Choice Mapping: A Powerful Tool for Better Decision Making
Have you ever heard of or used a choice map in your decision making? Originally designed to help individuals make better choices, I recently came across the suggestion of using choice mapping in an organization in lieu of traditional brainstorming.
The idea is suggested by Sheena Iyengar, author of Think Bigger: How to Innovate. She rightly points out that brainstorming tends to reflect and perpetuate our biases. The thoughts thrown out in a brainstorming session all come from what is already existing within our brains, and often times occurs within a like-minded group of people. Can we get innovation from that?
Iyengar says replace brainstorming with her guide to choice mapping, a process she has broken down into six steps.
Choose the problem (you are looking to address). But don’t take the first phrasing of the problem; keep on reframing it until you’ve landed on the one: that means the one that is both the most meaningful and the one that is truly solvable.
Break it down. Take the problem and break it down to no more than five subproblems. Subproblems are the “pieces” of the larger problem.
Compare wants. Now, think about how you want to feel when the problem is solved. Iyengar says that normally, we think about what we want to achieve by solving the problem. When we focus on achievement, we focus on metrics, which are (theoretically) objective, which, she says, humans aren’t; rather, we are feeling beings. Thus, when we identify how we want to feel once the problem is solved, we are more invested in seeing the problem through to the solution.
Search in and out of the box. Love this! Find two examples of how this problem has been addressed from within your mission area/industry and three solutions from outside your mission area/industry. Love bringing in ways of thinking and doing that are likely to be very different than how it’s always been done.
Create a choice map. Take one solution from each subproblem and combine it into one solution. Don’t create this choice map in the group but let each person do it alone to encourage greater diversity in outcomes. It is with choice mapping that we are confronted with the labels of “judger mindset” and “learner mindset.” Judger mindset is the “fear mindset,” the one that stays within the safety zone of the known. Learner mindset is the “possibility mindset,” the one that lets in creativity and innovation. From all of these different choice maps, let the group pick the top three (or so) solutions.
Third eye text. While I’ve never called it this, it is a test I regularly encourage folks to use for a variety of purposes. In this case, explain each of the proposed solutions to people outside the organization and then ask them to tell you what they heard. Listen to their playback: what is said, what isn’t said, what was rearranged, etc. Take that feedback and finalize the solutions.
Give it a try; see what you think and let us know.