A632.7.3.RB - Collaborative Decision Making

            This week’s assignment focuses on a topic that many leaders have a hard time fully understanding and comprehending, collaborative decision-making. Collaborative decision-making (CDM) is defined as a process focused on how to decide on a course of action articulated between two or more parties. Everyone knows that individual decision making is faster and simpler than making a decision in a team. And yes, as long as the person making the decision is completely informed and has knowledge on all aspects of a decision, and is unbiased, it can be faster. But, if the person making the decision is not all-knowing and all-seeing and unbiased then the answer is clear; the involvement of multiple stakeholders and specialists leads to better outcomes for overall decision making.

            The easiest and simplest example of how getting input on decision making has helped me is in family vacations and get together planning’s. Since I am the oldest and the one with the most experience in traveling, I am constantly the one looking for vacationing spots. Trying to come up with places that everyone can afford, enjoy, and how some will travel to the location. When I make decisions they affect not only my household, but all my family members involved.

            There is a high importance to listen to other’s point of views and perspectives on situations to make the best informed decisions. I have learned through Levine’s 10 principles of new thinking and his cycle of resolution in regards on how to implement these tools. What one person may view futures outcomes as a great expectation, another person may think of it as a far-fetched idea. This is when we need to take into consideration of involving stakeholder’s opinions.

            I have learned to get with some of the more vocal, experience, and knowledgeable members of my family. I’ve placed them in subcategories and they don’t even know. There are the mothers – they are look to for women and toddler impact, men – look to for expense and travel, young adults – for adventurous outings and dinning, and the mature adults to make sure they are comfortable and have not experience the current location we are planning. This is where the discussion question for this week comes in handy, active listening. When it comes to making collaborative decisions one must consider the input of the stakeholders, who might be affected by this decision? Explaining my reasoning for picking a location and listening for my collaborators (family members) stories are the best way to understand each other and what every is expecting. Without being heard we cannot go through the process of saying what is important to us and what is bothering us. (Levine, 2009)

            While doing the research and reading for this assignment, I came across the word (FOTE) “Full, Open, Truthful Exchange”. In multi-party situations, differences in framing, information, and preferences provide the opportunity to jointly create greater value and reach a win-win solution. FOTE is a powerful frame to understand the joint value-creation opportunity. (Group, 2016)

            When it comes to collaborative decision making practices, stakeholder engagement can seem about as cutting edge as bread and butter. But just as many teams are struggling to build the basics of engagement and appropriately respond to increasing pressure.

            Asking for the input of the stakeholders (family members) that my decision will affect helps me to make better overall decisions when it comes to planning family vacations. Involving those affected by a given problem increases their collective ability to find solutions. People learn through experience. Providing opportunities to influence decisions facilitates community members’ ability to make better decisions. (Jason, 2004) Trust and confidence develop when decision makers and those affected work together to pursue the common good. As communities become more diverse the need for collaborative decision-making increases.

            Under certain conditions, large groups of ordinary people are better at problem solving and making decisions than small groups of experts. The conditions include problem type, group size and structure, and the settings under which they make the decision.

Works Cited

Group, S. D. (2016). Collaborative Decision-Making and Negotiation. Collaborative Decision-Making and Negotiation. Strategic Decisions Group.

Jason, A. C. (2004). Participatory Community Research: Theories and Methods in Action. American Psychological Association, 10.

Levine, S. (2009). Getting to resolution. Oakland: Berrett-Koehler.