Effective Consensus Group Decision Making – Action Management Associates

Increase the effectiveness of consensus decision making.

In his research in behavioral economics, MIT management professor Dan Ariely has concluded that many decisions people make are not rationally based, include arbitrary judgments, and often are not in the individual’s own best interests. When a team of individuals engages in group decision making it is critical that they have a process for avoiding the common pitfalls that Ariely uncovered in his research.

As growing numbers of the highly connected and strongly relational gamer generation (those born after 1970) join the workforce, consensus decision making will become increasingly important. But companies cannot assume that individuals with broad personal networks naturally know how to engage in effective decision making—whether individually or as part of a group.

The critical thinking processes taught in Action Management’s workshops combine important elements of teams and meeting management with a proven methodology for group decision making that integrates both the rational and creative elements involved in every decision. Knowing that all decisions involve some level of emotion, our methodology gives groups engaged in decision making an objective process for determining the importance of specific criteria in a decision as well as the appropriateness of each alternative.

Ohio State University Professor Paul Nutt studied 163 business decisions over 16 years and found that only half of the decisions were ultimately successful. The most effective tactic organizations used to lower their failure rate was involving those affected by a decision in the decision process. Action Management’s decision making matrix offers organizations a practical way to include several individuals in a decision making process, helping to ensure that a decision will be implemented and successful.