One of the keys to becoming a better decision maker is to learn how to avoid some of the more prevalent decision making traps. What are some individual and group decision making traps? The BABOK® Guide discusses decision making traps, but what about the trap of uncertainty? What are some decision making uncertainties you are finding that affect your own decisions? Once you have developed a set of solutions for a business problem or challenge, how would you go about assessing each on its merits to arrive at the best choice? Do groups deal with decision making uncertainty differently than individuals? In addition to peer-reviewed academic journal articles, back up all opinions with foundation knowledge from the BABOK Guide and in-class lessons
Sample Answer
ndividual and Group Decision-Making Traps
Both individuals and groups face common pitfalls when making decisions.
Individual Traps:
Anchoring: Over-relying on the first piece of information received, even if it's irrelevant.
Confirmation Bias: Seeking out information that confirms pre-existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence.
Availability Heuristic: Overestimating the likelihood of an event based on how easily examples come to mind. For example, a recent news story about a plane crash might make a person irrationally fear flying.
In the context of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), a potential intervention matrix is a structured teaching strategy that efficiently teaches new skills by arranging instructional components along two axes. The primary goal of this method is to promote generative learning or recombinative generalization, meaning the learner acquires new, untrained skills simply by being taught a subset of skills within the matrix.
The matrix works by identifying core components of a skill and arranging them in a grid. For example, to teach a child to label colors and objects, an instructor might place colors (e.g., red, blue) on one axis and objects (e.g., car, block) on the other.
The intersection of the axes creates a set of combinations (e.g., "red car," "blue block").
The instructor directly teaches some of these combinations.
The hope is that the learner will then be able to correctly identify or label the untrained combinations (e.g., "red block" or "blue car") without direct instruction.