Structuring, Organising and Running Meetings to Distil the Best Advice from Subject Matter Experts

Abstract

The Defence Capability Plan (DCP) provides detailed, costed planning for development of Australia's military capabilities for 10 years into the future. It is reviewed annually to take account of changing strategic circumstances, new technologies, and changing priorities. Also included in the development of the DCP are through-life-costing estimates for new investments. To facilitate its analysis, Defence Capability has been partitioned into six broad capability groupings, called Domains, each with specific capability goals. These domains are: Aerospace, Maritime, Land and Littoral, Strategic Strike, Information, and Support to Operations. The analysis sought includes capability guidance, gap assessment, and options development. For each domain a working group has been established to provide expert advice relevant to that domain but with a joint focus. There is a view that the current domain structure is satisfactory but the system for managing the Domain Working Groups (DWG) could be improved. The DWGs formed to review the DCP meet regularly. An important consideration is how best to structure, organize, and run their meetings so as to distill the best advice from the subject matter experts (SME) in each domain. Hence, this report reviews, discusses, and evaluates the following approaches to distilling SME knowledge: the Delphi Method; Cross-Impact Analysis (CIA); facilitated meetings with and without computer support, as well as less-structured Rules-Based meetings; Decision Conferencing; group discussion techniques, like Focus Groups and Nominal Group Technique; de Bono's Six Hats and Lateral Thinking; and finally, Narrative Patterning and Story Circles. Other aspects of group dynamics discussed in this report include Communities of Practice, Groupthink, and Trust. (44 refs.)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2003
Accession Number
ADA419427

Entities

People

  • Derek Bopping
  • Irena Ali
  • Leoni Warne
  • Les Vencel
  • Terry Moon

Organizations

  • Defence Science and Technology Group

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Counter WMD
  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Business Administration
  • Community Of Practice
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Delphi Method
  • Governments
  • Group Dynamics
  • Information Science
  • Information Systems
  • Knowledge Management
  • Management Personnel
  • Military Capabilities
  • Models
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personality
  • Psychology
  • Test And Evaluation

Readers

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Organizational Process Management (OPM).

Technology Areas

  • Space