Delphi

Delphi Decision Making Process

The Delphi Technique was originally conceived as a way to obtain the opinion of experts without necessarily bringing them together face to face. The term originates from Greek mythology. Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world. Thus, the Delphi method may thought of as an expert brainstorm.

A specialized use of this technique was developed for teachers. The "facilitator" acts as an organizer, getting each person in the target group to elicit expression of their concerns about a program, project, or policy in question. The facilitator listens attentively, forms "task forces," "urges everyone to make lists," and so on. While he is doing this, the facilitator learns something about each member of the target group. He/she identifies the "leaders," the "loud mouths","the weak or non-committal."

How to use it

1. Define the problem

Identify the problem that you want to work on, writing it down in a way that is easy to understand. This can be in the form of a questionnaire or in the form of open questions. You can work on several problems at once if the facilitator is an expert in the Delphi.

2.Give everyone the problem

Recruit people to the Delphi group. This includes anyone who has been selected to contribute thinking on this project. There is seldom a meeting needed for Delphi work, making it ideal for virtual teams.Delphi thinking can be done with a small group and it can be done with hundreds of people. Send the problem or problems to everyone who is in the group and ask them respond. You will have to handle a lot of feedback, so a questionnaire will make things much easier to deal with than a text.

3. Collate the responses

Take the responses that you get and collate these into a single anonymous list. Make this as easy as possible for the people to read when you send it back out again. For example you may group responses into appropriate headings, but with the caution that this might presuppose particular thinking.In the other hand, if you are seeking creative ideas you may deliberately mix up the answers.

4. Give everyone the collation

Send the collation back out to everyone with the request to score each item on a given scale (typically 1 to 5). You may also allow them to add further items as appropriate.Include the original problem at the top of the page, along with instructions on what to do.

The process may now be repeated as many times as is deemed appropriate. If you are seeking consensus and there was a wide range of responses, then this may require several iterations. A second round at least is necessary.

The key characteristics of this technique are the following:

 

Quick

 

 

 

 

X

 Long

 

Logical

 

X

 

 

 

 Psychological

 

Individual

 

 

 

 

X

 Group

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