LOST AT SEA -- GROUP DECISIONS: You are adrift on a private yacht in the South Pacific. As a consequence of a fire of unknown origin, much of the yacht and its contents have been destroyed. The yacht is now slowly sinking. Your location is unclear because of the destruction of critical navigation equipment and because you and the crew were distracted trying to bring the fire under control. Your best estimate is that you are approximately 1000 miles south-southwest of the nearest land. 

Below is a list of 15 items that are intact and undamaged after the fire. In addition to these articles, you have a serviceable rubber life raft with oars large enough to carry yourself, the crew (your group), and all the items listed. The total contents of all survivors' pockets are a package of cigarettes, several books of matches, and five $1 bills.

Your task is to rank the 15 items in terms of their importance to you for survival. Place the number "1" by the most important item, "2" by the second most important, etc., through the number "15" in the column titled INDIVIDUAL RANKING.

As a group, rank the 15 items according to the GROUP'S CONSENSUS on order of importance to your survival. Do not vote; try to reach agreement on each item. Base your decision on knowledge, logic, or the experience of group members. Try to avoid basing the decision on personal preference. Enter the group's rankings in the column entitled GROUP RANKING.

Your instructor will give you the ranking assigned by a survival expert. Enter these in the column entitled SURVIVAL EXPERT.

Compute the absolute value of the difference between your ranking and the group's ranking for each item, and enter it in the INFLUENCE column. Add this column's numbers to get a total of the differences. Discuss this score for the members of your group. It could represent the extent to which the group affected "your way of thinking." Who was most influential in the discussion? Who was least influenced?

Compute the absolute value of the difference between your ranking and the expert's, and enter it in the INDIVIDUAL ACCURACY column. Do the same thing for the group's rankings, and enter the result in the GROUP ACCURACY column. Total each accuracy column to obtain an "accuracy score" for yourself and for the group. Share your accuracy score with the others in your group. Note that having both influence and accuracy scores low suggests that you were really right and that you were listened to. If you were accurate but had little influence, you might try to find out why you did not have a bigger impact on the group.

Average the group members' accuracy scores and compare this to the group's accuracy and to the lowest individual score in your group. If your group was very effective, the group score may very well be better than either of the other two. It is often possible for the group to excel even its own best individual resource.

QUESTIONS: What decisions in organizations have characteristics/elements similar to those in this exercise?

ITEMS AND SCORING SHEET --

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