Horseback riding stables in the county meet to develop a join plan for attracting new customers, particularly in light of the recent economic turndown. Three group members own prestigious private stables that board and train horses for their owners. Four members own open to the public stables that rent horses by the hour and offer riding lessons. Anna who owns one of the public stables agrees to chair the groups meetings.

All seven members are competent, hardworking, and interested in increasing business at their stables. At the first meeting they agree to seek consensus when making decisions; all members have to be satisfied with the final group decisions. They also talk about the need for a promotional campaign to increase their business.

At the second meeting, Anna works diligently to encourage equal participation by everyone on the group. Within a short time, however, things are not going well. Tension runs high because the private and public stable owners see the problem quite differently. The three members who own private stables are very forceful and insistent. Perhaps because these members are wealthy and highly respected among horse professionals, the rest of the group lets them do most of the talking. The private owners want to place full-color ads in specialized horse publications, while the public owners are more interested in getting free publicity about their stables and in funding a few small ads in public outlets. Even though they constitute a majority, the public stable owners feel powerless; they resent the unspoken power and influence of the other three members.

In an attempt to broaden the scope of the discussion, Anna distributes a list of questions that she believes the group should talk about and answer:

How serious is our decline in business?

Why do we have fewer customers?

How have stables in other countries responded to the problem?

What limitations do we face in addressing this problem (lack of funds, lack of public relations expertise)?

What should we do?

The three private stable owners jump to the last question. One of them says, We know the answers to these questions. We need a good PR campaign. So lets stop talking about other things and decide how to do this-as soon as possible. Scott, the owner of a public stable, respond quickly with, Whoa, there. The last thing I want to do is spend a lot of money on fancy-pants ads that none of my customers will see.

Anna interrupts and pleads with the group to slow down before deciding what to do. She tries to include everyone in the discussion by turning the meeting into a brainstorming session. Sally explains brainstorming rules and asks the group to think creatively about ways to increase business. If nothing else, the brainstorming session succeeds in reducing tension between the public stable owners and the private stable owners.

5.How well did the group select and use a structured, problem solving procedure or a creative, problem solving method?

6.How did politics, pre-existing preferences, and/or power affect the groups ability to make decisions and solve problems?