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

“Positioning allows for regular adjustments along the pathway: planning sets a course that’s tough to change.”

Cast your mind back two weeks ago when we reviewed the need for the “UN to Get Its Act Together to Spearhead and Meet Our World Leadership Crisis.”  Our first move after Phase 1 – see adjacent enlightened leadership’s (EL’s) organization building journey, envision and clarify – is to position  ourselves for success and find an optimal pathway forward. At this point, we have the opportunity to draw upon EL’s mode of Option Solving (OS) to figure-out what that optimal way forward – see website  www.optionsolving.com – might be. The question is: How do we get the UN’s attention to do its job on this vital issue?

Below you will find the opening option solving (OS) question needed to start the ball rolling toward finding a potential “optimal,” but NOT perfect, solution. In other words, our best solution may, right now, be lacking in some ways, but we’re pragmatic about it due to so many powerful factors involved. In accord with OS’s approach, our next move is to then devise an appropriate question to test the enormous and fertile creativity of our intuitive minds – relative to our personal openness to test our minds. That question could be:

“What could be our optimum option for eventually addressing our World Leadership Crisis through the UN; considering 1) overcoming entrenched, conventional management forces, 2) enlisting the right institutional support, 3) enlisting the right spokesperson to inspire maximum attention, and 4) engaging the right public forums and media?

As you will also note, we require two OS “bookends” – see final OS paradigm further below – to focus our highly fertile and fluid intuitive minds on the issue at hand. Without that, our mind is likely to flail around with all sorts of possibilities, which, unfortunately, will get us nowhere. However, it’s important that we choose bookends that have some plausibility, but will nevertheless be rejected by our intuitive mind; prior to unlocking its creativity to unearth our most plausible options. You can see the two proposed “bookends” below and, again, in the subsequent OS paradigm:

» Bookend X – Wait for the right catalyst-spokesperson to come along

» Bookend Y – Seek major financial backer to launch campaign

(NOTE – Our intuitive minds will most likely consider the impediments with these, but brush them aside.)

From there, we can now explore a range of plausible options – A thru E –  with the aim of trying to produce at least 5 alternative options. Our normal decision mode is to pick two alternatives – this or that – with the possibility of being 50% incorrect. Whereas, if we have a least 5 options, not only will it stretch our intuitive minds to produce a range of possibilities, but it will also reduce our odds of being wrong to around 20% or less. Our potential options could be as follows – see also in our later, full paradigm – in no order of preference:

» Option A – Seek out natural people “connectors” to help reach viable influencers

» Option B – Enlist luminaries that may have relationships with notable leaders

» Option C – Enlist prime leadership organizations, e.g. US Chamber of C, to lead the way

» Option D – Find talented, volunteer leader-spokesperson to act as key catalyst

» Option E – Seek wider audience support, e.g. LinkedIn, to aid Option D

» Option F – Open to suggestions by readers of this Phase 2 article(NOTE: You are welcome to replace any of this author’s suggestions.)

Now let us take a look at our complete, proposed option solving (OS) paradigm, ready for us to make an optimum decision – subject to suggestions for Option F from readers:

Relative to the above OS paradigm, you are now invited to call upon you intuitive mind to choose one of the five A-E options to optimally meet our opening question. Alternatively, if you feel you can suggest a viable Option F, your author will be delighted to include it for consideration by readers in the option range of A-F.

At this moment, subject to learning of Option F or other better suggestions, your editor is somewhat drawn to Option D –Find talented, volunteer leader-spokesperson to act as key catalyst. However, he doesn’t in any way see himself in that capacity, since, quite apart from aging limitations, he is totally preoccupied with producing his book – “So You Want to Lead? – ….” – which could prove to be a useful adjunct to this worthy campaign. So, if any one of you have someone in mind, that would be most welcome. Again, bearing in mind the possibility that one of you might propose a yet to be revealed option F, that could delay your final choice.

Once we have clarified our optimal option as a way forward, we can then consider a part 2 of Phase 2; which could involve “Peeling the Onion” to reveal a substantive sub-Option proposal. This would enable us to bring even greater clarity to our optimal way forward. We really look forward to your participation as a starting point to finding a solution to this vexing World Leadership issue.

The good news is that we have better leaders in our midst than many of the ones we have today! We just have to find a more positive way to bring them forward, especially as some of them are too humble – and politically horrified – to thrust themselves forward.