Management Tools and Techniques

The ability to make accurate decisions with carefully thought out solutions is an invaluable tool for any person to possess. Making important decisions does not stop at 5pm when you leave the workplace, there are many decisions that we make in our personal lives that require well thought out answers. Our lives are filled with important decisions on a daily basis. Some need to be made immediately, some don't. Some decisions may affect different groups of people possibly in different way depending upon the solutions possible. A decision might also affect just the individual responsible for actually making the decision. There are a variety of tools and techniques available to aid in the decision making process. This paper will explain the nominal group technique (NGT), how it works, and when it is appropriate.

Nominal Group Technique

Regardless of the technique, the decision making process follows at least four universal steps outlined below:

1. Define the problem and collect data.

2. Analyze data.

3. Evaluate and select potential solutions.

4. Develop an action plan for implementation.

The text Interpersonal Skills in Organizations covers these steps in a little more detail. Basically what it comes down to is that the most important aspect of the decision making process regardless of the technique chosen is to accurately define the problem during the planning process (Janasz, 2002). Without a clear idea of what the problem is, determining a solution will be very hard if not impossible.

The nominal group technique is a form of brainstorming that includes a larger group of people. The NGT technique takes advantage of pooled judgements. People with varied talents, knowledge, and skills will be used together. The resulting ideas are likely to be better than those that other methods may provide (Dunham, 1998).

With a very large group it may be necessary to break up into smaller groups to begin with. Basically everyone is given a notebook and asked to provide as many possibilities or solutions to the problems presented. During this silent initial period members try to generate and write down as many ideas as they can for each topic. Finally these ideas are all shared with the group by going around and having each member share one idea at a time. Ideas that are presented more than once get checkmarks beside them so their popularity is displayed. The next step would be to clarify each point or idea so that they are understood. Finally members vote on the items to list them in order of importance.

A definite advantage to this technique is the ability for each member to have a voice. By getting members together to share ideas where each voice is heard you eliminate the worry that an exceptionally brilliant but rather withdrawn individual will keep silent. Another advantage is the generation of many ideas and solutions from different sources.

A disadvantage to this type of technique is that it takes longer to finalize a decision than a more individual method would take. To begin with a meeting that includes a key group of people has to be set up in advance to ensure that people are present, supplies need to be available, and most importantly the time needs to be available to make decisions using this technique.

Application of NGT

An example of the useful application of NGT would be a developmental team in a large car company such as Honda, Mazda, Toyota, Volkswagen, etc. Now imagine you are on a team of individuals your job is to design next years lineup. You need to go over each model that you sell and decide which features should be enhanced which need to be improved, etc. For example Volkswagen has the Jetta and the Passat, now both of these cars are wonderful. The Passat is a little more luxury than the Passat. The group would need to decide if there are any features they should add to the Passat with the new edition to make it even more luxurious, such as satellite radio, extra holders, all that motor stuff. They may also need to decide if there are any features that they should