5 Structured Analytic Techniques for Better Decision-Making
1 min read
Summary
Chris Meyer contends that structured analytic techniques are useful in many scenarios and daily life and explains five techniques with examples from well-known movies to explain how they could be used in real-life scenarios to help diagnose or reframe situations, support decision-making, and anticipate future events, enhancing the decision-making process by helping to uncover assumptions, examining the decision from multiple perspectives, and identifying the evidence that would change one’s mind.
Meyer applies five structured analytic techniques to unrealistic movie scenarios to illustrate how they can be applied in real-life scenarios to enhance decision-making: the Key Assumptions Check, in which the assumptions on which a judgment is based are identified and challenged; Structured Self-Critique, in which the likelihood of a decision resulting in negative consequences is assessed; Devil’s Advocacy, in which a group’s consensus is challenged; Deception Detection, in which a statement believed to be true from a single source is examined; and Alternative Futures Analysis, in which the potential consequences of a decision are anticipated and multiple scenarios developed.