Introducing the Moving Beyond Compromise Blog

This series of articles will explore group decision-making and problem-solving with the aim of examining the methods used and why they so often fail to deliver effective, or sometimes any, results. I will then look at a different approach to the two related activities of decision-making and problem-solving that can, if applied, lead to the outcomes we seek. 

The overall “field” of studying decision-making and problem-solving is pretty vast, with many books, academic studies and articles, blogs, and even university classes about these subjects. In the course of these articles I will refer to some of the literature directly but will mainly focus on summarizing current practices being used and examine why they so often fail to succeed. Along the way I will offer up some new approaches.

Initially, I will be focusing on decision-making for businesses but later will go into applications in other settings. 

To be very up front, the ideas I will present here are the core concepts of a book I have written along with my friends Kevin C. Smith and Gordon P. McComb, entitled Moving Beyond Compromise: Why Stop There? Early readers of the book have been enthusiastic about the potential of the use of the concepts presented and a revision of that early edition will be published in the middle of 2019. 

In this series of articles, I will focus first on decision-making and then turn to problem-solving, keeping in mind that they are closely related activities. When solving problems, whether in a group or as an individual, we use many of the same approaches we employ in decision-making.  But since problems usually have multiple components to consider in coming to a solution, the evaluation of the options we examine becomes more complicated. 

Group decision-making is in many ways influenced, often significantly, by decisions made by the individuals involved. The individuals can, and do, make decisions about what to offer to the process, or not to offer. How those individuals choose to contribute to the process, and what they contribute can have a significant impact on the quality of the decisions being made. Good ideas can be withheld or can be offered up only to be dismissed without real consideration. Withholding an idea is a decision, as is dismissing one that is offered up. How we, as individuals, make the decisions concerning how we contribute is complex, but, as stated above, can influence, either positively or negatively, the quality of the ultimate decisions made, if they are made at all.

So, I will begin by looking at how we, as individuals make decisions by and for ourselves in our day-to-day activities. Then I will move on to group processes, ones in which two or more individuals, working together, make those decisions.

First, I want to define “individual decisions.” For the purpose of this series of articles, individual decisions are made by one person by and for himself. However, I also include situations where one person, acting essentially on his own, makes a decision for others. While this may be reasonable in some, or even many, circumstances, such as a parent making a decision for their small child, the kind of group decision-making we will be considering here will be that of several individuals working collaboratively to arrive at the decision. Many, if not most, of us have been in situations in which one person essentially imposes their will on the others involved and dictates the decision. This is not “working together;” rather, it is dictatorship: a decision by an individual. I will come back to the dynamics of this situation in a later article.

The next article will begin a series on how decisions are made by individuals. The strengths and weaknesses of the approaches we all use as individuals will be discussed in those articles. Then, I will move on to group decision-making.

See you next week!