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Analysis Is the Critical Starting Point of Strategic Thinking.

— Kenichi Ohmae

Every idea has its pros and cons. Each idea needs to be analyzed and compared with others to determine which are best—those ideas most likely to successfully solve the problem and help the team reach its goals.  Enneagram Change Management Step 5 moves into the analysis phase of problem solving in which the team thoughtfully considers all ideas and develops the pro-con, cost-benefit analysis of each.  This analysis will form the basis for decision making in the next step.

Excerpt from Teamwork 9.0

The transition to Step 5 represents a movement away from emotion-based processing towards logic-based thinking. Enneagram Type 5 is in the Head-Thinking-Anxiety center and the Enneagram dynamic best suited for data collection and detailed analysis.

Recall that Enneagram Type 5 is the internal anxiety type concerned with accumulating resources. This behavior extends to collecting information, making the Type 5 dynamic ideally suited for gathering all the data necessary to properly analyze each idea. With the data at hand, your team can perform cost-benefit analyses, generating the facts crucial to deciding which ideas are most viable for achieving the objectives and solving the problem. During Step 5, your problem-solving team must move into the Type 5 dynamic, carefully and logically analyzing all the promising ideas.

Analysis, Not Paralysis

Most ideas have their good points and bad points, their pros and their cons. It is important for you to move your problem-solving team quickly through the assessment of these pros and cons. If you call a 100-minute team meeting and you have 12 big ideas to examine, keep the pro/con analysis of each idea to 8 minutes. You will find that your team is usually able to discuss the important points of each idea in those 8 minutes. If some are left unsatisfied with the time limit on the discussion, encourage them to elaborate their ideas in a follow up email. By moving to each idea in turn with a fixed time limit, you can avoid getting caught up in minutiae and digressions.

Remember, some of your team members will excel during Step 5 and will want to explore the nuances of each idea. Conversely, others will find this detailed analysis tedious and boring. You want to strike a balance to ensure that the analytical folks have a chance to show off their stuff, while moving quickly to get through all the ideas and keep your entire team engaged.

Recall that in the Ideation step (Step 3), I suggested that you ask participants to set aside their negative reactions to ideas. During the Logical Analysis step, you take the opportunity to revisit those negative reactions. Encourage those who have strong feelings about any idea to communicate their thoughts and feelings at this point.

In the time since team members had their first emotional reaction to an idea, the intensity of that reaction will have subsided. Anyone who had a strong negative reaction will now be in a better state to calmly explain it. I find that letting some time pass is an effective way to rationally explore the emotional reactions to ideas without letting those emotions rule the process.

After spending a few minutes on an idea, would you feel like you had done a proper analysis? Of course not! Often, the team will not have all the information necessary to adequately analyze each idea during the meeting. In order to perform a proper analysis, ask for volunteers. The biggest proponents and/or opponents of a given idea will be usually be eager to collect any additional information the team feels it needs. If the need arises, I may call a separate meeting so the team can review the pros and cons of each idea to everyone’s satisfaction.

At the end of Step 5, your problem-solving team will have a rich set of ideas, with the pros and cons for each idea spelled out. The analytical folks on the team will have chimed in and provided the data and assessment that the team needs to move forward. You are now ready for Step 6, the Planning step, which I affectionately call “finding the path of least danger.”

Do you take the time to carefully analyze the positive ideas generated by your team?  Do you have the team weigh in on all the pros and cons from their diverse perspectives?  How do you avoid overanalyzing ideas and falling into paralysis by analysis?

[Video Transcript]

Having a handful of positive ideas to explore, it’s now time to turn to the left brain activities, starting with analyzing each idea for feasibility. Enneagram Type 5 is often called the analyzer. In Step 5 of problem solving, you want to perform pro/con and cost benefit analysis of each idea. Out of this step comes the top one, maybe two ideas to solve each problem that the team is pursuing.

Thanks for watching. If you found this helpful, click on the thumbs up button, subscribe to the channel and get notifications of future episodes. If you have a question, please leave it in the comment section and I’ll get to it as soon as possible. Thanks again.

Thus the man who is responsive to artistic stimuli reacts to the reality of dreams as does the philosopher to the reality of existence.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

If throwing spaghetti against the wall is Step 3—Ideation, seeing what sticks is Step 4, your feelings about the idea. A positive emotional reaction is like the emotional glue that makes the spaghetti stick to the wall.  In practice, your reaction happens instantaneously upon hearing the idea… That idea is fantastic! Or, that’s a terrible idea! Every idea runs through an emotional filter, the output of which are the positive ideas that your team will have the emotional energy to pursue.

