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

“We have a bias for busyness, and it keeps us from pausing to learn,” from WSJournal article by Professor Bradley D. Staats, University of North Carolina Business School, July 2018.

We’re all guilty of the “busyness” trap because we’ve been conditioned that way. Many experiments have been held to demonstrate that people who stay in their offices late typically get better performance reviews than those who don’t: even though the latter grouping often contribute more value to their organizations. Is this the time to change that paradigm?

Professor Staats quoted Thomas J. Watson, Snr, the long time CEO of IBM, as saying; in line with his frustration at the lack of good ideas coming from his Sales Managers at a particular meeting: “The trouble with everyone one of us is that we don’t think enough. Knowledge is the result of thought, and thought is the keynote of success in this business or any business.”

Such a viewpoint is potentially reinforced by one of Einstein’s notable quotes: “There’s no expedient that man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.”

It’s within this framework that we should reinforce our case for utilizing an approach like Option Solving – the opportunity to think through our options before acting on key issues. Not only does option solving challenge you to think through your key possibilities – it recommends that you formulate at least five different options, rather than dwell on the normal one or two – it also enables you to leverage your immense intuitive capabilities before making optimal decisions.

Let’s take a case example in point. A former client sales leader recently moved to another division because she became overly frustrated, for the umpteenth time, at the politics that were being played around her group. She was convinced that a prominent team leader from another group was constantly undermining all the good things she was doing. Finally, her nemesis’s activities caused this client to make an appeal to her boss: “Please change the situation with this person or else help me find a similar position in another division.” Despite her stellar performance, my client’s boss encouraged her to make the move.

If luck had been this writer’s way, he would have encouraged his Sales Manager client to pause and consider all her options first in order to flush out an optimum solution.  Your writer would have encouraged her to tease-out an optimal answer from her considerably experienced brain by producing a question like: “What is my best option for handling my political nemesis; considering 1) my team is doing pretty well, 2) I have a strong track-record, 3) my boss still appears to still want me around, and 4) my nemesis is unlikely to change his behavior?” With such a question, we now have this client thinking rather than doing.

Because our intuitive mind is the component that makes all our decisions, as opposed to many thinking that it’s their rational mind which decides; we also have to be cognizant that our immensely powerful intuitive mind is somewhat capricious unless it is well focused.  So in option solving we use a focusing trick called “bookends.” Bookends are extreme yin and yang possibilities that will focus our well-informed intuition by rejecting such options out-of-hand, because they are unworkable. However, they have the advantage of provoking our creative intuition to start coming-up with more appropriate and realistic options. (Note: In this particular case – the yin could be; “Just ignore the whole situation,” and the yang; “Make a deal with my nemesis.” Neither would be workable in the circumstances.)

In this instance, this sales executive’s intuitive mind conceived six immediate, realistic options that included:

» Cement my team’s support for my leadership.

» Insert a key team member between myself and this political nemesis.

» Build a stronger working bond with this person’s current boss.

» Encourage stronger team bonding so it will excel in its mission.

» Move to another division when a replacement sales leader is appointed.

» Form an immediate cabal of potential team leader candidates from within my group,

   to help me hold the fort until one emerges for promotion to my position.

Once such options have been defined, it is best to allow for some emotional distancing or objectivity time: be that a couple of hours or, even better, sleep on it – briefly review when you wake and follow your instincts.

You’ve already noticed that the act of going through the option solving exercise causes us to “think before we act,” especially on key issues. It allows us to deep dive into our reservoir of knowledge and experience gained over our lifetime. Given the time to think and reflect your intuition will guide you toward an optimal option within current known circumstances. The trick now is to convert your intuitive choice into an action initiative – What, How, Who, When and Where. Put this together while your thoughts are fresh and don’t change your mind, since your intuition is likely to be more prescient than your second guessing.

Using Option Solving at a key moment could well have helped this former client continue to lead her team. Instead of feeling the pressure to act, she could have engaged in option solving. This would’ve helped her cool down and think through her next best move and circumvent her nemesis in an adroit manner. It’s a technique that will “help you think before you act,” as well as enable you to come up with some pretty smart solutions.

What current leadership dilemma are you facing? Why not take a look at option solving instead? You can find out more on www.optionsolving.com.

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