Decision Analysis for Management Judgment, 6th Edition

15Decision framing and cognitive inertia

Introduction

This chapter discusses the role of creativity in decision option generation. Are we able to recognize when tried-and-trusted ways of making decisions are outmoded, or do we instead tend to fall back on previously successful decisions and apply them in a habitual fashion? If the latter is the case, then we may be unable to recognize that rethinking a decision could be beneficial. The chapter analyses laboratory and real-world research on our ability to analyze a decision problem from more than one perspective and creatively improve our decision-making. Finally, we evaluate techniques that are designed to aid the creation of fresh decision options.

Creativity in problem solving

Imagine that you are given an 8-pint jug full of water, and a 5-pint jug and a 3-pint jug that are both empty. We will represent this as 8–8, 5–0, and 3–0, where the first figure indicates the size of the jug and the second figure indicates the amount of water in the jug. Your task is to pour the water from one jug into another until you end up with 6 pints in the 8-pint jug and 2 pints in the 3-pint jug (i.e., 8–6, 5–0, and 3–2).

What are the moves to change the initial state of the jugs and the goal state? Figure 15.1 gives the easiest series of moves. It is worthwhile working through this figure.

First, jug 1 is used to fill jug 2. Then, jug 2 is used to fill jug 3. Next, the contents of jug 3 are poured into jug 1 and then, finally, the ...