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Deciding together
Avanti Academy / Complexity, decisions and innovation / Solving Complex Problems and Decision Making / Focus
Focus

Deciding together

Root cause analysis and group decision making.

Two and a half hours on deciding with others rather than for them: root cause analysis, participative decision making and multi criteria analysis that makes trade-offs visible.

Level
Focus
Learning time
2 hours 30 minutes
Where
Solving Complex Problems and Decision Making
Price
£69

When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms

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About this course

Overview and Outcomes.

Who It's For

Leaders involving colleagues, partners or residents in shared decisions

Overview

How a problem is framed decides which solutions can be seen, and who is involved decides whether the answer is owned. Deciding together brings these disciplines into the room. It covers root cause analysis with the five whys and Ishikawa's fishbone diagram, then collaborative decision making, from a collaboration spectrum to three tests adapted from Habermas, with Porto Alegre's participatory budgeting as a case. Multi Criteria Decision Analysis, weighted scoring and Saaty's Analytic Hierarchy Process make judgement visible in line with the Green Book. A capstone reads the Boeing 737 MAX, New Coke and Birmingham's Oracle programme.

Aims

This programme aims to develop leaders who decide with others rather than for them, finding root causes before solutions, making trade offs between multiple criteria visible and honest, and noticing in time when pressure starts to override evidence in a shared decision.

In summary, you will be able to:

  1. Use the five whys and the fishbone diagram together in a meeting to find root causes before agreeing solutions.
  2. Design a multi criteria decision, agreeing criteria and weights before scoring, so that judgement is visible rather than decorative.
  3. Assess whether a decision is genuinely made with the people it affects, using the collaboration spectrum and tests of comprehensibility, sincerity and legitimacy.

What you'll develop

Through this Focus course, you will build the ability to:

  1. Apply the five whys to a recurring problem, continuing until the answer would genuinely prevent recurrence.
  2. Identify the three ways a chain of whys breaks down, including stopping at a person rather than a process.
  3. Distinguish a decision made with people from one made for them, and between gathering opinions and sharing the decision.
  4. Use the collaboration spectrum to name honestly where a relationship sits, including the difference between coordinating and collaborating.
  5. Analyse a real decision failure by naming the specific frameworks that were missing or not empowered.
  6. Compare cost benefit analysis with MCDA and choose the tool that makes your real judgement visible.
What is inside

Built from 2 parts.

2 hours 30 minutes of learning.

  1. 01Getting to the root of itRoot cause analysis: five whys and fishboneBitesize2 modules
  2. 02What matters mostMulti criteria decision analysis case studiesBitesize2 modules
Where it fits

Keep going.

Part of the Solving Complex Problems and Decision Making topic, also sold whole as Clear calls in complex times.

How credit works

Go deeper, and pay only the difference

  1. You are hereFocus, 2 hours 30 minutes, £69
  2. Next stepExplore, Tools for hard choices, 7 hours, £129. Already own the Focus? You pay £60.
  3. The whole topicImmerse, Clear calls in complex times, 13 hours 30 minutes, £249. Already own the Focus? You pay £180.

When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Prices per person. Read the full terms

Other Focus in the Solving Complex Problems and Decision Making topic

See all in Solving Complex Problems and Decision Making

What's inside