends. Then you should map out 5-8 alternative choices of career that appeal to you in some way – see example under Latest Example tab.
Once you have laid these out go to bed and sleep on them – as a younger folk that will probably mean from 2.00AM to 2.00PM the following afternoon! However, before you close your eyes, you ask yourself exactly the same question as you posed earlier: “What is the best career choice for me now?”
The first choice (of all the alternatives) that pops into your head when you wake up is the career choice you should pursue. This sleep break is known as “emotional distancing” (more in the book) and allows your intuitive intelligence to work at its best.
Once decided, don’t be put off by your family and friends. No matter the challenges or obstacles, this is the career of your dreams and should be pursued at all costs. Remember, “He/she who lets go is the one who loses out.” Best of luck with your chosen career! (Note: Get your family and friends to visit this blog, too!)
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 ‘Which Channel or Customers to pursue?’” Let’s have your COMMENTS or go to peter@ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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A long time friend, who is also a professional practitioner, started talking to me about retiring from the practice he had built up over many years. He had hoped that over those years he would have recruited a junior partner who would now be ready to buy the practice, but things didn’t turn out that way for one reason or another.

Now he wanted to retire and was faced with a tough dilemma because the poor economy had affected the value of his practice and there were fewer potential buyers around. He had taken advice from a business lawyer, who was encouraging him to wait 5 years in the hope that the practice would regain its former value.

Faced with this quandary, we invited him to join us in an Option Solving On-line session, where he would have both a facilitator and a scribe to record the discussion. As a threesome, we initially focused on the right question and considerations, and eventually came up with: “What is my best immediate option for retiring from my practice, considering I want to get out in 3 years, my practice is hampered by the economy, and I’m willing to practice but don’t want the management headaches? – see Latest Example. There were more considerations than these three, although these seemed the most important ones.

As we worked the points through over a conference line, with same option solving picture on our laptops, we moved onto defining the “bookends”, those yin and yang items that would further frame the dilemma and give his intuition a provocative frame of reference. After some discussion, these turned out to be: “Willing to sell at any price” and at the other end, “Not sell, keep practicing.” Obviously neither was a starter, even though they are, in fact, options.

Now it remained for him, with facilitation guidance, to come up with a number of realistic options. You can see from the Latest Example that he came up with six options (although we deliberately have not shown all of them). While my scribe colleague reconfigured the order of these options, I kept my friend occupied with some other distracting small-talk, to allow for emotional distancing. This allowed his intuition to work through the variables, trade-offs and similar decisions (that had been recorded in his subconscious over the years).

Eventually, we came back to the Latest Example picture and, with a quick read of the question, “bookends,” and six options, from which he chose one. We then immediately started discussing his next steps, while it was still fresh in his mind. He then left the conference meeting to go and implement his decision, while renewed confidence and momentum was there.

Please refer to the Latest Example to view the overall picture of this dilemma and its potential solution. If you have any example of your own, please share it with the blogger through the COMMENTS icon.
Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Using Option Solving to decide on ‘Promoting a more Positive/Conducive Relationship to Facilitate Progress?’” We will appreciate 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 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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