Week 11: Group Problem Solving

Benefits of Group Problem Solving

More Ideas and Creativity than working alone

Empowerment for employees

More Accurate decisions than individuals

Wisdom of the Crowds: Crowd-Sourced Judgment

Individual judgments have random errors

Averaging these judgments cancels out the errors, leading to a more accurate result

For crowd-sourcing to work, three conditions must be met:

Independent/Private judgements

No overlapping Info; everyone should bring dif. knowledge to the table

Diversity

When is using crowd-sourcing best

Non Programmed Decisions

Non Programmed Decisions

complex, unique problems with no precedent

Programmed Decisions

routine problems with data, where algorithms or individual experts are often better

What are 4 types of group decision-making techniques

Brainstorming

Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

Delphi Technique

Devil’s Advocacy and Dialectic Method

Brainstorming

Unstructured generation of a large volume of creative ideas

Rules of Brainstorming

No criticism allowed

encourage "out-of-the-box" ideas

build on others' ideas

When is brainstorming best for?

Problems requiring high creativity

Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

Structured brainstorming that balances individual thought with group discussion

Nominal Group Technique (NGT) Process:

Introduce the problem.

Private idea generation (individuals write silently)

Round-robin (everyone generates equally) sharing of ideas.

Group discussion.

Independent voting or ranking.

Nominal Group Technique (NGT) is best for

Creative problems where you want to avoid conformity pressure. Studies show NGT often beats standard brainstorming

Delphi Technique

Solving well-defined problems accurately without face-to-face interaction

Delphi Technique Process

Distribute questions to experts/individuals

Compile responses anonymously

Send compiled comments back to participants for feedback

Repeat until consensus is reached

what is the key point of Delphi Technique?

Anonymity and iterative feedback

Devil’s Advocacy

Assigns a specific critic role (individual or subgroup) to find flaws in a proposal

Dialectic Method

Sets up a structured debate between two opposing views (Thesis vs. Antithesis)

What is the goal of Devil’s Advocacy & Dialectic Method?

Vetting unpopular, controversial, or politically sensitive solutions

How do you avoid overconfidence in groups?

Change the framing when evaluating ideas or predictions, use “Non-Evaluative Frame”

avoid evaluative frame

Non-Evaluative Frame

"What are the chances this outcome will occur?")—focuses on the idea itself and reduces overconfidence

Evaluative Frame

"Is your prediction accurate?")—personal and defensive.