Excerpt from Teamwork 9.0

What is the first thing that happens when you hear a new idea? You have an emotional reaction. That idea is great! Or, that idea sucks! People inevitably have an emotional reaction to any idea. This emotional reaction corresponds to the dynamic of Enneagram Type 4. The reaction happens subconsciously and instantaneously, and can guide much of our thinking thereafter. These first reactions are important to problem solving, and the team needs to pay attention to them.

At the beginning of the ideation session (Step 3), I explain the first-reaction phenomenon to the participants and acknowledge that they will likely experience this. I instruct them that if they have a positive reaction to an idea it is OK to express that. On the other hand, if they have a negative reaction to an idea, then I ask that they hold their thought and think about why they are having that negative reaction. Once they understand why, then I suggest that they redirect that negative energy in a positive direction and imagine an idea more suitable to them. I encourage them to simply share their new idea with the group without objecting to the previous idea.

Think of this technique as idea jujitsu. In other words, have team members re-channel the negative energy from their reaction into a positive idea they can share with the group. This technique is related to the spirit of “Yes, and…” described above, and will maintain the flow of fresh, new ideas. In this way, the team can maintain a high energy level and a positive tone for the duration of the ideation session.

Since emotional reactions to ideas are instantaneous, in practice I find it necessary to conduct Steps 3 and 4 (Ideation and Emotional Reaction) simultaneously. By having team members process their emotional reactions during the ideation session, I find that the group will naturally migrate towards the promising ideas, those ideas with a positive emotional response. The group will tend to elaborate on the ideas that generate the most positive energy. That positive energy will carry into Step 5, in which the team carefully scrutinizes the most promising ideas.

How do feelings about ideas play into your decision making? Do you assess the positive or negative emotional energy associated with each idea?  Do you ensure that that there is enough positive energy behind the ideas you want your team to pursue?

[Video Transcript]

Anytime anyone expresses an idea, you’ll have a reaction. That idea is great or that idea sucks. You can’t help yourself, it happens naturally and instantaneously. Enneagram Type 4 is sometimes called The Artist. They are the type most in tune with the emotional impact of any idea. In step 4, you want to determine the set of ideas that are most favorable to the team. These are the ideas that have the most positive emotional energy, energy your team will need to carry the project through to successful completion. I usually use a simple vote on each idea to make this determination. The combination of the idea, step 3 and reaction, step 4 reminds me of the saying, Throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks.” It’s this combination that allows your team to come up with the ideas that they want to pursue.

Thanks for watching. If you found this helpful, click on the thumbs up button, subscribe to the channel and get notifications of future episodes. If you have a question, please leave it in the comment section, and I’ll get to it as soon as possible. Thanks again.

Thus the man who is responsive to artistic stimuli reacts to the reality of dreams as does the philosopher to the reality of existence.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

If throwing spaghetti against the wall is Step 3—Ideation, seeing what sticks is Step 4, your feelings about the idea. A positive emotional reaction is like the emotional glue that makes the spaghetti stick to the wall.  In practice, your reaction happens instantaneously upon hearing the idea… That idea is fantastic! Or, that’s a terrible idea! Every idea runs through an emotional filter, the output of which are the positive ideas that your team will have the emotional energy to pursue.

Excerpt from Teamwork 9.0

What is the first thing that happens when you hear a new idea? You have an emotional reaction. That idea is great! Or, that idea sucks! People inevitably have an emotional reaction to any idea. This emotional reaction corresponds to the dynamic of Enneagram Type 4. The reaction happens subconsciously and instantaneously, and can guide much of our thinking thereafter. These first reactions are important to problem solving, and the team needs to pay attention to them.

At the beginning of the ideation session (Step 3), I explain the first-reaction phenomenon to the participants and acknowledge that they will likely experience this. I instruct them that if they have a positive reaction to an idea it is OK to express that. On the other hand, if they have a negative reaction to an idea, then I ask that they hold their thought and think about why they are having that negative reaction. Once they understand why, then I suggest that they redirect that negative energy in a positive direction and imagine an idea more suitable to them. I encourage them to simply share their new idea with the group without objecting to the previous idea.

Think of this technique as idea jujitsu. In other words, have team members re-channel the negative energy from their reaction into a positive idea they can share with the group. This technique is related to the spirit of “Yes, and…” described above, and will maintain the flow of fresh, new ideas. In this way, the team can maintain a high energy level and a positive tone for the duration of the ideation session.

