Think Tank Methods for Group Decision Making

Group Decision-making is probably preferable to individual decision making in many cases.. There are three techniques that when used properly (brainstorming, the Delphi process, nominal group technique) have been extremely useful for increasing the creative capacity of the group in generating ideas, understanding the problems and take better decisions. Practical considerations, of course, often influence the technique used. For example, factors such as the number of available work hours, costs and physical proximity of the participants influence the choice of one technique or another.

Delphi Process

This technique consist on requesting and comparing anonymous judgments on the subject of interest through a series of sequential questionnaires applied to experts in the subject. The Delphi process preserves the advantage of obtaining a diversity of judgments, opinions and approaches while suppressing biases that can occur during the face to face interaction. The predictive power of Delphi is based on the systematic use of intuitive judgment given by a panel of experts. It requires a massive turnout for the results to be statistically significant. But the group must have a high degree of correspondence with the topics to be covered in the exercise.

Braingstorming

Brainstorming is widely used in the advertising sector, where apparently quite effective. In other fields, he has been less successful. The basic rules are:

1. No idea is too ridiculous. Group members are encouraged to express extreme or crazy ideas.
2. Each idea presented belongs to the group, not the person exposed. In this way, the group can use them and build on the ideas of others.
3. No idea can be criticized. The purpose of the meeting is to generate not evaluate ideas.

Nominal Group

According to Tamella (2013), basically, the nominal group technique is a structured group meeting which seven to ten people sit around a table without speaking to each other. Each person writes down ideas in a notebook paper. After five minutes, a structured exchange of ideas is performed. Each person has an idea. A person appointed as secretary writes the ideas on a flipchart or whiteboard in view of the whole group. This continues until all participants indicate that there are more ideas to share. The next stage is the formal debate in which each idea receives attention and debate before being voted on. This is accomplished by asking for clarification or indicating the degree of support for each idea on the flipchart. The last step is the independent vote in which each participant privately selects priorities ranking or vote. The group's decision is the result mathematically ordered individual votes.

Van der Ven (1974) states that both the Delphi method and nominal group technique have shown more efficient than brainstorming.  He also points that the basic differences between the Delphi method and nominal group technique are:

1. Participants in the Delphi process are usually anonymous to each other, while participating in a nominal group are known.
2. Participants of a nominal group face to face around a table are, while participants of a Delphi process are physically distant and never meet.
3. In the Delphi process, all communications between participants are through written questionnaires and comments by supervisory personnel. In the nominal group participants communicate directly.

References

Tammela, O. (2013), Applications of consensus methods in the improvement of care of paediatric patients: a step forward from a ‘good guess’. Acta Paediatrica, 102: 111–115. doi: 10.1111/apa.12120

Van der Ven, A. (1974). The Effectiveness of Nominal, Delphi, and Interacting Group Decision Making Processes. Academy of Management Journal. doi: 10.2307/255641