managing information to support group decision-making
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Managing Information to Support Group Decision-Making. Sandy Schuman University at Albany Albany , New York [email protected] sschuman.blogspot.com. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Managing Information to Support Group Decision-
MakingSandy Schuman
University at AlbanyAlbany, New York
You will learn how to help groups to address complicated issues by systematically integrating objective facts and data as well as subjective judgements and values.
Decision models (e.g. multiattribute utility models) provide the analytical framework. Help participants develop the model, study it's implications, make alternative assumptions, then incorporate new ideas to build consensus.
Systems thinking examines the context in which a problem occurs and informs decision making. It alerts decision makers to unintended consequences that can result from the interconnections and long-term effects of their decisions.
Elevator Pop QuizWeren't you out of the IAF Conference? What did you learn?a) Mutiattribute utility (MAU) models are
useful for evaluating alternatives and building agreement on the best choice given the available information.
b) Creating multiple purpose statements, word & arrow diagrams, and graphs of change over time (which may identify information needs) are useful ways to develop an understanding of complex situations.
Explore the
Problem
Generate Alternatives
Evaluate and
Choose
Implement the
Decisions
Maintain, Monitor,
and Review
Intelligence
Design
Choice
Search
Solve
Select
Problem-Solving Process
Make Our Thinking Explicit• Alternatives• Criteria• Fact • Value• Decomposition• Aggregation
• Name• Purpose• Stakeholders• Graph over time• Words & Arrows
– Cause & Effect– Influence
Your Understanding
Your Communication to Others
• Evaluation and selection– Multiattribute Utility Analysis
• Exploring a problem/ situation and building an understanding of it– Soft Systems Methodology– Systems thinking/ word & arrow
diagrams
Multiattribute Utility Analysis
1. Identify the goals and corresponding attributes
2. Identify alternative decisions or courses of action
3. Describe the performance of each alternative on each attribute
4. Rate the performance of each alternative on each attribute
5. Assign weights to reflect the relative importance of attributes and the goals they represent
6. Compute overall score for each alternative7. Reiterate to test assumptions, identify
strengths and weaknesses of alternatives, develop consensus
• Which problem to solve
• How to solve the problem
• Design a solution
• What to learn about the organization
• What is the charge
• Monitor results
• What is the problem
• Why solve the problem
• Understand the situation
• How to learn about the organization
• What should be the charge
• Integrate information
When Who How What Why
CATWOE
Word & ArrowDiagrams
Graphs of ChangeOver Time
PurposeStatements
Word and Arrow Diagrams*
* aka "cause and effect," "causal loop," or "influence" diagrams
Faucet Positio
n
Current
Water Level
Water Flow
Perceived Gap
Desired
Water Level
Current
Position
Current Level
Rate/ Flow
Perceived Gap
Desired Level
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 250
2
4
6
8
10
12
Water Flow Over Time
Time
Flo
w i
n l
iter
s p
er m
inu
te
Word and Arrow Diagrams
Faucet Positio
n
Current
Water Temp
Hot/ColdMix
Perceived Gap
Desired Water
Temperature
Purpose: To reach the desired water temperature in the least amount of time by adjusting the water faucets so that the water is at a safe and comfortable temperature and resources are conserved.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 250
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Water Temperature Over Time
Time
Tem
per
atu
re
• Core purpose expressed as a transformation
• Input entity Transformation process Output entity
• A system to do X by doing Y in order to achieve Z.
Purpose Statementaka: Naming the Systemaka: Root Definition
Example Purpose Statements
• An Boiler Efficiency and Maintenance (BEAM) program to reduce energy consumption by training boiler operators in order to reduce our reliance on imported oil.
• A Child Protective system that responds quickly to urgent child-abuse hot-line calls by specifying the signals that indicate an immediate threat to the child in order to safeguard children at risk.
Purpose Statement
From the perspective of (Who), the purpose of the (Name) system is to do X (What/ Outcome) by doing Y (How/ Action) in order to achieve Z (Why/ Transformation).
aka: Naming the Systemaka: Root Definition
CATWOE• C Customers
• A Actors• T Transformation
process• W Worldview
• O Owner(s)• E Environmental
constraints
The victims or beneficiaries of T
Those who would do T
The conversion of input to output
The worldview which makes this T meaningful in context
Those who could stop T
Elements outside the system which it takes as given
Stakeholders are those who:
• Have the power to make a decision
• Have the power to block a decision
• Are affected by a decision• Have information or expertise
SSM Model Building• Using verbs in the imperative (“obtain
material X”) write down activities necessary to carry out the Transformation described in the root definition. Aim for 7 2 activities.
• Identify the activities that could be done at once (they are not dependent on other activities happening first).
• Write these out on a horizontal line, then those that are dependent on these first activities on a line below. Continue in this fashion until all activities are accounted for. Indicate the dependencies with arrows.
• Redraw to avoid overlapping arrows where possible. Add monitoring and control.
Adapted from Peter Checkland, Soft Systems Methodology: A 30-Year Retrospective (1999) Figure A6, p. A26. In Peter Checkland and Jim Scholes (1999) Soft Systems Methodology in Action, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester
Social reality is the ever-changing outcome of the social process in which human beings, the product of their genetic inheritance and previous experiences, continually negotiate and re-negotiate with others their perceptions and interpretations of the world outside themselves.–Peter Checkland
To know the world, one must construct it.–Giovanni Battista Vico
• If you truly want to understand something, try to change it. – Kurt Lewin– If you truly want to change something,
try to understand it!• Exercise doubt.
– Wonder if you have the right purpose.– Wonder if you have the right people. – Wonder if you have the right method. – Proceed with an open mind.