There are multiple methods of group decision making.  A standard methodology is the Delphi Technique or Method.  RAND Corporation developed the Delphi Method in the 1950s to determine the effect of different technology on warfare. It is a method of using experts to answer questionnaires, receiving feedback that constitutes the group response, discussing, and then revising answers to create a group consensus.  RAND has since modified its method to with ExpertLens, an online system that effectively uses the Delphi method (RAND, 2022).  An advantage of the on-line method is that the revisions and consensus can be done anonymously.  As the Delphi method is established, it is used extensively.  A recent paper by Chowdhury et al. (2022) used the Delphi method to develop and validate decisions during development of a cybersecurity training framework model.

Another method that is often used at my place of employment is called Cards on the Wall, or derived from the UK’s Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) method for consensus building.  The method is involves brainstorming or focusing with index cards.  Each person has a card, and writes his top concerns or ideas, one idea per card.  Sometimes there is a time limit, and sometimes its limited to the top five concerns or ideas.  When all are finished, each person passes his top idea or concern to the facilitator.  The group then puts the card into a topic area, and determines if there are clusters (in other words, did multiple people have the same type of thought or concern).  The cards are actually stuck to a white board in cluster areas (hence the name, cards on the wall).  Each person’s second card is then sent up, and put into existing clusters, or its own cluster.  The third set is sent up, and so forth.  Ideally, by naming the clusters, a consensus can be derived (ICA, 2014).  A major strength of this method is group buy-in.  The weakness is that all ideas have similar weights (i.e., there are no stupid ideas, which is not necessarily true for technical problems).  This method does pose logistical challenges, in that note cards must stick to the wall – hilarity does ensue when the cards randomly fall off the wall.

Group think is always a risk for group decision making.  Group think is when the desire for consensus, unanimity and relationships within the group are higher than the ability to realistically evaluate risk and alternate courses of action.  Janis (1991) used the phrase to describe the culture at NASA during the Challenger disaster.  I would also add that group think can occur when strong personalities or senior members dominate the group.  The organization’s culture has to be resilient enough to have ward against group think.    I have often seen a Cards on the Wall method dominated by strong personalities, resulting in an ineffectual solution. 

For technical problems, a Delphi approach tends to work best, assuming the experts are truly experts.  The anonymity of Rand’s online tool also helps guard against group think.  Cards on the Wall does help with office political problems (reorganizations or other office cultural issues), but is rather ineffectual for technical problems.   

     

 

References

 

Chowdhury, N., Katsikas, S., & Gkioulos, V. (2022). Modeling effective cybersecurity training frameworks: A delphi method-based study. Computers & Security, 113, 102551. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2021.102551

 

ICA. (2014). Consensus Workshop Method Overview. https://www.ica-uk.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Consensus-Workshop-Overview.pdf

 

Janis, I. L. (1991). Groupthink. In E. Griffin (Ed.), A First Look at Communication Theory (pp. 235-246). McGrawHill.

 

RAND. (2022). ExpertLens. https://www.rand.org/pubs/tools/expertlens.html