by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc.®

“Opportunity is one of the great sources of innovation.”

Have you ever thought about how many decisions you haven’t made owing to perceived risks? In hindsight: How many of those decisions might have worked out quite favorably, if you had moved ahead rather than second-guessed yourself and frozen at those risks? You are undoubtedly one of a fraternity of millions who have done exactly the same.

On the contrary, it’s likely hard for you to guess how many decisions you shouldn’t have taken, because you probably didn’t have a decent frame of reference for monitoring those decisions at the time. Nevertheless, it’s more than likely you have even greater nagging doubts about many of those decisions you should’ve taken: opportunities lost, friends that could’ve been, career moves that were sidestepped, purchases that should’ve been made, an organization upgrade that wasn’t consummated, and so on. But then there’s a whole lot industry of advisers out there that have emerged and thrived on the subject of risk. We’ve been taught to be risk-averse, no matter what! How can we ever release ourselves from that box?

One option is to focus on opportunity rather than risk. Just think about how our eyes light up when people start talking about opportunities. Opportunity thinking is also a departure point for the differences between managers and leaders: where managers are more inclined to focus on risk and leaders are more prone to focus on opportunity. Talking about risk is a way of applying the brake, whereas focusing on opportunity is more about pressing the accelerator.

At this juncture, we’re not suggesting that people ignore risks; far from it. But, instead of putting them front and center that puts the jitters into people, we’re proposing a somewhat different approach toward our decision making. This means we should be thinking about an alternative set of opportunity-principles. These could include:

» At the outset, list all the perceived opportunities associated with a particular situation.

    » Rank order those opportunities in terms of favorability and perceived value.

    » For the most important ones, itemize their particular advantages and likely impact.

    » Define how they can be implemented, in terms of action and time.

    » Determine whether there are alternative options.

    » Clarify the associated key risks with each key opportunity; including whether it should be abandoned owing to those perceived risks. (NOTE: This is done only after the opportunity has been duly considered, not before.)

Once you have thought these opportunity-principles through, now present them to your team or organization leaders who could be involved in pursuing them. Walk them through the above six principles and associated thoughts. Then invite them to review, adjust, eliminate and add to your ideas in a constructive manner. Have a healthy discussion until they are convinced enough to proceed. Now encourage them to take ownership of this particular opportunity and move forward.

How much more traction do you think would be evident through an opportunity-approach? Is it more likely that your chosen “pair” – your author believes there’s more to be gained by utilizing pairs rather than relying on individuals – or own team would move forward with greater confidence, because you haven’t overly focused on the risks? Is it possible that the larger the organization, the more it becomes nervous about the associated risks: consequently it builds bureaucracy as a defense mechanism? If larger sized organizations focused on opportunity instead, wouldn’t that assist its forward momentum and progress, consequently reduce the need for bureaucratic systems?

An important approach to handling opportunities is to map-out associated working-principles. Ideally these should be thought through by the pair or team associated with the particular opportunity. For example: ‘Suppose you decide on allowing your people greater opportunity to experiment within your organization.’ Then the pair/team associated with its associated working-principles could proceed as follows:

» Clarify what you wish to accomplish with this experiment – its likely outcome.

» Determine who would be most impacted by this experiment.

» State the key advantages to be gained from this experiment

» Articulate the key constraints associated with this experiment.

» Outline who would likely be involved in implementing this experiment.

» Formulate the likely resources required to implement this experiment; in terms of people, equipment, etc.

» What related sub-outcomes do you expect to be derived from this experiment?

» Pinpoint any outside advisors that would need to be involved.

» What key risks are associated with any of these working-principles?

(NOTE: Once you have clarified all the above principles, then go ahead and share them with your immediate Executive or Team Leader, along with your recommendations as to when and how to proceed.)

By utilizing such a format of principles, it is clear that any pair or team will have thought through how to pursue their experiment in a fair amount of detail. They would gain the sign-off of their key leader – be that first level, second level or senior leader – consequently any important risks would implicitly be considered. It would also convince the pairs or teams proposing the experiment that their proposal is sound and worthwhile. Hence:

» Experiment as a leader and give the opportunity approach a good trial run.

   » Seek out half-dozen people within your organization and challenge them to experiment in pairs.

   » Diligently follow-through their efforts and encourage opportunity-taking to aid organization progress.

     » Assuming they are successful, acknowledge their efforts and offer simple, inexpensive rewards to celebrate their ultimate success: such as a light lunch, time-off, something for a friend or spouse, and so forth.

   » Publicize their success within your organization to encourage others to step forward.

Within a relatively short while, your people will be making great strides with pursuing all their perceived opportunities.

To learn more about decision-clarity, talk with: