Somewhere along the line I had read that being a manager means having to choose between a set of of alternatives, often with limited information. Yes sometimes that happens, but good management practice would suggest the best become experienced at creating additional alternatives and gaining additional information. That is truly a skill of the most successful managers.
They are either adept through experience at seeing alternatives that subordinates and other do not see or creative at developing additional alternatives. Additional alternatives are sometimes the alternative answer to a problem, or the leverage to move the original problem to a more acceptable position.
Example #1
I know of a not for profit organization that leased a dormitory styled building for training temporary special needs residence, over the years the organization that owned the building and the organization which ran the program had become two separate organizations where as they had previously been one organization. Because of the long standing relationship there had never been a lease, just an understanding. As management of the organizations changed and they became more removed from one another the organization owning the property decided to one year, on short notice, double the lease on the property and transfer utility and maintenance responsibility to the group leasing the property, this was an egregious and punitive increase. The alternatives to choose between seemed to be to pay the increase and then look for alternatives, or close the facilities. Building another facility would have taken too long and other traditional dormitory or similar facilities were either too large or not available.
