OPTIMULL™

"strategically directed, tactically flexible"

OPTIMULL™ is an acronym which reminds us in a high change environment, where nothing stays the same for very long, that the only thing certain is uncertainty--we can optimize any system through strategic integrity and tactical adaptability.

On the front-end I have to give credit to Dr. Joel Rothaizer for providing the 'OPT' to add to 'IMULL'; a model outlining importance, motivation, urgency, leverage and low-hanging fruit.

Joel saw the advantage of including Opportunity, PAAR and Tensions along with IMULL to model the effects of optimization utilizing the OPPOR+unity coaching interaction model of the COACH2 System, the acronym PAAR, which accounts for power, accountability, authority and responsibility; and tension between personal, professional, business and network effects.

In the model that follows, you'll get a glimpse into a very powerful set of constructs that anyone can use to optimize their lives and business.

It's important to note that we didn't choose MAXIMULL, as we could have. OPTIMULL™ conditions create sustainability and require us to consider that we won't look for maximization strategies which are designed to maximize one area over another, but optimization strategies that create optimum and sustainable advantage. The other critical point about OPTIMULL™ as a strategic design is to promote the third win, as we discuss in generati--win-win-win.

“The last thing one knows is what to put first.” – Blaise Pascal

Strategic Optimization

In an optimization design there is always crisis and opportunity. In the following paragraphs, I hope to demonstrate how clearly a system based on OPTIMULL™ Dynamic Inquiry is efficient, effective and sustainable in terms of execution and results.

OPTIMULL™ Being - A Novel Approach to Enlightenment

…or have you taken your acronyms today!

What if you didn’t have to change?

What then?

What if things stayed the same, but you suddenly became resilient?

What would have to happen if you didn’t “get” enlightened?

These are the questions that I will answer in the following paragraphs. However, I’m not going to answer them without showing you the OPTIMULL™ approach.

At the outset, OPTIMULL™ is an acronym that represents the following processes:

ü      OPPORTUNITY

ü      PAAR

ü      Tensions

ü      Importance

ü      Motivation

ü      Urgency

ü      Leverage

ü      Low-Hanging Fruit

Enlightenment has been thought of in spiritual terms as nirvana, the place we are all trying to go to, to become, to realize. In my view, it’s a worthy pursuit, except for one thing. We don’t have to go anywhere to create enlightenment. We don’t have to develop, we can hire it done!

Blasphemous you say?

Isn’t enlightenment about our own “individual” work? Isn’t enlightenment about dog days of meditation, sacrifice, discipline and the 8-fold path?

And I quote:

It is the Noble Eightfold Path, the way that leads to the extinction of suffering, namely:

  1. Right Understanding, 2. Right Mindedness, which together are Wisdom.

  3. Right Speech, 4. Right Action, 5. Right Living, which together are Morality.

  6. Right Effort, 7. Right Attentiveness, 8. Right Concentration, which together are Concentration.

This is the Middle Path which the Perfect One has found out, which makes one both to see and to know, which leads to peace, to discernment, to enlightenment, to Nirvana. Free from pain and torture is this path, free from groaning and suffering; it is the perfect path. Truly, like this path there is no other path to the purity of insight. If you follow this path, you will put an end to suffering. But each one has to struggle for himself, the Perfect Ones have only pointed out the way.   -The Eightfold Path BUDDHA 500 B.C.E.

While its not my intention to criticize the Buddha, you will notice that the Buddha is quoted as saying that “each one has to struggle for himself.” This is where OPTIMULL™ comes to the forefront of yet another path to enlightenment which is not an individual struggle, but a holistic approach to involving other people, places, things, ideas, processes, systems and relationships.

There is a key point of differentiation to the philosophy underlying the Buddha’s methods—which I believe are sound—and OPTIMULL™. Rather than attempting growth—not to rule it out—pretend no one has to change or grow.

What if no one had to change or grow?

You might say what kind of world would we have?

