is that people are more likely to come up with ideas if they are
not subjected to criticism or even ridicule. Any idea goes and no
one is allowed to comment on what others say. The aim is to
produce as many ideas as possible. The majority (possibly 80 per
cent) are likely to be useless, but some possible ideas (20 per cent
perhaps) will emerge. Evaluation of the ideas only takes place
after the session has finished and no one gets the credit for any
accepted ideas or the blame for any of those rejected.
Nominal group technique
The nominal group technique gets a group to achieve consensus
on the ranking of problems, issues or solutions in order of impor-
tance.
Benchmarking
Benchmarking involves identifying good practice in other orga-
nizations, comparing them with practices within the bench-
marker’s organization and drawing conclusions on the lessons
learnt from good practice elsewhere which can be applied within
that organization. The comparisons concentrate on the areas for
improvement that have been identified and the aim is to learn as
much as possible about how other organizations have tackled
similar problems, bearing in mind that what works well in one
organization does not necessarily work well in another.
38 How to be an Even Better Manager
Figure 6.2 A Pareto chart403020100
slow mistakes rude poor tables wait limited cost
service on bill waiter food/ too for menu of
wine close meal mealPercentage of problems