Group Decision Making

Group Decision Making

Let's define what is Group Decision Making, decisions made by committees, think tanks, teams and groups. They may include borrowers, lenders, producers, buyers, scientists and other experts, environmentalists, and real estate developers and so on.

Decision making skills is one of the most important aspects of management. It involves personal and interpersonal skills, fact finding, logical thinking, creativity, analytical ability, sensitivity to others and assertiveness

What are the key steps in making a decision?

Whether decisions are straightforward or complex, a systematic approach will lead to success.

* Setting objectives

An objective is a specific step, a milestone, which enables you to accomplish a goal. Setting objectives involves a continuous process of research and decision-making. Knowledge of yourself and your unit is a vital starting point in setting objectives. Strategic planning takes place at the highest levels; other managers are involved with operational planning. The first step in operational planning is defining objectives - the result expected by the end of the budget (or other designated) cycle. Setting right objectives is critical for effective performance management. Such objectives as higher profits, shareholder value, and customer satisfaction may be admirable, but they don't tell managers what to do. They fail to specify priorities and focus. Such objectives don't map the journey ahead - the discovery of better value and solutions for the customer. The objectives must be focused on a result, not an activity, be consistent, be specific, be measurable, be related to time, be attainable.

* Collecting information

There are several ways to gather information. You can collect information from people, documents, performance data, and observation of events. Also, there are a number of methods for gathering information, including traditional measurement approaches such as tests and ratings, as well as more investigative procedures such as observation, interviews, case studies, and literature review. Each of the chapters in this handbook contains key criteria for the development and use of an effective technology infrastructure. If you employ these criteria as a guide, the first part of your evaluation will really be an audit in the sense that you will be looking retrospectively at the work you've done and determining if it meets the needs of all end users

* Identifying alternative solutions

Once some solutions are found, try to find and alterative to each solution to see if it will work better than the original.

* Evaluating options

* Selecting the best option

What techniques can I use when making decisions?

These might include:

* Brainstorming

A brainstorming session is a tool for generating as many ideas or solutions as possible to a problem or issue. It is not a tool for determining the best solution to a problem or issue. Before beginning any effective brainstorming session, ground rules must be set. This doesn't mean that boundaries are set so tightly that you can't have fun or be creative. It does mean that a code of conduct for person to person interactions has been set. It's when this code of conduct is breached that people stop being creative. The best way to have meaningful ground rules is to have the team create their own. Try performing a mini-brainstorming session around creating brainstorming ground rules. It should provide a nice opportunity to practice the skills necessary for an effective brainstorming session. This also allows the team to take ownership of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. Only if the team hasn't addressed the key ground rules should you (as the facilitator) add to the list. Once the ground rules list is generated be sure to gain consensus that the session will be conducted according to them, and post them in a highly visible location in the room.

* Lateral thinking

Lateral thinking an unorthodox approach to problem solving, often looking at a problem from other sides rather than head on. In the face of fast-changing trends, fierce competition and the need to work miracles despite tight budgets, better quality and service are not enough. Creativity and innovation are the only engines that will drive lasting success. Lateral Thinking is essential. Instead of linear or vertical thinking, which relies solely on logic, Lateral Thinking™ is a deliberate, systematic process of using your ability to think in a different way. These proven methods make insight, creativity, and innovation happen. We know creative thinking is a skill that can be learned and we will show you how with these methods.

* Lack of Response

The most common--and perhaps least visible--group decision-making method is that in which someone suggests an idea and, before anyone else has said anything about it, someone else suggests another idea, until the group eventually finds one it will act on. This results in shooting down the original idea before it has really been considered. All the ideas that are bypassed have, in a sense, been rejected by the group.

* Authority Rule

Many groups start out with--or quickly set up--a power structure that makes it clear that the chairman (or someone else in authority) will make the ultimate decision. The group can generate ideas and hold free discussion, but at any time the chairman may say that, having heard the discussion, he or she has decided upon a given plan. Whether this method is effective depends a great deal upon whether the chairman is a sufficiently good listener to have culled the right information on which to make