Handbook of Decision Analysis

CHAPTER FOUR

Decision Analysis Soft Skills

TERRY A. BRESNICK and GREGORY S. PARNELL

Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.

—Stephen Covey

The mind is like a parachute. It only works when it is open.

—Tony Robbins

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Thinking Strategically

4.3 Leading Decision Analysis Teams

4.4 Managing Decision Analysis Projects

4.5 Researching

4.6 Interviewing Individuals

4.6.1 Before the Interview

4.6.2 Schedule/Reschedule the Interview

4.6.3 During the Interview

4.6.4 After the Interview

4.7 Conducting Surveys

4.7.1 Preparing an Effective Survey: Determine the Goals, Survey Respondents, and Means of Distributing and Collecting Survey Data

4.7.2 Executing a Survey Instrument: Developing the Survey Questions, Testing, and Distributing the Survey

4.8 Facilitating Groups

4.8.1 Facilitation Basics

4.8.2 Group Processes

4.8.3 Focus Groups

4.9 Aggregating across Experts

4.10 Communicating Analysis Insights

4.11 Summary

Key Terms

References

4.1 Introduction

In Chapter 1, we identify the decision analysis soft skills, and in Chapter 2, we discuss decision-making challenges and note that the decision analyst must have the soft skills necessary to implement decision analysis as a socio-technical process. Soft skills are the nonquantitative, “personal,” “social,” or “interpersonal” skills that complement the quantitative hard skills of the mathematics of decision making methodologies. Soft skills, such as leadership ...