What to do with My Office Manager: Resolved using Option Solving!

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

Recently I was talking with a relatively new Regional Manager. He had taken over his role within the past four months and was facing some tough challenges with the office manager he had inherited. She had become loyal to his predecessor, but had also become accustomed to some bad habits which didn’t particularly help him (the new Regional Manager) or her colleagues.

He had already tried his best to win her over and to accommodate her in a number of ways, although he was finding that she wasn’t stepping-up in a positive way. He was left  with the dilemma of making an appropriate decision that would be minimally disruptive on the remainder of his team.

We therefore turned to Option Solving as the means to make the wisest choice. In this connection, our first step was to come up with an appropriate question, based upon key considerations which included:  potential disruption to the team, benefits of getting her on board, her past disappointments of promises not fulfilled, and repercussions if she didn’t step up. (Full question in latest example.)

From there his “bookends” or most extreme options popped out: Continue with her as is and, at the other end, Let her go. Now he was in a position to look at his most interesting options, of which he came up with six. We then put the picture aside (see a selection of these in the latest example: we have not listed them all to avoid readers second guessing his choices, when they are not in a position to feel his exact circumstances) for some emotional distancing. We talked about a range of other things for ten minutes or so.

At that point, I invited him to quickly review the picture once more and identify his most intuitive option.  He picked his favored option fairly quickly and then we talked about his particular approach to his solution. He was set to proceed, with his dilemma resolved.

Please refer to the Latest Example to access the overall picture. 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 someone to reconsider their position?’”  You’re your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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Handling Corporate’s need for Business Information:Solved using Option Solving!

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

Not so long ago I was working with a business leader whose business had recently been acquired by a client of mine. We spent an interesting day together talking about his plans for the future, relative to the expectations of his new owners. One of the issues that emerged was how he felt impeded from devoting his full attention to business growth due the amount of time he had to give in providing financial information to corporate.

This created a dilemma for him: the need to continue growing his business offset by his new owner’s appetite for financial detail. Part of his beef was that with his own prior business entity he had a simple QuickBooks approach. Now with the corporate accounting system, things had become a whole lot more complicated. Who couldn’t help but commiserate with him?!

So, instead of feeling sorry for himself, I encouraged him to look at his options. We focused on formulating an appropriate question (see book and latest example), which included considerations such as: desire to focus on business growth issues, limited staff resources, Corporate’s appetite for certain information, and maximizing my time available.

Once these were in place, he fairly readily identified his two “bookends:” those extreme options which help to challenge his intuitive creativity, as well as frame the issue. These turned out to be: Ignore them and at the other end Turn Over Running my Business to them (see Latest Example).  Neither of these were acceptable options.

He then set about coming up with six appropriate, alternative options (see Latest Example). I then turned over the sheet and allowed for some unrelated discussion to occur for about ten minutes to permit “emotional distancing.” After this, he easily chose what made the most sense, based upon his intuition and without any studied analysis. He was happy with the outcome and will now aim to implement his decision which will require a little negotiating.

One of the potential drawbacks for new potential “Option Solvers” is how easily the optimum solution emerges when the technique is properly applied: almost to the point of making them suspicious. This is because users are activating their powerful intuitions, versus their less powerful rational minds. With that enormous decision making power at work, no wonder the solutions emerge so easily!

Please refer to the Latest Example to access the overall picture. 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 My Office Manager on the Same Page?’”  You’re your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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Production Scheduling: Solved using Option Solving!

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

 

Recently I was working with a production manager who was pretty new to his company and its challenging, high growth production assignment. Unlike a lot of production oriented companies during today’s recession, the company’s production requirements were growing rapidly: which means plenty of overtime on the shop floor. One of his important priorities is to get a handle on its production flow and material needs to be able to keep important customers happy with delivery times.

He was faced with considerations such as getting the right level of detail, getting everyone on board, keeping the budget realistic, and not letting everyone involved  become bogged down in system implementation. With this in mind, he created a question similar to the one shown in the Latest Example.

Once the question was in place, his more extreme “bookends” fell into place fairly easily: “Remain with the current ad hoc manual approach” or at the other end “Set-up a Fully Integrated MRP system.” With these in place, he was able to come up with a healthy series of five options for consideration by himself and his senior colleagues: some of which are in the latest example.

With these complete, we set our picture aside for 10-15 minutes to create some emotional distancing. Our other conversation over, we returned to his option picture, where I challenged him to use his intuitive experience to pick the option which best answered his question. He was quite content with his intuitive answer: so his issue was solved!

