Making Successful Business Decisions

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Making Successful Business Decisions

How to Negotiate Conflicting Opinions to Set Direction

Making Successful Business Decisions

How to Negotiate Conflicting Opinions to Set Direction

Presenter: Larry T. Barnard

ProjectWorld*BusinessAnalystWorld Toronto 2009

© Copyright: All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced without prior written consent. PW-BAW-2 ®

ObjectivesObjectives

• Increase personal effectiveness through integrative thinking

• Forge a four-step process to integrate multiple points of view

• Facilitate the “Six Hats” theory to decision analysis


Divided by PerspectiveDivided by Perspective

• When confronted by decisions, individuals are influenced by their views of reality, including:— Personal values, mental perspective, religious and political beliefs, fears,

tolerance for risk, etc.

• When facilitating group discussions for decision making, one must be aware of key mental barriers


Divided by Perspective(continued)Divided by Perspective(continued)

• Three common barriers:— Arbitrary coherence, made up of imprinting and anchors based on first

impressions— Stereotypes that drive expectations — Expectations that alter our subjective and objective experiences

Boundaries between beliefs and reality blur objectivity and decision-making abilityBoundaries between beliefs and reality blur objectivity and decision-making ability


Arbitrary CoherenceArbitrary Coherence

• People have preset ideas about everything from prices for products to whether to fight or flee to what is morally acceptable— These ideas or beliefs are developed individually at specific points in time

• When we develop an initial idea or belief like this, it is called an imprint

• If we uphold this imprint, it becomes an anchor

• Each of us has hundreds of anchors that impact every decision we make, from purchasing fuel to buying shoes to negotiating the terms of a contract at work

• Can you identify any of your own anchors?


StereotypesStereotypes

• Stereotypes are another major barrier that impact our clarity of vision and our ability to be objective

• Our brains map learning from real-life experience in many ways

• One of those ways is by developing stereotypes

• Stereotypes enable us to make quick decisions about circumstances that resemble circumstances from our past

We grow our own maps!


Stereotypes(continued)Stereotypes(continued)

• Although this ability may protect us in life-threatening situations, it tends to blur our objectivity and rational thinking in almost every other situation

• We have stereotypes of people, products, services, etc.

• A popular example of this is the marketing campaigns by Mac and PC

• Can you think of any stereotypes that blur your perception of reality?


Expectations That Taint RealityExpectations That Taint Reality

• Expectations, as we have already seen, can influence our impression of the facts prior to making decisions

• In the heat of the moment, expectations can be set in many ways:— The comments of a friend when buying a new coat— The impressive speech from a waiter prior to selecting your entrée— The publicity campaign of the latest politician— Good news you heard through the grapevine before attending a meeting on

upcoming corporate changes

• These expectations have a direct impact on the decisions being made

• When you impact expectations, you influence decisions

• Can you think of a time when your expectations were influenced by someone or something?


Dealing With Opinion in the Face of UncertaintyDealing With Opinion in the Face of Uncertainty

Integrative Thinking

Six Thinking Hats


Facilitating Decisions in a GroupFacilitating Decisions in a Group

• Reality is based on perceived elements or pieces of the truth

• Developing an understanding or agreement of the facts at any given point in time requires a negotiation of this perceived reality

• Everyone involved in a discussion to make a decision will have a different perception of the facts being considered and the reality therein

• How can you persuade a group of people to consider and value the each other’s perspectives when making decisions?

• Two effective tools available for facilitating decisions within groups are integrative thinking and six thinking hats


Integrative Thinking DefinedIntegrative Thinking Defined

• Integrative thinking is a process that enables individuals with different perspectives, knowledge, backgrounds, and experience to solve problems, overcome challenges, and make decisions by thinking holistically as a group

• Through a sequence of steps, individuals integrate their thought processes with the others in the group

• The process leads to nonlinear thinking and results in benefits for the whole group

• Main benefit: the ability of the group to face opposing models of thought and create a new model that integrates the ideas from the individual models, rather than choosing one over another


Integrative Thinking ModelIntegrative Thinking Model

Search for creativeresolution of tensions

Whole visualizedwhile working onindividual parts

Multidirectional and nonlinearcausality considered

More features of the problem considered salient

Salience

Causality

Architecture

Resolution


Step 1: SalienceStep 1: Salience

• In the first step, salience, we decide the boundaries of our scenario and what exists within those boundaries

• What features or facts are relevant to the decision being made?

