I am a bit of a gardener. More because I like the physical work than the “creations” that result. Which means all my talk of VEGetables and hard-smart work of late is right up my alley (check out my recent blogs here).

Just to recap, VEG stands for Values, Environment and Genes, the three key factors that most influence your personal biases and hard-smart work is you going the extra mile that your competitors don’t.

What makes gardening interesting is all the options you have, the process you go through of deciding and the journey you travel as you implement your decision. There-in lies a secret to successful management of the blind spots to our decision making I have been talking about: Options.

Options not only help provide an intriguing journey of discovery, they help you overcome your blind spots. If you insist that every significant request of senior management for a decision is accompanied by several options, you and your team are forced to look at the original option in a different light.

Options. A very simple tool to manage your blind spots. Think of alternative ways of achieving the same goal.