Simplot Decision Support Center

What is the Simplot Decision Center?

The Simplot Decision Support Center (SDSC) is a facility designed to increase group decision making effectiveness and efficiency. The physical facility is valued in excess of $750,000. It is a research and development effort of Idaho State University resulting from the generosity of the Simplot Corporation. The Simplot Decision Support Center if one of only a few dedicated facilities in the nation and is available as a resource to both local and national organizations.

Committees are the most common form of group decision making we encounter. As we all know, most people love committee meetings. They rank just above a root canal without anesthesia as their favorite activity. The bad reputation of committees stems from a fundamental flaw -- the way participants interact before, during and after the meeting. Despite their reputations, the literature shows that well run groups generally make better decisions by increasing the interaction among individuals

Key Benefits

Some items that lead to non productive meetings are:

• An abandoned agenda.
• Decisions were not reached.
• Plans for follow-up were not made.
• The meeting notes and recommendations are not documented.
• One person tried to dominate the discussion.
• Individuals with valid contributions did not make them.
• Creative ideas were limited by negative comments

The SDSC is designed to support the Group Decision Support systems process. This process improves the quality of group decisions by removing the most frequent impediments to good decision making

Scheduling the Simplot Center

In addition to the fixed SDSC facility, the Center for Decision Support has the ability to deploy a fully operational support center to your facility. In addition to deploying locally, we have hosted sessions in Washington, DC, San Francisco, CA, Salt Lake City, UT, Baltimore, MD, Toronto, Canada, and Seattle, WA.

Either center can be scheduled by contacting Jim Frost at (208) 236-4549 Or send e-mail to Jim Frost (Frost@sdsc.isu.edu)

Ask about our frequent users or patron pricing schedule!

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Last modified: 10/08/07