Harvard Business Essentials, Decision Making

7. Group A presents its revised proposal in a third meeting.

8. Subsequent meetings are held in which the two groups con-

tinue to critique and revise the proposal until they agree on a

recommendation.

Here’s an example of the intellectual watchdog technique at

work:

A manufacturer of office furniture needs to improve the quality of its

products, and two groups are assigned to work on the problem using the

point-counterpoint approach.The first group assumes that the com-

pany’s quality problems stem from outdated manufacturing equipment;

its recommendation is an investment in computer-controlled equipment.

It develops a written document that explains why ...