T1 – Solutions


This is a draft of the manual for public review. If you have any comments, please email them to info@omimo.org. Please check back for the final version.

Leaders are needed to achieve results, and they do that through solutions. That’s why the solutions category is in the center of the behavioral model in the Compass. All the other categories of the Compass are needed only because they serve this core category.

What’s a solution?

This Compass uses the word “solution” in a broad sense with several meanings, including the following:

There’s a hierarchy of solutions: There are massive ones, such as projects and programs, which in turn contain smaller ones, such as tiny innovations. In general, the output of most decisions can be considered to be solutions.

Who designs solutions?

Sometimes, the leader is the person who designs a solution (e.g., how to resolve a conflict), but they usually lead other people to design the necessary solutions.

Regardless of who designs solutions, the leader needs to employ certain behaviors to support the proper design of solutions. These are the behaviors described in this category.

Decisions

Each solution represents one or a few decisions.

Decisions are unavoidable: Not making an explicit decision when one is required or possible is also a decision, albeit an implicit one. A good leader acknowledges both types.

Adaptation

Having great solutions is not enough; we also need to adapt to changes in our environment and improve those solutions to get better results. That’s why adaptation is the outer category around solutions.

Behaviors

The following are the expected behaviors for leaders related to solutions:

  1. You direct solutions based on their alignment with a vision for a desirable future.
  2. You ensure that the benefits of doing anything justify its investment relative to its alternatives.
  3. You break down big or complex subjects into smaller, more manageable ones.
  4. You understand the cognitive biases of yourself and people around you and limit the impact of those biases on solutions.
  5. You increase support and approval of high-impact people by involving them in shaping solutions.
  6. You improve solutions by considering relevant, diverse perspectives.
  7. You ensure that enough information (not too much and not too little) about the subject is gathered and analyzed before a solution is formed.
  8. You ensure that both convention and innovation are considered when designing a solution.
  9. You ensure that superficial hypes are avoided when designing a solution.
  10. You select the more sustainable, higher-quality solutions from among those that are similarly justifiable.
  11. You ensure that an appropriate amount of time (not too much and not too little) is spent planning the solution upfront.
  12. You ensure that solutions in your area are compatible with those that others create in related areas.
  13. You don’t act too conservatively out of fear of failure but rather take measured, reasonable risks.