Decision-Making Strategies

Jeff Lash recently linked to a page from Marie McIntyre on decision-making strategies.

McIntyre argues that the decision-making strategy you use should depend on factors such as:

Availability of information.
Superiority of one decision.
Acceptance of the decision by others.
Amount of time to decide.

Jeff already covered them in his entry, but the different strategies are:

Make the decision by yourself.
Get information from others, then decide by yourself.
Before deciding, consult with others one-on-one to get their views.
Before deciding, have a group discussion to explore options.
Ask the group to reach a consensus independently.

Notwithstanding the point that the best strategy depends on the circumstances, I have found the third strategy to be under-utilitized and underrated. One-on-one consultation is a powerful facilitation technique. Group discussions can be helpful, but the likelihood of miscommunication is exponentially greater than for a series of one-on-one discussions, often rendering one-on-one discussions more efficient.

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