Advancing the practice of Decision Conferencing in the digital age: insights from a qualitative study with OR practitioners

Complex multi-actor decision contexts often benefit from facilitated modelling (FM) approaches, wherein the operational researcher (OR) acts as both analyst and facilitator, guiding the client through the entire OR intervention. Conducting an FM intervention is complex, involving managing participants’ interactions and group dynamics, structuring process tasks, and mastering the use of several artefacts (e.g. notes, model, technology), either in-person or in virtual environments. Literature on facilitation in OR is quite limited, focusing mainly on specific contexts and case studies, and lacking generalisable insights for FM practice. This paper aims to advance the understanding of Decision Conferencing (DCing)—an FM approach that makes use of decision analysis concepts, methods, and tools—through an analysis of reflexive accounts from OR practitioners to identify practices, trends, challenges, and opportunities in both traditional (in-person) and virtual settings. We conducted semi-structured interviews with nineteen OR practitioners (from academia and industry) with experience in DCing facilitation, which were consented, recorded, transcribed, coded, and analysed using reflective thematic analysis. Our findings contribute to the existing FM literature by providing first-hand accounts of OR practitioner experiences and offer insights for advancing DCing and FM research, practice, and training.