Transcript Group decision making processes

Do they look like long-term collaborators that know well
how each other works to you? ;-)
PRAGMA 17 Workshop in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Left: GLEON 11 Student Workshop (Nanjing, China 2010)
Top right: GLEON 12 Ecosystem Modeling Working Group (Israel, 2011)
Bottom right: GLEON 12, Climate & Lake Physics Working Group (Israel, 2011)
A “hypothetical” problem-solving or shared goals discussion probably
looks like this:
In reality, discussions may go like this…
The Idealized Group Decision Making Process
DIVERGENT Thinking
Generate a list of ideas
Free-flowing open discussion
Seeking diverse points of view
Suspending judgment
vs.
CONVERGENT Thinking
Sorting ideas into categories
Summarizing key points
Exercising judgment
Coming to agreement
A more realistic model

The “Groan Zone” is where we – “struggle in the service of integration.”
The Diamond of the Participatory Decision-Making
The Diamond model is developed by Sam Kaner, Lenny Lind, Catherine Toldi,
Sarah Fisk and Duane Berger. Co-authors of the Facilitator’s Guide to
Participatory Decision-Making (Jossey-Bass Business & Management, 2011)
What are we doing in the “Divergent Zone”?
Pre-requisite of building sustainable agreements.
What are we doing in the ‘Groan Zone’?
To clarify competing frames of references, compare, negotiate
goals and inclusive solutions, ensure full participation, establish
mutual understanding and prepare to share responsibilities.
What’s the value and end result (we aim for) of the ‘Groan Zone’?
Creating the SHARED Framework of UNDERSTANDING. 
The Convergent Zone AND the Closure Zone
What are we doing in the convergence zone?
Remember to discuss and establish clear “decision rules”  when
reaching the CLOSURE ZONE (Decision Point).
This is the single most structural element of group decision-making to
take the group beyond ‘Decision Point’ to IMPLEMNTATION.
Inclusive
Solution
Mutual
Understanding
Full Participation
Shared
Responsibilities
The Four Participatory Values of
the Diamond Decision-Making
model for groups
By Midge Eliassen. LSPA, Sunapee, NH. January 2013
 Thank you 
• The Diamond [or ‘fish’] of Participatory Decision-Making
diagrams, the definition of each zone and the value of the
model are excerpted from Kaner, S., Lind, L., Toldi, C, Fisk, S.,
and Berger, D. The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory
Decision-Making. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011.
• All photos are used in this presentation are taken by Grace
Hong unless noted otherwise.