Making decisions as part of a group can be challenging. First, you need the right people – experts in the field. Next, you need to get them to talk and agree on the issue at hand. And this is where problems begin. Everyone has their own opinion, and no one wants to compromise. Knowing how to apply group decision making skills correctly is the solution you need. Show
In this article, we’ll help you uncover: ✅ How to establish an effective group
decision-making process? Before we get to the steps on how to organize the decision-making process, let’s look at what group decision-making is. Some people fall into the misconception that teamwork and decision-making group activity is pretty much the same. Group decision-making and teamwork involve multiple individuals that analyze various issues and situations and consider how to solve them. However, as Katenback and Smith point out in their book The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization, group decision-making and teamwork have their specific differences. Here are the most significant ones:
The overall effectiveness of group decision-making depends on many factors. For example, time constraints or any underlying conflicts can impact the group decision-making outcomes. That’s why, before problems occur, it’s vital to establish group decision-making procedures and monitor them along with their implementation. Group decision-making process (step by step)Now that we’ve established the basics, below are the steps to implementing the most effective group decision-making process! 1. Planning 📝At the planning stage, you need to decide how you decide and know it is successful. This occurs in two phases: First, choose which types of decision-making tools you will use – meetings, brainstorming sessions, etc. You can read more about these below. Second, you need to determine how you will know that the decision made is a success. To understand that, you need to formulate the success factors or criteria for your decision. For this, think of the criteria that reflect the goals, values, and objectives for each stakeholder. When considering your criteria, you can also address it from a variety of angles. You can ask yourself the following questions:
2. Determining alternatives 🤔At the determining alternatives stage, your expert group should generate and select several alternative decisions. They need to choose from 5 to 9 solutions that best meet the planning session’s requirements. This step is important as it reduces the number of decisions and keeps the group focused on the most effective ones. You could also search for similar solutions in previous situations and consider if they suit the current issue. 3. Selecting the best alternative 💎It’s time to choose the best alternative from the solutions selected at the determining alternatives stage. To do so, you need to compare each decision to the criteria set at the planning stage of your decision-making process. The solution that meets most criteria is the most effective one. 4. Deployment 📤At the deployment stage, you bring your decisions into reality. This involves determining the actions and tasks that follow the final decision. It also includes the guiding requirements on how to organize the process. Group decision-making methodsGroup decision-making is a subtle process that requires lots of attention and guidance. But it doesn’t have to be simply one big discussion or debate until someone gives in. To make it more effective and less argumentative, some managers prefer to establish group-decision making methods in the form of games and activities. Here are some ideas on how you could make a decision-making process more enjoyable for your employees. 💭 BrainstormingBrainstorming is a well-known technique that aims at generating as many ideas as possible. For this, you’ll need a group of members. The optimal number is from 5 to 9 people, a group leader, and a flipchart. The brainstorming process has two stages:
Sometimes group members may feel uneasy presenting their ideas. To resolve this issue, you could suggest they do brainstorming anonymously in a voting app, chat, or by email. 💁♀️ Nominal group thinkingNominal group thinking resembles brainstorming, though it is better structured and encourages independent acting rather than working in a group. Participants don’t need to communicate with one another. As a result, they aren’t biased towards the opinions of dominant personalities. Nominal group thinking procedure:
🙋♂️ 🙋♀️ Delphi techniqueDelphi technique works best with a group of experts that work remotely. This way, group members don’t need to gather in one place to find the best solution to the problem. In the Delphi technique, each member is usually an expert in a particular field, so they have their own vision of handling an issue. Delphi technique procedure:
🤷♂️ 🤷♀️ Dialectical inquiryThe dialectical inquiry is another group decision-making technique that involves teamwork and concentrates on the discussion of alternatives. The method helps to uncover the hidden problems that may appear within the issue. It can also help decide whether to go with a decision or not if there’re too many advantages and disadvantages to decide upon. Think of it, like a tie-breaker. Dialectical inquiry procedure:
The technique can be modified into a devil’s advocacy practice. It means that one group member counters the participants’ ideas, suggesting opposed ideas hence revealing the potential problems. Pros and cons of group decision-makingWhen considering group decision-making, we should mention that its success depends on many factors. Some of them are team manager skills, interpersonal connections between the team members, demographic diversity, and others. Despite the diversity of many factors, experts managed to develop the general pros and cons of group decision-making. Advantages of group decision makingGroup decision-making allows its members to: ✅ Make well-informed expert decisions due to a
variety of experts involved in the process Why is Group Collaboration CrucialWhat could be more beneficial for your business than a strong team of professionals who know their work? A strong team of professionals that collaborates! Disadvantages of group decision makingNo approach or technique doesn’t have its disadvantages. Here are the main disadvantages of group decision-making: ❌ The absence of responsibility. The group makes the decision collectively, and nobody personally bears the consequences of a failure How to make group decision-making most effectiveHere, we’ve gathered some of the best tips on how to make group-decision making more effective and less tedious. Using these makes group decision-making a less stressful, more effective process: 1️⃣ Keep your groups smallThe larger the group, the more biased its decision is. Your groups shouldn’t exceed five members per group. Otherwise, the participants will feel less responsibility for the decisions made and are more likely to fall into groupthink. 2️⃣ Make your groups diverseNot just a way to please HR. People from different backgrounds can come up with unusual but viable ideas. These ideas can significantly benefit your business and lead to unexpected outcomes. This rule also works for heterogeneous groups. When men and women work together, they better imply their diverse skills and fulfill complex tasks faster. 3️⃣ Make the environment safeThe best way to make the working environment safe when everyone can freely share their opinions is to involve some anonymity in the group decision-making process. For this, collect suggested ideas and critics independently. This will help ensure your employees that you’re genuinely ready to listen to their opinions and statements. 4️⃣ Don’t entirely rely on the expertsYou may know the strengths and weaknesses of each of your employees. Nevertheless, when searching for new ideas and non-obvious solutions, listen to every participant. This way, you avoid dominant opinions and groupthink biases. Visual learners among us may want to take a look at this video covering some of the basic ground rules to making better decisions in groups: Wrap up on group decision-makingGroup decision-making is an integral part of any profitable business. And you can’t make these decisions without relying on a team of experts. Organizing an effective group decision-making process within your company requires a little work, but it’ll all be worth it with professional management skills and patience. We, at Everhour, hope that you’ve learned how to establish a group decision-making process and successfully manage it! All-in-one time management system for your teamWhat is the 1st step of good decision making?The first step in the decision making process is Identifying a problem which means examine the problem more closely and understand the cause of a problem.
What are the 5 steps in the decision making process?The decision-making process allows for the exploration of all alternatives in order to solve a problem, and it ensures that the best solution is found. The decision-making process includes the following steps: define, identify, assess, consider, implement, and evaluate.
What are the four stages in decision making groups?Tips and Reminders: 4 Stages in Decision-Making Groups. Orientation Stage (Forming). Conflict Stage (Storming). Emergence Stage (Norming). Reinforcement Stage (Performing). What is decision making in a group?Group decision-making (also known as collaborative decision-making or collective decision-making) is a situation faced when individuals collectively make a choice from the alternatives before them. The decision is then no longer attributable to any single individual who is a member of the group.
Which is the last step in group decision making Mcq?The correct answer is evaluating the decision's effectiveness. The last step in the process of decision-making is Evaluating or Monitoring the decision's effectiveness.
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