Generate Options

Learning objectives

25 min · 221 words

◆Recognize false dilemmas in your own thinking.
◆Apply techniques to generate more and better options.
◆Evaluate the option set before evaluating any single option.

The false-dilemma trap

Evidence

Nutt's (1999) study of managerial decisions found that roughly half were framed as a single yes/no rather than as a choice among alternatives, and these single-option decisions failed at nearly twice the rate of multi-option ones. When the mind sees two paths, it usually needs a third to think well.

Widen before narrowing

Evidence

Heath and Heath (2013) collected the standard widening moves: consider the 'and,' not just the 'or'; ask what someone you admire would do; look for people who have solved this problem before; imagine you cannot pick your current top option and must find another. Each move breaks the frame that produced the false dilemma.

Quantity produces quality

Evidence

Creativity research (Osborn; more recently Nemeth) consistently finds that generating more options produces better final choices, provided the generation step is separated from the evaluation step. Judging as you go kills options that would have combined into stronger ones. First list, then judge.

The five-option rule

KAF Original

Before picking, insist on at least five plausible options — even if some feel weak. Weak options do two things: they clarify why the strong ones are strong, and they occasionally combine into a better option than any single one on the list. The temple version: no important decision gets made with fewer than five candidates on paper.

Apply the framework

Practice · instant feedback

Answer each counted scenario correctly at least once to unlock the Ready badge.

Generate options
1. You are choosing between staying at your job or quitting. What move best defeats a false dilemma?

Reflect before you answer

Saved to your Journal

1. Take a decision currently framed as yes/no. Generate five options — including two that feel unlikely. What do the unlikely options reveal?

2. Ask one person who has faced a similar decision what options they considered that you have not.

Knowledge check

Answer all 3 to submit. 70% or higher to complete this lesson.