analogy technique

involves developing a statement about similarities among objects, persons, and situations.

bounded rationality

describes the limitations of rationality and emphasizes the decision–making processes often used by individuals or teams.

brainstorming

is an unrestrained flow of ideas in a group or team with all critical judgments suspended.

certainty

is the condition under which individuals are fully informed about a problem, alternative solutions are known, and the results of each solution are known.

creativity

is the ability to visualize, generate, and implement new ideas or concepts or new associations between existing ideas or concepts that are novel and useful.

cross–fertilization technique

involves asking experts from other fields to view the problem and suggest methods for solving it from their own areas of expertise.

decision making

includes defining problems, gathering information, generating alternatives, and choosing a course of action.

dictionary rule

which involves ranking items the same way a dictionary does: one criterion (analogous to one letter) at a time.

electronic brainstorming

involves the use of collaborative software technology to anonymously enter and automatically disseminate ideas in real time to all team members, each of whom may be stimulated to generate other ideas.

escalating commitment

a process of continuing or increasing the allocation of resources to a course of action even though a substantial amount of feedback indicates that the choice made is wrong.

evidence–based management

proceeds from the premise that using a better, deeper diagnosis and employing facts to the extent possible enable managers and leaders to do their jobs better.

knowledge management (KM)

is the art of adding or creating value by systematically capitalizing on the know–how, experience, and judgment found both within and outside an organization.

lateral thinking method

is a deliberate process and set of techniques for generating new ideas by changing an individual’s or team’s way of perceiving and interpreting information.

objective probability

is the likelihood that a specific result will occur, based on hard facts and numbers.

Osborn’s creativity process

is a three–phase decision–making process that involves fact finding, idea finding, and solution finding.

political decision making

describes situations where the parties have separate and different interests, goals, and values and, therefore, employ self–serving tactics.

probability

is the percentage of times that a specific result would occur if an individual were to make the same decision a large number of times.

problem framing

is the tendency to interpret issues and options in either positive or negative terms.

radio–frequency identification (RFID)

is an automatic identification method that relies on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders.

reversal technique

involves examining a problem by turning it completely around, inside out, or upside down.

risk

refers to the condition under which individuals can define a problem, specify the probability of certain events, identify alternative solutions, and state the probability of each solution leading to a result.

risk propensity

is the tendency of an individual or team to make or avoid decisions in which the anticipated outcomes are unknown.

satisficing

is the tendency to select an acceptable, rather than an optimal, goal or decision.

scapegoating

is the casting of blame for problems or shortcoming on an innocent or only partially responsible individual, team, or department.

subjective probability

is the likelihood that a specific result will occur, based on personal judgment.

uncertainty

vertical thinking method

which is a logical step–by–step process of developing ideas by proceeding continuously from one bit of information to the next.