Abstract: What are different strategies to develop Decision Analysis skills in people within an organization to enable Decision Quality? How do different companies build their internal armies? How do different companies enable skills outside of their internal DA army to help enable Decision Quality? What are different ways that companies go about doing this (regular companies as well as Decision Analysis consultancies)? What are the different things that companies have found that work and that don’t work, and why?

To understand this daunting task and the journeys that different companies have chosen for this goal, discussions in this session will cover a wide range of relevant issues including: People selection - what types of people are selected to be developed into full blown DA consultants or practitioners (education, degrees, attributes, etc.)?? Aspects of DA skill targeted for development – do companies strive to develop all aspects of DA skill in each individual, or do they focus on developing at least one aspect well, such as framing, decision maker dialogue, uncertainty analysis analytics, etc.? Training vs. experiential – what formal training versus application experience is helpful, what is the right balance? Time frames, expectations and sustainability – how quickly can an internal army be built? How is bench strength maintained? What are the challenges and approaches to maintaining a sustainable internal army? DA skills/expertise vs. industry context expertise – how do companies balance/prioritize core DA skills vs. context expertise in the work area / industry? Do they hire context experts and teach them DA or hire DA experts and teach them the industry (or is industry expertise not really that important)?