Think
Tank: Group Decision Making - Techniques
Introduction
“From the Seven Wonders of The World to super-fast fiber-optic
broadband, many of humanity’s greatest achievements were not the work of a
single person alone, but of a whole team working together toward a common goal,”
Andrei (2020) said in his blog airfocus.com. That indicates though building an effective
and perfective group is not that straightforward, result on decision making from
a collective idea is most of the time so much effective. Once one has had a practical
team who can act optimally together, one needs to start making some group decisions
(Andrei, 2020). Group decision-making techniques are approaches for structuring
team members’ connections to improve the value of a collective decision by minimizing
roadblocks and barriers (“Group Decision-Making Techniques”, n/d). The following
are some of the popular group decision making techniques:
· Delphi Method known as “iterative
convergence”- that relies on the expertise of a team to
assist in coming to complex decisions.
· Brainstorming-
each group members need to generate thought ideas and they can use
that brain storming ideas as bases.
· Nominal Group Technique
(NGT) - the Nominal Group Technique is essentially a more structured form
of brainstorming.
· Ranking- this is based on participants’
ranking average scores
· Weighted Scoring - When applying
this system to one’s decision-making process, the assigned team must evaluate
each item on the list of solutions and assign criteria like Business Value, Costs,
and Risks.
· Stepladder Technique: The
stepladder technique is a group decision-making strategy that staggers the
entry of members into a group and allows groups to form a final decision
collaboratively and collectively rather than having an outside party derive the
group decision (“Group Decision-Making Techniques”, n/d).
I will be discussing Delphi Techniques and Nominal Group
Technique (NGT) in more detail and see the how they compare to each other.
1.
Delphi
Technique?
The Delphi technique provides a board of directors with a systematic,
simplified structure for generating, examining, and prioritizing ideas and
solutions (Director Point, n/d). This is a technique that is highly needed for
boards tasked with making high level decisions. Decision-makers utilize a
series of questionnaires to extract ideas and solutions with an anonymous panel of experts. The panel’s anonymity is upheld
by a coordinator who merely serves as a cooperator between the two groups
(between decision-makers and anonymous panel of experts). The coordinator can manage
the questionnaire and cleans up responses for clarity and relevancy before sending
the responses to decision-makers. Panelists could provide additional commentary
on their own responses and the responses of other members.
In Delphi method questionnaires are administered in four rounds
and coordinators can repeat the fourth round of questioning until
decision-makers reach their required decision (Director Point, n/d).
· 1st Round: the first questionnaire is typically open-ended concerning with
identifying what to know and initial insights (questionnaires are usually sent
via email, fax, etc. to the anonymous experts). Decision-makers can adopt a
narrowed and focused structure if they do have researched the situations ahead.
· 2nd Round: the second
questionnaire presents panelists with the decision-makers’ summary of first
round responses for commentary and clarification. Besides answering 1st
round follow-up questions, panelists are asked to identify and rank (by
priority) solutions or action items.
· 3rd Round: Panelists are
asked to review the decision-makers’ responses to their prioritizations and
provide revisions or clarifications as necessary.
· 4th Round: In this
round, the experts receive the decision-makers’ summary of any and all items
over which the panel has yet to form a strong consensus. Also included is a
summary which recaps all items for which a consensus has been reached. If a
clear consensus emerges after the final round of surveys, the exercise is
finished. As additionally or optionally, the members may be asked to rank or
rate the final decision options to have a thoughtful insight.
Allowing
members to work independently, the Delphi technique can encourage reduce social
misusing, accountability, equalize participation, eliminate the biasing effect
of dominant members.
It’s
clear that the Delphi Technique provides a considerably more thoughtful and
detailed examination of ideas and evaluation of actionable priorities when
compared to that of nominal group technique. Based on prior researches groups
structured according to the Delphi technique are more satisfied than both
nominal and other consensus groups (“Group
Decision-Making Techniques”, n/d). However, the Delphi process can take a
longer time and it eliminates direct interaction among group members (Decision
makers, and Panel experts are in complete separation but connected by facilitators).
2.
The Nominal
Group Technique (NGT)
Nominal Group Technique helps to generating and evaluating ideas
by team members. It is a type of brainstorming but well-structured approach
that results in a final group decision (“Group Decision-Making Techniques”,
n/d). The nominal group technique typically involves the following steps:
- Write
ideas in private: After
the problem at hand is understood, members silently generate their ideas
in writing. No discussion among members is permitted at this point.
- Take
turns reporting ideas:
Members take turns reporting their ideas to the group, one at a time,
while a facilitator records them on blackboard. Again, no group discussion
occurs during this step.
- Discuss
ideas: Next, group members discuss
the ideas that have been recorded. The main purpose of this discussion is
to clarify, criticize, or defend the stated ideas.
- Vote on
ideas: Each member privately and
anonymously prioritizes the ideas. This nominal voting step may involve a
rank-ordering system, a weighted voting procedure, or some similar
mechanism for reporting preferences.
- Calculate
the group decision: The
group decision is calculated mathematically, based on the vote described
earlier. The final decision is the pooled outcome of the individual votes.
- Repeat
if necessary: Some
variations of the nominal group technique allow the
generation-discussion-vote cycle described previously to be repeated until
an appropriate decision is reached.
The nominal group technique was created to overcome several
decision-making roadblocks. The highly structured and task-focused nature of
this strategy is thought to encourage the efficient use of time by reducing the
tendency for nonproductive departures and hostile arguments. Like Delphi method,
members may also experience an increased sense of accountability and a
decreased propensity for social loafing, because members are required to
publicly state their written ideas.
Although it has so vital practices, there are people who claim
that the structured nature of the NGT may bound creativity (“Group
Decision-Making Techniques”, n/d). This also express less decision satisfaction
than depend on the Delphi technique.
Reference
· Andrei, (2020). The Ultimate
Guide to Group Decision Making - Techniques, Tools and Strategies.
· “Group Decision-Making
Techniques”, (n/d). Group Decision-Making Techniques. http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/industrial-organizational-psychology/group-dynamics/group- decision-making-techniques/
· Director Point, (n/d). The
Delphi Technique Cheat Sheet. https://landing.directorpoint.com/blog/delphi-technique-cheat-sheet/
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