Managing Information to Support Group Decision-Making

1. Managing Information to Support Group Decision-Making Sandy SchumanUniversity at AlbanyAlbany, New Yorksschuman@exedes.comsschuman.blogspot.com

2. 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.

3. Elevator Pop Quiz Weren't you out of the IAF Conference? What did you learn? • Mutiattribute utility (MAU) models are useful for evaluating alternatives and building agreement on the best choice given the available information. • 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.

4. Problem-Solving Process

5. Alternatives Criteria Fact Value Decomposition Aggregation Name Purpose Stakeholders Graph over time Words & Arrows Cause & Effect Influence Make Our Thinking Explicit Your Understanding Your Communication to Others

6. Evaluation and selection • Multiattribute Utility Analysis • Exploring a problem/ situation and building an understanding of it • Soft Systems Methodology • Systems thinking/ word & arrow diagrams

7. Multiattribute Utility Analysis • Identify the goals and corresponding attributes • Identify alternative decisions or courses of action • Describe the performance of each alternative on each attribute • Rate the performance of each alternative on each attribute • Assign weights to reflect the relative importance of attributes and the goals they represent • Compute overall score for each alternative • Reiterate to test assumptions, identify strengths and weaknesses of alternatives, develop consensus

8. 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

9. Word & ArrowDiagrams Graphs of ChangeOver Time PurposeStatements CATWOE

10. Word and Arrow Diagrams* Desired Water Level Faucet Position Perceived Gap Water Flow Current Water Level * aka "cause and effect," "causal loop," or "influence" diagrams

11. Desired Level CurrentPosition Perceived Gap Rate/ Flow Current Level

13. Desired Water Temperature Faucet Position Hot/ Cold Mix Perceived Gap Current Water Temp Word and Arrow Diagrams 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.

15. Purpose Statement aka: Naming the Systemaka: Root Definition • 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.

16. 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.

17. Purpose Statement aka: Naming the Systemaka: Root Definition 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).

18. 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 CATWOE

19. 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

21. 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.

22. 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

23. To know the world, one must construct it. Giovanni Battista Vico

24. 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.