Making a Decision

This case study involves an example of the Abilene Paradox. It encourages participants to identify characteristics of groupthink decision-making and to consider how to avoid this in their own organisation. Allow 45 minutes for completion.

Sometimes we have to make decisions where personal and organisational priorities are in conflict. These can be immensely difficult dilemmas to resolve. The questions contained in this checklist may help to direct your thinking.

This individual diagnostic will help you to review the decisions that you make, and identify areas for improvement in the future.

This exercise encourages participants to think about how they make decisions. It allows them to try some decision-making examples, identify some common pitfalls and will introduce them to some key techniques. Allow one hour.

This exercise introduces a creative technique encouraging lateral thinking to identify concerns over a challenging piece of work, project or problem. It is ideal for group planning and decision-making and will take about 1½–2 hours to complete.

This is an exercise based on the modified Delphi technique of decision-making and revolves around the scenario of meeting an all-knowing time traveller from 20 years in the future. The exercise can take from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours to complete, depending upon how the exercise is facilitated.

This exercise explores the problems associated with managerial ‘recipes’, i.e. when people get into a pattern of using the same approach to deal with every problem. It encourages participants to recognise ‘recipe following’ and to consider ways to combat this.

This icebreaker exercise encourages participants to break with the ‘refusal mindset’ and to open their minds to new possibilities. It will take about 15 minutes to complete.

This lively group exercise examines how creative ideas can be constrained, freed or organised by giving each subgroup a different instruction on how to organise a task. Allow an hour for completion.

Being faced with the task of choosing from a host of possible options is intrinsic to the decision-making process. This exercise explores how your team tackles such a situation. Allow around an hour for completion.

This group exercise presents a challenging scenario, to expose participants to the challenges of decision-making in high-pressure situations. Allow an hour for completion.

Force-field analysis is a simple four-step process which can help identify the forces that can aid and resist your efforts to make a decision or plan.

Grid analysis is a useful decision-making technique and is of particular use when you are trying to take a lot of factors into account and all the options seem equally attractive.

Paired Comparison Analysis is a technique for working out the importance of a number of options in comparison with each other. It can be particularly helpful where you fear you are unable to be objective.

This technique encourages you to assume the role and mindset of a number of different people in order to imagine the possible solutions they might suggest when tackling a problem.

This technique is particularly useful in the early stages of analysis. It provides a good visual representation of possible actions and consequences.

This technique will help you to weigh the pros and cons of a particular decision. It can be especially useful in situations where you are unsure if you should make a decision at all.

RAPID is an acronym for a technique used to assign clear and specific roles to those involved in a decision-making process. Bottlenecks in the decision-making process can be prevented, and the whole process more clearly delineated when it is clear who has input and at what stage. This article looks at the roles of those invovlved when using the technique.