Presentation given at the NCVO Collaborative Learning Network on 14th Feb 2011 by Dr Christine Winkelen of Henley Business School, entitled Improving Organisational Decision Making.

1. Improving organisational decision making Dr Christine van Winkelen Henley Business School

2. Plan for this session Putting a focus on decision making The investigation Framework to build decision making capability Using the maturity model 2

3. In a time of cutbacks, reprioritising focus areas. How best to downsize a department. Prioritising access to limited resources in an organisation. Creating a regional structure for the organisation. Merging with another organisation. Renegotiating a major contract with a key supplier. Changing a process so that adaptability is built in. “Joining up” expertise in a specific area across a distributed organisation. Formulating the company’s climate change policy 3

4. “We are told over and over again, that if anything is central to the new, global information economy it is knowledge…. One of the most critical question any organization can raise is “How do we decide what we should use in order to decide?”” (Mitroff 2008) 4

5. What is a “good” decision? A “decision” is a commitment to a course of action that is intended to yield results that are satisfying for specified individuals. (Yates and Tschirhart 2006, p422). 5

6. Adopting a capability-based approach to decision-making Our objective: Identify factors that will enable managers to help build decision-making capability in their organizations as the internal and external environment evolves. 6

8. The context for decision making 8 (Categorisation: Snowden and Boone, 2007)

9. The investigation Extensive literature review to create the framework of five factors. Exploratory research: interviews with 19 senior decision-makers in ten public and private sector organisations, exploring a significant decision with each and considering how these factors were enacted. A maturity model for the factors was created using focus groups of knowledge managers. This was tested through interviews with knowledge managers in nine further organisations. 9

10. 10 Working Group Tim Andrews Stretch Learning Noelle Brelsford PHSO David Bruce British Council Roger Darby Cranfield University Mollie Dickenson Henley Business School Susan Frost Ministry of Defence John Haskey/ Mark Field DCSF Alex Goodall Friend of the Forum Sindy Grewal Audit Commission (Co-champion) Anna Last Information Centre for Health and Social Care Professor Jane McKenzie Henley Business School (Co-champion) Dr Christine van Winkelen Henley Business School (Co-champion) Darryn Warner Balfour Beatty The organisations who contributed to the interviews: From the public sector: Audit Commission, HMRC, Ministry of Defence, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, National College From the private sector: Mills & Reeve, MWH, Permira, Qatar Gas, Syngenta

11. 11 A framework for building organisational decision-making capability Human capital Identifying experts and developing expertise Developing individual’s decision making capacity by supporting reflective practice Structural capital Using technology to structure, integrate and provide access to explicit knowledge resources Decision review process to learn about better decision making Relational capital Adopting an integrated approach to internal and external collaboration

12. 12 Human capital

13. 13 Structural capital

14. 14 Relational capital

15. Constructing a maturity model 15

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18. Different organisations place named post-its on their current capability level. A B A A A B B A B B

19. Use colour to reveal the “river” – the gap between the “banks” is the learning opportunity. A B A A A B B A B B See “Learning to Fly” by Collison and Parcell for more details of this approach.

20. Identify opportunities for peer learning A B A A A B B A B B

21. Contact details This work was carried out as part of the research agenda of the Henley Knowledge Management Forum based at Henley Management College in the UK. www.henleymc.ac.uk/kmforum For further information contact: Christine.vanWinkelen@henley.reading.ac.uk Jane.McKenzie@henley.reading.ac.uk

22. Knowledge Management Forum Excellence in creating, sharing and using knowledge