Question

Assume you are Helena Fogarty, the CEO and founder of Mi Ola, and you are facing a difficult decision about whether or not to outsource manufacturing from the United States to another country. You would like to manufacture only in the United States but competitive pressures are forcing you to consider alternatives. You have a team of advisors with diverse backgrounds whom you trust and with whom you work closely. You would like to maximize the quality of the group’s decision making.

Which of the following is an approach that you might consider using to maximize the effectiveness of the group’s decision making process? Check all that apply.

Use groupthink

Use the nominal group technique

Use the Delphi technique

Use brainstorming

Assume you are Helena Fogarty, the CEO and founder of Mi Ola, and you are engaged in an intense group decision making process with your trusted advisory board. You would like to use evidence-based management to improve your decision making process.

Which of the following things might you do to improve your evidence-based decision making?

Encourage experimentation and learning by doing

Base decisions on previous decisions because if it isn’t broken, the evidence suggests you shouldn’t try to fix it

Encourage people to stick with a decision, even if it seems to be failing, so that you will eventually succeed

Build a culture in which people avoid having unpleasant or difficult conversations

Answer 1

1. Answer: Use the nominal group technique, Use the Delphi technique, Use brainstorming

Rationale: The nominal group technique and brainstorming increase the generation of ideas which includes all the important ideas. The Delphi technique helps to reach a final decision which is based on the opinions of experts.

The groupthink technique is not recommended as it affects the decision-making of the team due to the failure of the group to make a conclusive decision.

2. Answer: Encourage experimentation and learning by doing

Rationale: One of the principles of Evidence-based management is to encourage the employees to experiment which makes one collect evidence and learn at the same time based on the data.

The decisions of the past must be avoided as they don't necessarily show proof and get obsolete with time

Letting people stick to failed decisions does not get better with time but only slows progress.

Similarly, when people are not honest about difficult conversations, they are avoiding facts and evidence.