Sent to GMU 27 September 2007. Scott Staley and Warfield prepared this paper for presentation as a panel discussion before Association for Integrative Studies (AIS) Annual Meeting at the Renaissance Center in Detroit. 9 October 2003. ABSTRACT of the paper: "High-level managers often expect answers to questions relating to corporate strategy development without any clear concept of how to estimate the time required to produce insightful answers. In today's corporate environments, strategies may be briefly stated, but often involve an underpinning of substantial complexity that may be entirely masked by a short question. High-level managers often fail to comprehend the powerful methods now available to study and organize responses to such questions. "A case study is described from a real situation to illustrate how powerful methods were applied quickly in response to a question of strategy that enabled a decision to be based on significant insight attained by using computer-assisted structural logic software along with established group processes. The particulars of the process of the case are directly reported, however the data from the case have been scrubbed to remove confidential information. "Interactive Management (IM) is the system of practices that was applied in this case study. The tools and processes of IM have been in use in Ford Motor Company since 1992."

The key point about the whole paper was that the choices had to be made and the executives didn't know which one to make because they had insufficient information about the options available. IM was able to quickly and efficiently collect information through structured group input, to develop options and present the choices so that a logical decision was arrived at. The decisions made were quite high level and the choices under consideration were directly opposite to one another and making the wrong choice could have cost billions. IM was used to very good effect. Staley and Warfield hoped to interest members of AIS in the possibilities of Interactive Management with the hope some might want to research, read and learn about how to do the methodology, and apply it to their own interdisciplinary efforts. “After all” says Warfield, “The whole business of AI S is teaching stuff that cuts across disciplines. We thought if we showed them something that worked in real life and that some of them might teach it in their classes.”