He, like many other option solving participants, was quite surprised at how quickly his issue was solved.  Perhaps he was a little disappointed that it wasn’t more of a struggle. Perhaps there was a “trick” to make it turn out so easily? Not so. By using the power of his intuitive mind, it made the resolution of his issue so much simpler!    

 

Please refer to the Latest Example to access the overall picture. 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 Corporate’s Need for Business Information?’”  You’re your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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Where to Next: using Option Solving

Posted on October 29, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

Some while back I found myself in a room with about 10 CEO members of an industry association board. Have you ever tried working with a room full of CEOs? Well, if you have, you’ll know it’s like trying to herd cats. They all have strong opinions and they would all like their point of view to become the prevailing view.

Having said that, Option Solving came to the rescue because it’s an excellent way of letting everyone make a contribution, but, at the same time, helping them to come some sort of consensus. This particular group was trying to decide “where to go next with their industry association.”

My first challenge was to get them to coalesce around a pertinent question. Fortunately the right initial words came along fairly easily, such as, “What is the best immediate option for our business association to move in the right direction, in light of…” Now we had to determine the considerations associated with this possibility. I allowed them to break into two groups and discuss the possibilities, so they could compare notes. Within half an hour, we were able to add on to the question “…membership is dwindling, our members want more value for money, there are some great business synergy opportunities, and there is big potential in a national consortium.” This sort of question started to get their creative juices flowing.

I then challenged them to come up with two “bookends,” the Ying and Yang extreme options that would further help frame their thinking. What they came up with, based on further sub-group discussion, was Remain as an Industry Association and Shut it down. That really put the cat among the pigeons as far as getting them to think creatively. I then set the same sub-groups to work, to come up with 2-3 realistic but creative options that could potentially take their association to the next level. Some of these you will find in the Latest Example.

After an independent vote on the alternatives, they arrived at a consensus view of how to proceed. This is not so important, as the outcome a year later when membership was rising once more and there were a number of synergies benefitting most of them. More importantly, its chairperson said to me subsequently: “It took you less than a day to get us to this point: if we had tried to do the same ourselves, it would have taken us the best part of a week.” That’s a big gain with Option Solving: its time-effectiveness. Get the book and try it sometime.      

Please refer to the Latest Example to some of the outcome. 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 ‘Best approach to Production Scheduling?’.”  You’re your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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Doing More with Less: using Option Solving

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

 In talking with a recent not-for-profit-group, it was grappling with a similar issue to so many non-profits (and businesses) these days, ‘Trying to do more with less.’ Its team was anxious to figure this out because it had already cut much to the bone and yet it still had a big task within its community.

It got as many of its people together as possible and set to work. Its first task was to frame the right question starting with: “What is our best approach to ‘Doing more with less,’ considering… The group drew up a list of considerations and then quickly narrowed them down to three of particular importance, namely … “considering increasing volunteer support (office and board), unable to add more staff, and still increasing revenue each year to accommodate needs and mandates?” These considerations, as part of any Option Solving question, are most important, since they focus our intuitive mind on important issues (both positive and less positive) that need to be factored into any final choices.

Once this was done, then the group focused on the ‘Bookends”: see Latest Example. Again, these bookends sharpened their realization of the least likely options, but, at the same time, got their intuitive minds working creatively on their most promising option choices. You can also see some of the eight alternatives they developed, from which, by means of an independent ballot, they narrowed down to the most likely option for their purposes at that moment in time.

As a result, two key things happened. Firstly, the exercise put their minds at ease because they felt their “collective wisdom” had produced the right choice. Secondly, they were all committed to get involved and make this option work. This is the one thing that is most often missing with traditional problem solving: people are not that committed because the solution is usually the brainchild of one person and everyone else either likes it or goes along with it. With Option Solving everyone participates and is more likely to go along with the outcome because their voice was heard through the independent ballot.

Please refer to the Latest Example to some of the outcome. 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 ‘Where do we go next?’.”  Make your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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Strategic Decision Making: Maximizing Strategic Effectiveness through Option Solving

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

Strategies often fall apart due to inadequate decisions along the way. Sometimes those decisions are simple and straightforward and traditional decision making will suffice. But, more often than not, the choices are complex and the stakes are high. For this reason it requires maximum quality decision making: it requires the maximum exploration of options.

