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What They Say...

"I had been consistently astounded by the way in which their methods for the visualization and clarification of reasoning processes enables one to impose order on chaos and see what is really going on in complex, contentious and tangled debates..."
- Dr Neil Byron, former Commissioner, Productivity Commission

"They are making a significant contribution to the improvement of analytical standards in the public policy arena, particularly among young professionals. Austhink deserves the country's thanks for this."
- Ross Babbage, Founder, Kokoda Foundation

 "Austhink's methods for dissecting and clarifying complex pieces of analysis or public policy are first class."
- LTGEN (ret) Peter Leahy, former Chief of Army

"That Austhink has devised new methods for doing this is enormously to its credit and I only hope more businesses will start to adopt such methods. It will save an immense amount of money, time and frustration for them."
- Bruce Page, Energy Consultant  

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Wisdom of Groups

What does your team or organisation know about a topic? What is its collective wisdom? For example, what do national security experts as a group believe about key terrorist threats to Australia?

The wisdom of a group is often far superior to that of its members. However standard techniques for eliciting the pooled or synthesized wisdom on complex issues all have limitations.

Austhink has developed a novel technique for rapidly identifying group wisdom. Our technique

  • Builds rational consensus rather than just aggregating opinions
  • Avoids distortions arising from the design of the process
  • Is quick, efficient and even entertaining for participants
  • Allows each member of the group benefit from the group’s wisdom.

Example – Addiction and Inequality

The organisers of a national workshop bringing together experts on problems of addiction with experts on social inequality wanted to produce a statement of the group’s collective wisdom as a guide for public policy.   They worried whether there would be anything that the heterogeneous group agreed on, and how they would identify such common ground.   Using our novel technique within the three-day event, Austhink was able to deliver a 30-point statement of collective wisdom showing a remarkable degree of consensus and providing a clear foundation for policy. More…