3. Generate Alternative Solutions
During this stage you will generate a range of possible courses of action, but with little attempt to evaluate them at this stage.
The focus of this step is to generate the number of potentially viable solutions (i.e. when one member suggests a solution, other members offer reasons why it will not work). After the group has exhausted its ideas for alternative solutions, combine aspects of previously generated solutions. Some solutions are likely to integrate the best aspects of various ideas and also are more likely to find consensus in the group.
In a group situation this stage is often carried out as a brain-storming session, letting each person in the group express their views on possible solutions (or part solutions). In organization’s different people will have different expertise in different areas and it is useful, therefore, to hear the views of each concerned party.