For one moment, let’s suspend your assumption that you have to change.

If you couldn’t change, but you had to resolve your existential contingencies…pay the light bill, get the kids to school, satisfy customers, etc.; what would have to happen?

In OPTIMULL™ this is called an OPPORTUNITY.

OPPORTUNITY = OPPOR + UNITY and is represented as an acronym to help you remember that in every OPPORTUNITY there is:

ü      Openings

ü      Possibilities

ü      Plans

ü      Outcomes

ü      Commitment to RightAction

ü      +

ü      UNITY in all.

You see, each OPPORTUNITY breaks down into a challenge to identify openings—those causes, effects, expectations, requirements that translate into issues that create existential tension, which we’ll discuss in a moment. It makes no sense to work in gaps. They are representative of our limitations and unlike the Buddha, I believe that gap work is only for the minority that finds improving oneself, the major opening. To most people, improving oneself is a secondary concern related to resolving the tensions between means and ends. Yes, it happens, but not by motivation, usually by pressure of some form.

Next, each OPPORTUNITY presents us with the ideas that are held within the context of generating possibilities—those elements of infinite potential that create the seeds of innovation—a very important part of creating holistic experiences.

After possibilities, OPPORTUNITY brings us to developing plans—means of resolving the tensions created by the issues. OPTIMULL™ is not about planning, it is however about the development of plans.

Before plans are executed however, we must preview the outcomes of those opening, possibilities and plans. Previewing is a way of creating confidence and efficiency in our commitments.

When OPPORTUNITY becomes OPPOR + UNITY, we gain commitments to RightACTION. I define RightACTION as a means to RightRESULTS. There is, I think you will agree, a spiritual connotation in that phrase that provides a deeper level of commitment, so much so that at times, we foster conviction and the necessary perservence to breakthrough seemingly insurmountable barriers.

OPTIMULL™ is OPPORTUNITY.

However, opportunity is just the beginning of enlightment and must be accompanied by other elements in order for us to achieve the no change philosophy.

In some ways, it’s not really about not changing, it’s about causing change to emerge, rather than changing, even though as a result of OPTIMAL™ we do change, but not in the manner of conventional change. We do not remove the gap, we “design” it’s disappearance…!

More on that disappearing act later, for now the next element of OPTIMAL is PAAR:

ü      Power

ü      Accountability

ü      Authority

ü      Responsibility

I’ve created a colorful visual to depict some of the interplay within the PAAR constituents.

While PAAR is more complex than we can treat it here, let’s just say that PAAR is everywhere and to make it OPTIMULL™, you have to identify where it is, what it is, what you want it to be, what is possible and then use it in the system to generate the necessary limits of design and the use of those resources in that design…whew! I realize that’s not entirely straightforward, but essentially, every existential condition has a PAAR combination. When you try to resolve PAAR, you must approach it with an adequate supply of each element: power, accountability, authority and responsibility. This is the easiest management tool to use I’ve ever seen and a very effective one as well, when applied through the OPPORTUNITY model.

TENSIONS

Quite simply tension are the interrelationships in terms of domains, perspectives and time that are created when attempts at resolving differences or dissonance are executed. We don’t try to get rid of tensions, we try to manage or lead them in our favor. Even to the point, where we consider the global impact of these tensions and how they can be orchestrated to produce sustainable, or OPTIMULL™ effects. Here’s a chart of tensions show in our RCAP Model: Rubic’s Cube Analogy Protocol.

OPT + IMULL

IMULL is a short acronym we use as a checklist in business coaching:

ü      Importance

ü      Motivation

ü      Urgency

ü      Leverage

ü      Low-hanging Fruit

This short and sweet checklist says so much about the OPTIMULL™ System of Enlightenment. Remember, no one has to change, but everyone has to have the OPTIMULL™ conversation, change AND enlightenment come from that!

If you’re interested in discovering the rest of the story, you might want to continue this discussion with me by subscribing to my premium services at: www.ontheprofessionaledge.com.