1. Decision Making Pitfalls, Foibles, and Techniques
Groups in Process
Decision Making Pitfalls, Foibles, and Techniques

2. Types of Group Decisions
Consensus
Compromise
Voting
Railroading
Coalitions/Handclasping

3. Stages of Group Development
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjouring

4. Groupthink--Irving Janis
Backdrop to Janis’ work--the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis
Characteristics of Groupthink--illusions of invulnerability, unanimity, and group morality; self-censorship, shared stereotypes, screening of adverse information

5. Solving Groupthink Appoint a devil’s advocate Leaders stay impartial
Allow second chance meetings
Invite comments from outside experts, trusted associates
Subdivide tasks, then meet together
Divide planning and evaluation tasks

6. Brainstorming--Rules and Uses
Appropriate for inquiry, not all tasks
Rules
avoid negative feedback or evaluation
strive for quantity of ideas
strive for creativity
encourage piggybacking

7. Nominal Group Technique
Ideas are silently generated by individuals
Ideas are recorded publicly, round-robin
Each idea is discussed for clarification--criticism not allowed
Each member selects five, votes publicly recorded, list is narrowed, decision is reached

8. Traditional Problem Solving
Based on John Dewey’s Reflective Thinking Model
Define the problem
Research and analyze the problem
Establish criteria for solutions
List possible alternative/solutions
Evaluate each alternative
Select the best alternative

9. Delphi Technique No face-to-face meetings, useful for conferences
Participant’s ideas are collected and redistributed
Each member synthesizes ideas
Leader creates master list from participants syntheses
Participants vote on issues in master list--return to leader