Question

What are examples of effective techniques for team decision making? What are examples of strategies for avoiding potential liabilities in team decision making (e.g., groupthink)?

Answer 1

Effective techniques for team decision making are as follows:

• Brainstorm: It is a decision-making technique generally used generating for innovative and creative ideas. In this technique, the problem is represented by the leader and the group gives ideas based on round-robin format.
• Nominal Group Technique: This technique helps in evaluating alternatives for the problems. During this technique, group members are required to write their ideas after spending five to ten minutes on the problem without having any kind of discussion in the group.
• Delphi Method: With the help of this method, group reach to consensus and it is basically like a traditional expert polls. It is generally used for forecasting.
• Dialectical Inquiry: During this technique, all alternatives are considered by decision makers. A debate is conducted on all alternatives to reached most favoured decision.

The strategies for avoiding potential liabilities in team decision-making are as follows:

• It is good to anitcipate Groupthink in the risk plan and limit your team size to ensure well defined boundaries for the purpose of inclusion.
• Inviting external perspectives in the process at various stages to protect external view points.
• Always keep in mind to develop an alternative or second solution. Second solution must be different from the first one.
• Try to lenghten the discussion phase by delaying the judgement.