Since emotional reactions to ideas are instantaneous, in practice I find it necessary to conduct Steps 3 and 4 (Ideation and Emotional Reaction) simultaneously. By having team members process their emotional reactions during the ideation session, I find that the group will naturally migrate towards the promising ideas, those ideas with a positive emotional response. The group will tend to elaborate on the ideas that generate the most positive energy. That positive energy will carry into Step 5, in which the team carefully scrutinizes the most promising ideas.

How do feelings about ideas play into your decision making? Do you assess the positive or negative emotional energy associated with each idea?  Do you ensure that that there is enough positive energy behind the ideas you want your team to pursue?

[Video Transcript]

Anytime anyone expresses an idea, you’ll have a reaction. That idea is great or that idea sucks. You can’t help yourself, it happens naturally and instantaneously. Enneagram Type 4 is sometimes called The Artist. They are the type most in tune with the emotional impact of any idea. In step 4, you want to determine the set of ideas that are most favorable to the team. These are the ideas that have the most positive emotional energy, energy your team will need to carry the project through to successful completion. I usually use a simple vote on each idea to make this determination. The combination of the idea, step 3 and reaction, step 4 reminds me of the saying, Throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks.” It’s this combination that allows your team to come up with the ideas that they want to pursue.

Thanks for watching. If you found this helpful, click on the thumbs up button, subscribe to the channel and get notifications of future episodes. If you have a question, please leave it in the comment section, and I’ll get to it as soon as possible. Thanks again.

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.

— Linus Pauling

With your committed team assembled, it’s likely everyone is bubbling with ideas about how to solve the problem.  When tackling a big problem, it serves your effort to have the richest possible set of ideas to explore and consider. Include a diverse set of contributors who will approach the problem from as many angles as possible. Step 3 in Enneagram change management is ideation. Making your ideation session fun — perhaps fueling it with caffeinated drinks and sweet pastries — you can generate a lot of ideas in a short time.  I encourage participants to withhold any judgement and negativity, and use improv techniques like “Yes, and…” to generate as many ideas as possible. If your problem is the elephant in the room, one idea is to eat the elephant. How do you do that? One bite at a time!  Keep all ideas—big, small, funny, serious, practical and incredible—there will be time for sorting through them all later.

Excerpt from Teamwork 9.0

Now that you have described your problem in detail, envisioned your goal, and assembled your committed team, you are ready to explore ideas for solving the problem.

By the time you arrive at this point in the process, your team members will likely already have begun chiming in with ideas about how to solve the problem; that is one natural indication that you have arrived at Step 3, the Ideation phase of problem solving. In this step you capture briefly as many ideas as possible in what I call the Ideathon, described below. No idea is “bad” or “impossible.” An idea is just an idea. In practice, I find that the more generous you are in allowing and capturing ideas, the more it inspires your team to generate even more ideas. So be a generous listener and capture them all.

Everyone has ideas, so what makes the Enneagram Type 3 dynamic particularly suited for this step? Remember, the 3 is the core type of the Heart-Feeling-Emotion center, and so suppresses emotion. For those of us who do not suppress emotion, our emotions act as filters on our thoughts. We judge emotionally whether an idea is “good” or “bad.” Our emotional connection with others might inhibit the expression of an idea for fear of how they may respond.

Imagine if you had no emotional baggage associated with any particular idea. Imagine if your ideas weren’t influenced by what others think or how they might respond. Imagine a space where you could express any idea that came to mind, without inhibitions. This is exactly what’s required at this point in problem solving, and that is the space of the Type 3 dynamic.

When generating ideas to solve a problem, what techniques do you use?  How do ensure a rich, diverse set of ideas from which to consider and choose?  Do you include all stakeholders when generating ideas?

[Video Transcript]

Your team will have many ideas for how to solve the problem. Step 3 is when you capture all the ideas. Enneagram Type 3 is called the achiever. They’re constantly looking for ideas that will lead to success. Each team member may have a different idea of what success looks like. You’ll want to understand each member’s perspective. It’s important in this step, not to react negatively to any idea. You want to create a positive environment and encourage everyone to contribute and capture all ideas.

Thanks for watching. If you found this helpful, click on the thumbs up button, subscribe to the channel and get notifications of future episodes. If you have a question, please leave it in the comment section, and I’ll get to it as soon as possible. Thanks again.