Tools for Complex Decision-Making
Interviewing a Facilitator
Behavioral interviewing is a form of interviewing premised on the idea that past performance is the best predictor of future performance. It tends to be more probing and, thus, objective than traditional interviewing techniques. The following is a set of behavioral interviewing questions you may want to ask when selecting a facilitator, followed by tips on what you want to listen for in their responses.
· Please describe a specific example of when you helped a group use new information to inform their decision-making process? How did you help them introduce, process, and apply the information?
(Look for techniques for helping groups process new information, agree on its validity/value, and consider the implications for specific decisions)
· Please describe the steps that are important to you in a decision-making process? What is critical for participants to go through together?
(Important for the facilitator to describe setting group norms, selecting decision-making rules, practices for brainstorming or bringing options to the table, practices for vetting options, practices for making the decision, and ways of building commitment to the decision).
· Please describe two examples of your actions when facilitating a decision-making process whose participants had conflicting needs or expectations. Give one example of when the conflict was resolved quickly and another when it was persistent.
(Look for the facilitator to have specific techniques or facilitation processes to resolve in the moment conflict and to manage high conflict groups ongoing).
· Please describe an example of facilitating a process that had a mix of professionals and either consumers, constituents or members of the public. What are some of the things you did to make the process successful?
(Look for examples of onboarding the nontraditional participants, mentoring approaches, managing the use of jargon/acronyms in meetings, the numbers of nontraditional voices involved, support between meetings for these individuals, and facilitation processes used to draw all participants into the conversation.)
Are you interested in more tips and tools for decision-making?
Spark Policy Institute’s (www.sparkpolicy.com) interactive Tools for Complex Decision-Making is available at www.sparkpolicy.com/tools/complex-decision-making. Please share your stories about decision-making, along with tips, tools, and tactics, or see what others are using in their work.