The Delphi technique is a structured, anonymous and iterative survey of a panel of ‘experts’ or participants. However, it is rather underused in biodiversity sciences and holds considerable potential for further use. Et voila! The Delphi techniqueĬombine these ingredients: anonymity, iteration and feedback, and the Delphi technique emerges! The Delphi technique originated in the 1950s and has been extensively used in many disciplines including medicine, psychology, nursing and tourism. Iteration allows respondents to consider the problem for a longer period of time and learn from others in a controlled interactive setting. Providing written feedback also makes the process more traceable for legal purposes. This is particularly important in uncertain or complex situations.
![the delphi technique the delphi technique](https://www.projectpractical.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Delphi-Technique-Explained-with-Examples.jpg)
Research in the past has shown that feedback and iteration have a considerable impact in refining the initial estimates. That’s a great start to improve the efficiency of decision making.Īnother way to improve the efficiency would be to use an iterative process with feedback. They are far less likely to be influenced by the opinion of others and can thereby think independently. Individuals can focus on the problem or issue at hand rather than be distracted by allied interpersonal issues of conformity. Some of these biases (such as ego effect and dominance) can be addressed to a large extent by using an anonymous process. How do we harness these messy thought processes and channel them for effective decision-making for biodiversity management? © Henry Martin (The New Yorker Collection/The Cartoon Bank)Ī large number of psychological biases impact the outcomes of group based decision-making. However, people in a group often have different modes of thinking or problem solving, alternate reference frames, subjective biases and varying levels or domains of expertise. Several heads might have an even higher probability of being better than one. Two heads are often better than one in decision making. Post provided by Nibedita Mukherjee (author of The Delphi technique in ecology and biological conservation) The quirky nature of decision making