Coaching practices for How to Create Alternatives
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Create Alternatives, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I keep generating "alternatives" but they’re all just minor variations of the same basic approach
- I’ve quietly decided there’s only one acceptable version of my life and I’m white-knuckling toward it
- I have to lay out a few options for people to choose from, and I keep noticing that the order I put them in completely changes which one they latch onto
- I treat every idea on my list as its own separate thing, judging each one solo, and it never occurs to me to mash two of them together
- I pile up so many options trying to be thorough that I drown in them
Practices that may help
- Concept fan: map the solution space before picking a direction
Expand from specific solutions to the broader concept behind them, then generate alternatives at the concept level.
Lateral Thinking, Made Practical - Draft three genuinely different five-year plans
Sketch three distinct five-year lives — not variations on the same theme, but genuinely different directions.
Odyssey Plans: Designing Three Alternative Futures - Sequence information so the most favorable item follows the least favorable
Present a weaker option or negative context first so that your preferred option shines by comparison.
The Contrast Principle, Made Practical - The Third Alternative, Made Practical
The Third Alternative is Stephen Covey’s framework for resolving conflicts not by splitting the difference but by co-creating a solution neither side imagined alone — one that fully meets the deeper needs of both parties. It requires genuine curiosity about the other side’s interests rather than a defense of positions, and rests on integrative negotiation research that consistently finds this approach outperforms positional bargaining. - Combine and build on others’ ideas
Treat every idea as a building block — the best ideas in a session are usually hybrids.
Osborn’s Brainstorming Rules, Made Practical - Limit the option set deliberately
Cap how many alternatives you’ll consider before you start.
Satisficing vs. Maximizing: When “Good Enough” Wins - Generate Options — explore the full range of possibilities before committing
Invite the person to generate as many options as possible before evaluating any of them.
The GROW Model: Coaching Conversations That Actually Move People - Understanding and managing the lure of alternatives
Recognize when comparison to alternatives is inflating their apparent quality — and how to recalibrate.
The Investment Model of Commitment: Why People Stay (and Why They Leave) - Ask what a specific other person would do
Step into a named other’s perspective to access approaches you would not generate as yourself.
Oblique Strategies, Made Practical - Recognize when contrast is being used on you
Awareness of the contrast principle is the antidote — evaluate options against an independent standard, not the presented sequence.
The Contrast Principle, Made Practical
Related concerns
- Should I Share My Alternatives
A strong BATNA is worth revealing; a weak one is better concealed while you work on improving it.
Decide strategically whether to reveal your BATNA
- Generate Options Before Evaluating
Write down what a good outcome actually requires before options are visible.
Elicit your real standards before you look
- Lure Of Alternatives
Recognize when comparison to alternatives is inflating their apparent quality — and how to recalibrate.
Understanding and managing the lure of alternatives
- Third Alternative
The Third Alternative is Stephen Covey’s framework for resolving conflicts not by splitting the difference but by co-creating a solution neither side imagined alone — one that fully meets the deeper needs of both parties. It requires genuine curiosity about the other side’s interests rather than a defense of positions, and rests on integrative negotiation research that consistently finds this approach outperforms positional bargaining.
- Alternative Perspective
Step into a named other’s perspective to access approaches you would not generate as yourself.
Ask what a specific other person would do
- Balanced Alternative Thought
Write a more accurate thought that incorporates all the evidence — not a positive spin, but the actual picture.
Generate a balanced alternative thought
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