New guide to help public sector leaders improve decision-making

A new guide has been published to help leaders and managers in the public sector to improve decision-making and outcomes in the wake of the pandemic.

The guide has been drawn up by Nesta’s Centre for Collective Intelligence Design and draws on examples of when group decision-making could have averted high profile incidents like the attack on the Twin Towers.

It also demonstrates how group decision-making can inspire new ways to solve problems and make a big difference to ways of working, especially when budgets and resources are more constrained than ever.

According to Nesta, access to more information, expertise and ideas can give a group advantages over individual decision-makers.

Teams that get it right are more productive, innovative and happier as a result.

With practical top tips and common pain points to watch out for, the resource is designed to equip managers and leaders with the skills they need to make good decisions by tapping into the collective intelligence inside their organisations and beyond.

‘We know collective intelligence and tools such as group decision-making are vital in extending our problem-solving capacity, and it can play a key role in combatting the complex issues caused by Covid-19,’ said resource author and principal researcher, Aleks Berditchevskaia.

‘We all know two brains are better than one but how do you get the most out of team decision-making whilst avoiding group think? Working in diverse groups can significantly increase your pool of information and ideas and allow for new ways of doing things. Too often organisations fail to take advantage of these techniques, despite the difference they’d make.

‘Instead, we follow the same old approaches, with no different results. Working more openly and collaboratively requires public bodies to develop new capabilities and procedures. We want to support the sector to meet this challenge. It doesn’t need to be about big structural changes but testing new ways of doing things and adopting the most effective.’

Photo Credit – Pixabay