Forced multitracking
Require at least three live options at every stage, because a set of one is a proposal and a set of two is usually a proposal with a decoy.
- Time cost
- 5 min to demand, longer to satisfy
- Output
- At least three options that someone would defend.
- Steps
- 5
Use when
- A recommendation arrives with a single option attached.
- You are about to approve something with no stated alternative.
- A group has converged early and the discussion has become about how rather than whether.
Do not use when
- Generating a third option costs more than the decision is worth.
- Time has genuinely run out and a real option is in hand.
Inputs required
- A decision and whatever options currently exist
Procedure
- 01
Count the live options
Live means someone would defend it. An option nobody would take is not in the set, whatever the document says.
- 02
Refuse a set of one
One option is a proposal. Send it back rather than deciding on it — the decision has already been made by whoever wrote it.
- 03
Distrust a set of two
Two options are often one option plus a strawman. Test by asking whether anyone would genuinely argue for the second.
- 04
Develop options in parallel
Work all three at once rather than in sequence. Sequential development commits to the first before the others are understood, and comparison becomes impossible.
- 05
Keep them live to the end
Do not eliminate early to save effort. The value is in the comparison, and it evaporates when the set collapses to one before the decision point.
Characteristic failure mode
Worked example
A budget request arrives for a single supplier.
- 01One live option. Sent back with a request for three.
- 02Returned with three: the original, a cheaper supplier with a longer lead time, and doing nothing for two quarters.
- 03The third turns out to be defensible, which nobody had considered.
Result
The original supplier still wins, but on a comparison rather than by default — and the do-nothing option reset the price expectation.
Where to go next