Group Explorer is a flexible group decision support system that enables facilitated work teams to carry out a variety of strategic management and decision making processes effectively and with high levels of group participation, ownership and commitment.

A key benefit of using facilitated computer supported group working can be a more efficient use of meeting time - the ability to surface and ‘parallel process’ more contributions from a greater number of participants than is possible using manual facilitation techniques alone.

More than a mere brainstorming / data storage tool, however, Group Explorer enables ‘team wisdom’ to emerge and result in the creation of shared views of the interconnections between ideas and issues, at varying levels of aggregation. This enables complex issues to be tackled effectively, resulting in shared ownership of a robust model comprising a range of interrelated cognitive maps.

Group Explorer also supports the ranking or testing of practical ideas, options or action initiatives by exploring and making explicit individual and group preferences. Data entry by individual group members is anonymous which means that sensitive issues can be more easily brought into the open and discussed objectively without fear of reprisal.

Group Explorer was developed by Professor Colin Eden and Professor Fran Ackermann at the University of Strathclyde. It is underpinned by the well established technique of Cognitive Mapping and extensive research into group strategy making processes. This research has focussed particularly on the issues of managing politics and the power of emotional as well as cognitive commitment in delivering strategy. The book, published during 1998 by SAGE, "Making Strategy: the JOURNEY of Strategic Management" by Colin Eden and Fran Ackermann describes the process and gives many illustrative vignettes of using both the process and Group Explorer. A case study - Scottish Natural Heritage - from the book is precised to illustrate the 'journeying' approach .

Over the past 18 years, the computer-supported facilitation methods underlying Group Explorer have been extensively tested through practical application within a wide range of private and public sector organisations of varying sizes. Group Explorer is ideally suited to assist groups of between four and fifteen people in performing a variety of key management tasks. The process has also been successfully extended to encompass larger numbers of people by running a series of workshops.

System Requirements
The Group Explorer software package runs on a separate Local Area Network under Microsoft Windows 95/98. A notebook computer is normally needed for each meeting participant and two more are required for use by the meeting facilitator. The hardware system is not supplied with Group Explorer.

Links to other relevant pages

Scottish Natural Heritage - a case study

Customer Comments

Application Areas

Licences & Prices

Cognitive Mapping

Related Services Available from Phrontis
Phrontis offers a range of training, consultancy and facilitation support options to help individuals and groups to get started with using Group Explorer. Please contact us for further details.