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Behavioral Issues in the Practical Application of Scenario Thinking: Cognitive Biases, Effective Group Facilitation and Overcoming Business-as-Usual Thinking

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Behavioral Operational Research

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss and analyse the use of scenario interventions in organisations to overcome business-as-usual thinking—by promoting divergence of opinion and subsequent debate about the nature of the future. We show that cognitive biases at the level of individual participants in a scenario workshop can both help and hinder the progression of scenario thinking, and we go on to demonstrate how expert facilitation of the group process can help generate process-gain, with the result that individually held overconfidence is challenged and attenuated.

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Bryson, S., Grime, M., Murthy, A., Wright, G. (2016). Behavioral Issues in the Practical Application of Scenario Thinking: Cognitive Biases, Effective Group Facilitation and Overcoming Business-as-Usual Thinking. In: Kunc, M., Malpass, J., White, L. (eds) Behavioral Operational Research. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53551-1_10

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