Decision-Making Techniques

Decision-Making Techniques

    Managers and team members struggle with decision making situations having significant impacts on large-scale projects having long-term organizational effects.  The methodology for analyzing problems and the decision-making process can impact the outcome of the decision.  Based on differing opinions, perspectives, and personalities among team members, decision making groups seek to employ a methodology for effective decision making to ensure a positive outcome emerges from the process.  In reviewing decision-making processes, the Delphi technique and brainstorming have emerged as two prominent methods for deriving and selecting a decision path to a given situation. 

Delphi Technique

Developed by Dalkey and Hemler in 1963, the Delphi technique leverages collaboration among identified field and subject matter experts through group communication for decision making, setting goals, and predictive analysis (Hsu & Sandford, 2007).  As a popular approach, the Delphi technique seeks achievement in one or more of the following objectives (Hsu & Sandford, 2007):

• Determine the range of possible alternatives.  

• Explore or expose underlying information or assumptions leading to potential outcomes

• Seek information that may result in consensus among the respondent group

• Promote correlation of topic judgment across a vast discipline

• Educate participants on diverse and related aspects of a topic 

    The Delphi technique incorporates a structured design process which begins by identifying the panel of experts for input to the decision making progress and ends with asking participants to analyze the contributions of other panel members, taking into consideration minority views and significant deviations from the consensus of the respondents (Yousuf, 2007).  

    While Delphi leverages a collaborative approach in decision making, the process employs an independent data gathering approach to solicit unbiased and unintimidated responses from the participants (Hsu & Sandford, 2007).  Yousuf (2007) argued anonymity in participant responses increases the objective nature of the solicited input. It reduces intimidation in a group setting or reluctance in expressed opinion due to individual attribution.  In addition to anonymity, the Delphi process facilitates control in feedback among participants through addressing concerns associated with withheld dissent or opposing perspectives (Yousuf, 2007). 

    The Delphi technique's popularity can be directly attributed to the inherent facilitation of the integration of diverse backgrounds (Yousuf, 2007).  Additionally, the size of the selected group and propensity for conflicting schedules among a large group of contributors lend to the Delphi technique's asynchronous nature, supporting the anonymity of participants and reducing tension and discord among conflicting opinions and perspectives (Hsu & Sandford, 2007). 

Brainstorming

Brainstorming techniques for decision-making leverage sporadic and unpredictable suggestions to achieve the desired result (Putman & Paulus, 2009).  Brainstorming seeks to crowdsource any potential factors and solutions from a group of participants involved in the decision-making process.  Unlike the Delphi technique, brainstorming welcomes designated participants' perspectives despite any level of expertise in the field or subject matter (McMurray, 1994).  While brainstorming techniques often occur with synchronous participant engagement, individual brainstorming contributions may be conducted to address or reduce judgment concerns related to participant contributions.   

Comparison of techniques

Delphi and Brainstorming techniques can differ significantly in the collection method and the method's level of experience or expertise.  Delphi typically leverages a collection effort focusing on soliciting independent input from identified experts in the field or topic area and socializing the respondent contributions at subsequent time frames for analysis and assessment (Hsu & Sandford, 2007).  While both promote diversity in respondents' backgrounds and perspectives, brainstorming seeks input from participants with varying degrees of experience and expertise in the subject matter or field (McMurray, 1994).  While the Delphi technique's goal centers on a focused group of experts leveraging their experience and knowledge on the subject matter, brainstorming incorporates ideas and suppositions outside the expertise realm (Putman & Paulus, 2009).  The nature of the identified problem and attempted efforts in decision making may dictate the methodology selected for potential solutions.  Traditional and initial approaches to large-scale problem solving may lean heavily on the Delphi methodology where expertise and experience hold greater relevance to the nature of the problem, where brainstorming may serve as the preferred methodology for solutions existing "outside of the box" when previously attempted solutions leveraging traditional or expert opinion fail.

References

Hsu, C. C., & Sandford, B. A. (2007). The Delphi technique: making sense of consensus. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 12(1), 10.

McMurray, A. R. (1994). Three decision-making aids: brainstorming, nominal group, and Delphi technique. Journal of nursing staff development: JNSD, 10(2), 62-65.

Putman, V. L., & Paulus, P. B. (2009). Brainstorming, brainstorming rules and decision making. The Journal of creative behavior, 43(1), 29-40.

Yousuf, M. I. (2007). Using expert's opinions through Delphi technique. Practical assessment, research, and evaluation, 12(1), 4.