Effort
Solution Phase is not measured in calendar weeks. It's measured by the depth of consensus achieved and the rigor with which alternatives have been explored, structured, and validated.
Effort by complexity
| Scenario | Required activities | Depth |
|---|---|---|
| Scoped solution, few stakeholders | 1 divergence session + 1 structuring + 1 convergence + 1-2 validation rounds. | Alternatives are few and clear. Consensus is reached within one iteration cycle. |
| Medium solution, multiple stakeholders | 2 divergence sessions + 2 structuring with complete trees + 1-2 convergence + 2-3 client validation rounds + 2-3 internal alignment. | Alternatives require deep exploration across all 4 dimensions. Consensus requires multiple iterations with different groups. |
| Complex solution, organizational impact | Extensive divergence + deep structuring across 4 dimensions + critical assumption verification + multiple validation rounds + formal organizational consensus + Pre-Execution Scorecard. | Each dimension has ramifications affecting multiple stakeholders. Consensus requires formal, documented alignment. |
Effort allocation
A healthy Alignment process dedicates significant effort to structuring and validation. Skipping structuring produces decisions based on intuition instead of analysis.
The most common mistake is spending 80% of the effort on ideation and convergence and 20% on everything else. The ratio should be closer to 30/70: 30% generating and choosing, 70% structuring, validating, and aligning.
If the effort invested in Solution Phase is significantly less than that invested in Problem Phase, you're probably underestimating the complexity of consensus. If it's more than double, you're probably over-analyzing or have an organizational alignment problem that this phase cannot solve.