Considering Options

This next phase of problem solving presumes that the group has "owned" the problem, and they have thoroughly explored their understanding of the situation and their definition of exactly what is problematic. They have also revisited whether the organization has the will to address the problem. There is enough consensus on the problem that attention turns to exploring solutions.

As in the previous phase, there is a dramatic example to review.

The first step is to frontload the discussion with a significant volume of possibilities. It is critical to deflect any evaluation of options at this point. The goal is to cross-fertilize each others' creativity. Even a vague, ridiculous, or half-baked idea may spark a thought in another that matures later on into the needed solution.

The prototypical tool for this stage is brainstorming, a strategy for rapid-fire, generative, loose exploration of any and all possible solutions.

What makes an option attractive to you?
For the options you discarded, what made you toss them out?
What are all the different reasons why you like one option over another?

The next step is not to select among the items generated, but to back off and ask "What criteria are reflected in your assessment of these options?" Perhaps one person is focusing on options they consider cost effective. Someone else is drawn to options that are a good fit with the culture. Another person is focusing on options that would be truly novel and energizing. Still another is wanting to push for choices that would be acceptable to major stakeholders. So rank ordering the list becomes important as a way to surface the dimensions used in the ranking rather than for determining the #1 choice!

Now the criteria become the focus of attention. What criteria should we be using? What are the merits or pitfalls of the criteria proposed? Are there some criteria that should "trump" others? Is there a relative weighting between the criteria?

The real work in this phase is using the criteria discovered in the previous step to re-work the original list. Rather than just "apply" the criteria to rank order the available options, the process is both more creative and more disciplined:

• What feature of each option makes it high on our key criteria?
• How could we use those criteria to re-package, re-group, re-slice, re-dice, or re-configure those options to improve their value?
• As new options emerge, do they sharpen our understanding of the criteria?

While the problem types provide powerful guides for developing solutions, there are some additional suggestions that may help you be even more thorough in this effort.

This phase may cycle back on itself several times. The work is iterative rather than linear. But the phase is complete when the group is confident in their selected option, and equally confident the organization will tolerate the changes required. So the next step is implementing solutions.