intense ideological interest in seeing to it that a particular objective is 

 obtained. The second type of individual is .lie "expert." These are indivi- 

 duals (from within or outside the organization conduc ing the analysis) who 

 specialize in the technical or legal aspects of the ty le of issue or who have 

 had experience in the issue area. Experts, in Scheele's sense, are typically 

 further removed from the operational aspects of the organization and can bring 

 a measure of objectivity to the process. The third type of individual is the 

 "facilitator." These are people who have keen organizational skills and who 

 are good at moving the discussion forward in a smooth and timely manner. They 

 are also able to clarify facts and synthesize information for the group. 



In selecting a committee such as this, it is important to remember that 

 the idea is to include diverse points of view. It is also important that the 

 individuals chosen for membership on committees of this type are either 

 interested enough to take the job seriously — or can be provided with enough 

 incentive to do so (for example, monetary awards or certificates of apprecia- 

 tion for participating). Once the panel is selected, the moderator leads it 

 through a series of brainstorming sessions in which: (1) criteria are generated 

 for including organizations in the analysis; (2) all participants are 

 encouraged to identify the organizations each feels are relevant; (3) a list 

 of potential organizations is drawn up by the committee; and (4) the list is 

 discussed and a final number is chosen by the members of the committee. All 

 organizations obtaining an agreed-upon (e.g., 51% to 100% agreement) amount of 

 consensus are included in the LIAM analysis. 



A more formal approach, which does not have the disadvantages of 

 committees, is the Delphi method. Delphi was first employed in military 

 planning efforts, and has since been used in such diverse areas as health 

 care, the environment, local planning, transportation, and fisheries manage- 

 ment (Zuboy 1981). The most common Delphi exercise is in questionnaire format. 

 In this case, a questionnaire is developed that details the specifics of the 

 conflict and outlines criteria for selecting organizations. This form is then 

 sent to a set of experts (or experienced individuals) who are asked to identify 

 all of the organizations that meet those criteria. The results of the question- 

 naires are combined to produce two short lists. One of these includes all of 

 the organizations identified by an agreed upon majority of the respondents as 

 directly relevant to the issue, while the second includes all those upon which 

 majority opinion could not be reached. The respondents then review this 

 second list and identify those groups that they strongly feel should be 

 included, along with reasons for doing so. The results of the second round are 

 sent back to the respondents, and this process is repeated until the desired 

 amount of consensus is achieved (Linstone and Turoff 1975; Zuboy 1981). 



Once this has been accomplished, each organization identified should be 

 analyzed by at least three different individuals. These can be individuals 

 either internal or external to the organization conducting the analysis. Each 

 of these individuals — referred to within LIAM as respondents--then answers the 

 questions presented in Query in relation to that organization. It is crucial 

 to have each organization analyzed by three different individuals to obtain an 

 "averaged" set of responses. This is desirable for two reasons. First, 

 individual perceptions of the same organization differ from one another, and 

 while neither perception may be more "right" in an absolute sense than the 



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