Salience

Causality

Architecture

Resolution


Step 2: CausalityStep 2: Causality

• In the second step, causality, we attempt to make sense of what we see or what we’re considering

• What are the pieces of the puzzle and how do they fit together?

• In this key step, we must work as a group to share our different perceptions of reality and how they relate to each other

• Success is dependant upon our ability to think on different planes and integrate the thoughts and ideas of others intoour own plane of reality

Salience

Causality

Architecture

Resolution


Step 3: ArchitectureStep 3: Architecture

• In the third step, architecture, our ultimate goal is to blend our different perspectives together in order to develop a more complete version of reality

• This step requires effective facilitation, open discussion, and a willingness to challenge preset stereotypes and limited perspectives

• This can be a difficult process if the groupconsists of one or more members withoverpowering personalities

Salience

Causality

Architecture

Resolution


Step 4: ResolutionStep 4: Resolution

• In the final step, resolution, the group makes a decision based on the reasoning accomplished in the first three steps

• Since integrative thinking requires a sequenced process, each step within the sequence is important and provides critical input to the subsequent steps

Salience

Causality

Architecture

Resolution


Dealing With Opinion in the Face of UncertaintyDealing With Opinion in the Face of Uncertainty

Integrative Thinking

Six Thinking Hats


Six Thinking Hats DefinedSix Thinking Hats Defined

• Edward de Bono’s book, Six Thinking Hats, suggests that the application of role-playing can make you and your team better thinkers

• His Six Thinking Hats process provides a way to integrate role-playing with discussion, creative thinking, problem solving, and decision making

• By applying de Bono’s six colored hats, each of which represents a different role, groups can reach a higher level of communication, understanding, and consensus


Six Thinking Hats RolesSix Thinking Hats Roles

de Bono’s role-playing structure uses six different hats, each of which represents a different perspective or thinking process:

• White hat— Neutral and objective— Focuses on facts and figures— Has no concern for emotions— Wants the facts and only the facts— Takes a very scientific approach to the thinking process

• Red hat— Takes the emotional view — Feels no need to justify feelings or establish a logical basis for them

• Black hat — Careful and cautious— Considers all potential risks, obstacles, or concerns with the intent of

drawing attention to them in order to protect those involved— Has good intentions for being the “devil’s advocate”


Six Thinking Hats Roles(continued)Six Thinking Hats Roles(continued)

• Yellow hat— Sunny and positive— Focuses on the benefits without any consideration for risks

• Green hat— Associated with creativity and new ideas— Focuses on ingenuity— The ultimate lateral thinker, with no concern for cost or risk— Focuses on “What can we do?” rather than “What are our limitations or what

might go wrong?”

• Blue hat— The organizing hat— Focused thinker concerned with organizing everything from the thinking

process itself to the next steps of the initiative, project, or problem analysis— If we want organized structure, we need a blue-hat thinker


Six Thinking Hats ProcessSix Thinking Hats Process

• In a group scenario, the facilitator requests the members of the group to role play a chosen hat

• By mentally switching gears from one hat to another, the members of the group are forced to leave their own perspectives behind

• Each member of the group can wear a single hat, different from the other members — They can wear multiple hats at the same time as other members— Or the entire group can choose to wear the same hat at the same time in

order to see things from the same perspective

• This forces the group to constructively, objectively, or even emotionally look at the situation under review from alternate perspectives

• The goal is to force individuals to reach outside their limited perspective and better appreciate alternate views

• It is a more holistic way of thinking


Objectives CoveredObjectives Covered

• Increase personal effectiveness through integrative thinking

• Forge a four-step process to integrate multiple points of view

• Facilitate the “Six Hats” theory to decision analysis


For More InformationFor More Information

• To further explore this subject, Learning Tree offers the following 3-day course – Making Successful Business Decisions: Getting It Right the First Time

More information can be found here – www.learningtree.ca/908

• For full descriptions of over 175 Management, Business and IT Skills courses, services provided and pricing options— Go to www.learningtree.ca — Or call us at 1-800-843-8733.

• For Project Management & Management Consulting Solutions, contact Larry T. Barnard of Explorus Group Inc. at [email protected]