This is where Option Solving comes in handy because it taps into our most natural decision making capability (our intuitive mind): whereas traditional problem solving taps more into our rational mind, which is nowhere near as gifted when it comes to making decisions. Our intuitive intelligence is built to handle complex choices. It is made to juggle different variations. It is also constructed to see the forest-before-the-trees. Our rational minds don’t have this same adroitness. All this has developed through the course of our lives: billions of computations and permutations of our life’s experiences.

Like a computer back-up system, it constantly synthesizes and compares with what’s already there and what’s new. When challenged with fresh decisions, it is able to instantly explore its enormous database and find similar experiences and outcomes. Then, of course, there are its biological senses that have been honed and handed down over generations until it is part of our DNA. Until more recently, we have given insufficient attention to its power and importance in decision making.

Consequently, to fully plug into our intuitive mind, when making key strategic decisions, it makes a whole lot of sense. With the option solving technique (see the Book tab) and its question formation, creation of “bookends,” and formulation of viable options, it creates an intelligent “picture” from which our intuitive capability can scan and make an optimum choice.

For strategic purposes, its advantages are:

  • Determines that the right question is asked (fires the possibilities).
  • Invites maximum creative thinking by framing with extreme options (uses “bookends”)
  • Challenges participants to produce at least 5-6 options (explores all the possibilities).
  • Encourages the inclusion of a diverse group of people wherever practicable (accesses the “wisdom of crowds”).
  • Creates a comprehensive picture from which an optimum strategic decision can be made (pictures are an essential food of our intuitive minds).
  • Allows for “peace of mind” in the ultimate decision (because all options were explored).
  • Produces the optimum decision of the moment (owing to the power and wisdom of our intuitive minds).

Please refer to the Latest Example to see a typical strategic use. 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 ‘Do more with less’.”  Make your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)

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Influencing Key Decisions through Option Solving

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

Recently I was talking with a non-profit which was bidding for one of its programs to be adopted and funded by its local city. The bidding process was going to be even tougher than usual owing to the current fiscal crisis at most cities. It would therefore have to compete even harder for the $s that can be made available. The challenge then came down to the optimum strategy it should pursue in order to be successful in its bid.

As always the first challenge was to decide upon the right question. There was some heavy discussion with those present to figure out that question. It started out as: “What is the optimum strategy for us to focus on going forward to aid our XYZ City bid…” Once this was set, then we started to clarify the defining considerations. Eventually these came down to: “…considering severe financial constraints, the great need for health assistance, the different vested interests involved, and the need for someone to take the lead?” – see the Latest Example. As discussed in prior postings, getting the question right at the outset is critical to getting the right solutions from our intuitive mind. The intuitive mind is used to being asked thousands of times per day, by our rational mind, for its opinion on many things. The more precise the questions are from our rational mind, the better the intuitive mind will pick the right response. This is why many people will particularly dwell on defining the issue before giving their opinions.

We then defined two bookends – see the latest example –, so that our intuitive mind will reject these and find better alternatives. From this we were then able to identify six alternative options for ultimate consideration by our intuitive senses: again see the latest example.

Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Using Option Solving to assist Strategic Decision Making.”  Make your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the author.)

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Forward-Looking Options

Posted on September 3, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

“Our struggles with positioning ourselves for the future do not stem from lack of imagination or intuitive capability to picture tomorrow. It is our reluctance to devote sufficient time to such a critical task, as well as our limited know-how on how to consider our future options.”

Ideally we should have everyone within an organization involved in such an exercise, or at least representatives from every corner of the organization. It should certainly not be dominated by the executive team; otherwise it will be perceived as an executive exercise. In today’s enterprise we’re more likely to see a show-and-tell presentation, along with hearing instructions as to what everyone will be doing going forward. In tomorrow’s organization we will see sub-group conversations around an appropriate option solving question like, “What key considerations should we be pursuing to build a dynamic and financially healthy future?” Everyone within the organization will have thoughts and ideas about this, so by starting an across the board conversation we are likely to tap into a great reservoir of insight.

