In business I used what I call “process management.” I set an objective, planned steps to get there, measured quarterly to evaluate how we were doing, evaluated obstacles, evaluated the likelihood we would reach our objective, evaluated other objectives, and changed the plan accordingly. At the end of the year we had reached a good outcome. Success! In this way, you achieve the agility you need without the 40% risk of failure presented by Dave Snowden’s Cynefin framework, while retaining the probing of new directions.

Process Management includes the following:

Use Diversity Thinking: We often think of only one solution, such as being a psychiatrist. This involved a lack of being properly informed about roles in a school in which Groupthink only thought the path for psychologists was to become a clinical psychologist, and of limited imagination, and of clarification of goals. Be creative.

Use Risk Management: In business I always evaluated goals based on both success and risk. Sometimes the risks can be more consequential than reaching your goal. For example, in the technology field a new product can be outdated before it hits the shelves.

Red Team: The Red Team is a devil’s advocate. It uses an adversarial approach to challenge plans, assumptions, and strategies, deliberately introducing diverse, contrarian perspectives (diversity of thought) to uncover vulnerabilities and biases like groupthink, ultimately strengthening decisions and improving resilience by thinking like an adversary to improve one's own plans.

Diversity of Thought: Actively brings varied perspectives, backgrounds, expertise, and thinking styles (including contrarian views) into the decision-making process. attack the plan, find flaws, and identify risks. This process forces deeper critical analysis, overcomes inherent biases, and strengthens the final decision, making it more likely to succeed in complex or challenging environments.

Use Risk Assessment: An example of risk assessment is in the technology field, which moves very quickly. You can make major investments in developing something just to have a new process make it obsolete before it ever hits the market. Basing a move to a new job or city in today’s job market requires deep research to understand how a new job might be affected by automation and artificial intelligence. The job might be enhanced, displaced, or replaced. Selling your home and investing in another means losing fees to realtors, closing costs, and finance fees, that should enter into the decision.

Agility: Rather than following dead ends or doing endless questioning that stops the project in people's minds, you retain the ability for quick action to modify direction and attain the best results.

How comprehensively have you thought out your proposed decision? Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 5:

1. The Internal Drive (Self-Actualization)

• Individuation & Self-Realization: Moving from a "social mask" to your true nature.
• Mastery & Competence: The satisfying "click" of being good at what you do.
• Independence: The freedom to think and act without "Groupthink" contamination.
• Self-Efficacy: The quiet confidence that you can handle the challenge.

2. The Creative Tension (The Stretch)

• Challenge & Discovery: Stepping into the unknown (The "Snow Caveat" mindset).
• Responsibility & Leadership: The weight of being the person others rely on.
• New Purpose: Finding a fresh "Why" that justifies the effort of the "How."
• Growth: Moving to a level where you are stretched, but not broken.

3. The Outward Echo (The Legacy)

• Helping Others: Directly impacting the lives of individuals.
• Contribution to Society: Being a brick in the wall of a better civilization.
• Something Larger than Self: Connecting your daily work to a transcendent purpose (Frankl’s "Creative Value").

3. Sounding board words for resonance

• Creativity
• Discovery
• Helping others
• Responsibilty
• Accomplishment and Achievement
• Challenge
• Making a contribution to work and society
• Self-efficacy
• Independence of work and thought
• Leading others
• Mastery
• Moving to the level you are competent
• Moving to a level where you can find personal and position growth
• Finding new purpose
• Being stretched beyond existing work and responsibilities
• Individuation: Becoming a whole, integrated self, involving the conscious integration of all aspects of the personality, including the unconscious.
• Self-Realization: Often used interchangeably with self-actualization, it emphasizes discovering one's true nature, with some views differentiating it as more internally focused than self-actualization's external pursuits.
• Being part of something larger in purpose

The "Vibrancy" Test:

The user should check the boxes in the "Sounding board words" list first

Scan your list of "Compelling Traits." Look at your current decision. How many of these boxes does this path actually tick?

Step 1: Count your compelling traits. Step 2: Apply the rating (0, 3, or 5) to your final matrix.

• 3 or fewer: This is a "Safety" decision. It might pay the bills, but it may lead to the "One-sidedness" Jung warned about. Rate it zero.
• 4 to 7: This is a "Growth" decision. It will challenge you and provide meaning. Rate it 3.
• 8 or more: This is a Vocation. This is a path that will compel you to get out of bed, even when it’s snowing. Rate it 5.

Rating

Reviews highlight high user satisfaction, with participants finding it effective for career clarity, reducing decision-making stress, and feeling equipped for life changes by using design thinking to explore three distinct 5-year life paths (the expected, the alternative, and the wild card).

Following is a life design exercise where you create three distinct, five-year future scenarios to explore possibilities beyond your current path, helping you make intentional choices and overcome fear of the "wrong" decision by focusing on curiosity, values, and prototyping potential lives. It involves imagining your life continuing as is, a life where your current path disappears, and a "blue-sky" life where financial or practical constraints don't matter, all to find more fulfilling, flexible goals.

Create three 5-year plans:

1. Map out three very different futures for the next five years.

• Path 1: (Stay on Course): Your current trajectory, routine, and job.
• Path 2 (Pivot): What if your current path (job/situation) vanished? A different, potentially risky, direction.
• Path 3 (Dream): A "blue-sky" future where money, time, and others' opinions aren't factors.

2. Explore & Prototype:

It's not about rigidly committing but about exploring ideas, identifying what excites you, and testing potential goals through "prototyping" before fully committing.

3. Identify Core Elements:

Look for common themes, values, and energy across the plans to find what truly matters to you.

Why use it?

• Breaks Autopilot: Moves you from passively living to actively designing your life.
• Reduces Fear: Lowers the pressure of picking the "right" path by showing you multiple valid options.
• Fosters Curiosity: Encourages exploration and intentional decision-making over anxiety.
• Applicable Anytime: Useful for anyone at any life stage, especially during transitions or when feeling stuck.

For more help with this, view Designing Your Life: Creating Odyssey Plans on Youtube.

Use this life plan for comparison to the paths you are considering.

Odyssey Alignment Score (1 to 10):

Unconscious biases and felt-meaning are two distinct cognitive phenomena that differ fundamentally in their nature, origin, and impact on behavior.

Unconscious biases are mental shortcuts (heuristics) based on social patterns. You are typically unaware they are influencing you. Felt-meaning is a non-verbal "knowing" physically sensed in the body—a tightness, an unease, or a sense of "rightness."

How to Differentiate:

• Speed: Bias is instant and "snappy." Felt-meaning is slow and develops as you focus.
• Body Sensation: Bias is often a sharp reaction (fight/flight). Felt-meaning is a "carrying" sensation (heavy, tight, jumpy).
• Effect of Naming: Once bias is named, it feels like a "rule." Once felt-meaning is named accurately, the body experiences a "shift" or release.

Research demonstrates that we “feel” thoughts driven by emotion. Following Eugene Gendlin’s work, we look for directions that feel "Vivid and Vibrant" rather than "Flat or Dry."

Comparison: Apprehension vs. Intuition