Group decision making is an expression of artful leadership.  Group decisions can be difficult to create because the finial outcome needs to account for all viewpoints for the group to stand behind it.  That can be difficult when there are competing or opposing views in the group.  Leadership comes into play then through the guidance of a group through an agreed upon process that will ensure all voices are heard and a decision all can support is reached. 

The Delphi Method is one form of group decision making that has been discussed in class and takes an iterative and anonymous approach (Dagher, 2021).  Participants are asked for their answers or opinions on one or more topics.  Those answers are gathered, summarized and shared back with the group at which point the participants can revise their initial feedback.  This approach is repeated until a cohesive decision comes from the group.  The downside of something like the Delphi is that ensuring the anonymity of the group participants can make it a slower process than some others. 

The decision tree technique is a group decision making construct that starts with a root question for the group (Fellow, 2021).  Possible outcomes from that root question are added and become branches to the tree.  Each of these outcomes can also be decision points with their own outcomes.  IN this way, decision trees can be used to map a current decision point to multiple future outcomes. Each outcome can also be assigned a likelihood of occurrence and an expected benefit to help decision makers evaluate different possibilities. 

It is useful when dealing with large, complex problems that may not have yes/no or definitive “right” answers.  It is also useful for mapping out complex scenarios to uncover hidden opportunities and pitfalls.  And it can be useful from presentations to higher level management because of its inherently visual nature. 

Similar to decision trees and also useful to deal with large, complex issues is weighted scoring.  This is a particular favorite of mine as I have used it to good success in the past.  Weighted scoring starts out by defining some key considerations.  If we are looking to launch a new product line, what are the metrics we would use to evaluate it.  Cost, time to produce, profit margin, etc.  Then the team brainstorms possible solutions or outcomes to different solutions, much like what happens in the decision tree format.  Each of these outcomes or solutions is weighted based on how favorable it is according to the key metrics.  This is similar to how decision trees can assign weights to certain outcomes by giving them probabilities of occurring, but the difference is that weighted scoring may account for more variables and is tends to focus more sharply on expected benefit rather than likelihood of occurrence.  Also, weighted scoring generally does not have the if/then linkages seen in decision trees; decision trees show paths to outcomes whereas weighted scoring shows the outcomes. 

 

 

References

Dagher, K. (2021). 10 of the Most Effective Group Decision Making Techniques. Retrieved from https://fellow.app/blog/productivity/group-decision-making-techniques/#step

Fellow. (2021). Decision Tree Analysis: How to Make Effective Decisions. Retrieved from https://fellow.app/blog/productivity/decision-tree-analysis-how-to-make-effective-decisions/