  • The question posed (“What key considerations should we be pursuing to build a dynamic and financially healthy future?”) will encourage sub-groups of participants (hopefully the whole organization or a worthy cross-section of it- the more the merrier) to make several proposals on what will propel their organization forward.
  • Through facilitation, that list will be reduced to five or six alternatives; framed by a couple of the most unlikely options – or “bookends” (see Latest Example).
  • An individually based, confidential poll of all participants will reveal the most likely forward-looking option. Potential examples include: more innovative products/services, better focused marketing efforts, more responsive customer service, go in a new direction, more effective leadership, and so on. (Note: Such an activity takes some guts by executives, but can pay enormous dividends both in insight and good will. – see Latest Example.)
  • Such a poll invokes the “wisdom of the crowd:” that is, participants’ view of what it would take for their organization to produce more dynamic and financially healthy growth. (Note: Rather than just depend on a sole senior executive [or small band of executives] to make such a choice, the collective view of the largest group of participants is much more likely to draw out the best conclusion – see book “The Wisdom of Crowds” by James Suroweicki.)
  • One other option, especially with non-profits, is to get a core group of board members together and work the Forward-Looking Options exercise through with them (either partially or fully). They can then set up another session with a wider board group, where the whole group assembled can contribute to the earlier deliberations, add to it, and then take an independent-poll of everyone assembled to determine the most likely way forward.

 

Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Influencing the outcome of a key decision, through Option Solving.”  Make your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the author.)

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Pay-Back Using Option Solving

Posted on August 20, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

Tougher times spur greater scrutiny of both investments and expenses. However, stalling on investments and expenses can potentially kill innovation. Breaking out of either an organizational stalling or shrinking mode, induced by these tougher times, requires maximum innovation. So how do organizations find the right balance between these two conflicting requirements: squeeze or innovate?

This is where option solving can play a useful role. Our professionals, specialists or support staff suggest a new idea or request an investment in developing their skills. Instead of being put-off with, “We don’t have the budget for that right now,” the individuals concerned should be encouraged to pursue their proposal. Such put-offs are highly commonplace in today’s difficult environment. It dampens people’s desire to make investment suggestions or innovations because there’s no point.

As an alternative, their team leaders (or executives) should either introduce them to or suggest they utilize a Pay-back Option approach: that is, figure out the approximate investment required for that new idea or skill development and then consider options on how that investment can be met.

Now their team leaders (or executives) can readily invite their team members (using the option solving technique) to produce the right question relative to key considerations: see the latest example. Between them they can arrive at “bookends” to challenge their intuitive minds’ creative capabilities: at one end, Leave it to my boss to take care of, at the other end, Postpone the investment. These are clear options, but the least likely ones. Ultimately they can come up with a range of potential viable options to cover the likely investment. From this they can choose the best payback option. (Note: Where a team member is already acquainted with option solving – see book – they can figure out the likely options themselves and then propose the best pay-back option.)

The outcome: either a pay-back solution to cover the required investment – hence a zero-sum-game outcome – or proposers agree to put their suggestion on hold for the time being. This way proposers’ initiatives are not squashed arbitrarily (for pure budgetary reasons) and innovation is encouraged: even if the two parties agree to postpone it for the time being. (Note: During difficult times like these, it is potentially the moment where initiative is strangled rather than encouraged.)

Where they agree to proceed because they have found a suitable pay-back option, now they have to go and slug it out with their Controller! Never an easy task at moments like these, but this is where Controllers and their leaders have to become that much more flexible, in order to encourage organization innovation. That’s the key ticket right now. It is called Zero-Option Investing.

Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Forward-Looking Options: figuring out where the organization should go next.”  Make your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the author.)

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Option Solving: Sometimes the Initial Question is not the Right Question

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

For those of you who have followed this Option Solving blog, you will have been struck by the importance of framing the right initial question. This remains a key step and could therefore have an important impact on the outcome.

 For instance, working with some colleagues recently, we spent some time working through the right question for launching a new service. What was our best option?

 We devised a question, came up with “bookends” (see book), and then started digging out interesting options. It was only then that we realized we were asking a less than optimal question. Instead of focusing on the service model, which we had pretty good instincts about, we came to the conclusion that we needed to focus on the initial marketing and launch of any such service.

 So giving ourselves a time period to disengage and re-engage afresh, we started forming a question around our initial marketing options.  This took us in a more productive direction and in due time we had formulated a different question.

 Consequently, Option Solving facilitators and practitioners, be ready to change the question if your instincts indicate you could be going off course.

Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Payback Options: to cover the cost of organization investments.”  Make your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the author.)

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  • CEO Coaching and Leadership Training From Vistage

    CEO Coaching and Leadership Training From Vistage

  • Six Principles of Option Solving

    1. Ask the right contextual question and frame the possibilities through bookends
    2. Be imaginitive and think "Out of the Box"
    3. Avoid asking "how, why, when or where" until the best option is identified
    4. Avoid excluding any option until all options have emerged
    5. Allow participants to support a less than conclusiv option
    6. Accept hunches or gut feelings