Can 1 h of training lead to better project decision-making?

Abstract

An experiment was set up to determine whether some short, focused training could influence decision makers to take a more structured and process-based approach to project decision-making. The experiment also investigated the impact on project decision-making of the way a decision is framed by an authority figure, i.e. how a decision is influenced by an authority figure advocating a process-driven, neutral or an opinion/schedule-driven approach. The experiment was set up so that half of the participants watched three 15-min training videos before answering questions on decision-making scenarios for projects, and the other half just answered questions on the decision-making scenarios. 40% of participants (split across those who watched the training videos and those that only answered the decision-making scenario questions) had undergone some prior training on decision making. The results demonstrate that watching the training videos has an impact. The impact is greater when there has been no prior training; however, there is still impact in each case, albeit small for some. This implies that the benefits of 1 h of training prior to project decision-making is more valuable for those with no prior training, but still worthwhile for those with prior training. The results showed that framing by an authority figure has a strong influence on the participants’ responses, in terms of whether a process-based, neutral or opinion/intuition-based response was given.