Our social media feeds are constantly filled with false choices. Take, for example, every LinkedIn survey you see in your feed, you are asked to choose between very different alternatives, yet all of them apply and we can’t make a real choice.
In many of our strategies, we create false choices and priorities. “Which one thing must we focus on, we must choose one from these 4 alternatives….”
The problem is, we live in a world of increasing turbulence, disruption, rapid change, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity. We are overwhelmed with good information and data, which too often presents contradicting conclusions.
With the best of intentions, in trying to make sense of the complexity that is part of our real worlds, too often, in looking for simple answers, we structure false choices to the challenges we face.
“We should prioritize this over that…”
“This is more important than that…”
“This is the single thing that we must focus on…”
This is the only thing you need to do to succeed…..
These are pragmatic approaches, they help us understand things and take actions. They aren’t wrong……
But, the problem is, they aren’t completely right, in fact they can be dangerously limiting.
Complex problems can never be reduced to simple solutions and approaches. We have to start looking at “What sets of things do we need to do?” “If we do this, what are the adverse impacts this might have?” “Which set of things are most critical to this addressing this….” “What are the most important actions/choices, now?”
We and our customers struggle with these issues. Too often, in dealing with this complexity, we structure or are presented with false choices. We look at either or, when we need to look at both and.
Sometimes, however, we must choose one thing, but we have to be conscious of the limitations, and alert to knowing when the choice we have made no longer serves us.
Helping our customers choose, with confidence. Helping them make sense of the issues they face, avoiding false choices. Helping our customers recognize there may not be a perfect answer, but paths to dealing with the challenges they face–and how we can help them on that journey.
We yearn for easy choices, we want things to be so simple that we can confidently choose A, B, or C. Unfortunately, the reality is that it is usually all of the above and none of the above.
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