Why did it take so long to discover the source of the deadly outbreak of E.coli poisoning in Germany? Since the start of the outbreak, 35 people have died, over 100 will need kidney transplants or life-long dialysis, more than 3,000 people are ill, and falsely-accused Spanish cucumber producers have lost millions of Euros.

Researchers initially relied on the most obvious source of data: the tests carried out on suspect food. Unfortunately, the thousands of tests on farms throughout the country came up negative, even in the organic farm in Lower Saxony that now seems to be at the cause of the problem. They also carried out two surveys. The first showed that people who consumed raw tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce were more often sick than the others, and another case study showed a strong association between the consumption of foods from the salad bar and E. coli infection – but this wasn’t enough to narrow down the origin of the outbreak.

It was only when a detailed cohort study was carried out, including one group of nineteen Swedes that had all eaten in the same restaurant, that the data showed that those who had eaten the sprouts were nine times as likely to have gotten sick.

According to Daryll E. Ray & Harwood D. Schaffer:

“To ascertain the consumption of raw fruit and vegetables by patients and controls more objectively and less dependently on memory, RKI used the following approach in the ‘recipe-based restaurant cohort study:’ Five groups (travel groups, clubs, etc.) that comprised a total of 112 participants and included 19 individuals who acquired EHEC infection were questioned regarding the foods they consumed after eating in a common restaurant. Additionally, the menus ordered by the participants were identified by means of order lists and meal receipts. The restaurant kitchen was questioned in detail regarding the preparation and the type and quantity of ingredients in each menu ordered by any of the study participants. Furthermore, available photographs taken by travel group members were analyzed to confirm which food items, including toppings, were seen on the plates. The data thus gathered was analyzed in a cohort approach that permits the retrospective estimation of the relative risk of infection for the restaurant customers. Results of this analysis showed that customers who ate sprouts had an 8.6-fold increased risk [of] illness compared to those who did not. This study also revealed that 100% of those who contracted the illness had eaten sprouts.”

The decision process was made all the more difficult because it appears some records were held on paper rather being completely computerized, and health authorities were sometimes communicating with hospitals and each other via letters in the post rather than electronically, and were having trouble tracking who had become ill.

An overly-manual and confused decision-making process hindered the discovery of the “sproutbreak” that lead to so much suffering and hardship. But at least some good has come out of it: a better process, and a more detailed questionnaires will now be a standard part of outbreak investigation in the future.

All organizations need to be able to document and improve their decision-making processes, even if (thankfully) it’s rarely a case of life or death. Technologies like SAP Streamwork are starting to allow companies to apply standard templates to frequently-occurring decisions, and collaborate to come to the best conclusions, using an on-demand platform.

Could you improve decision-making in your organization by optimizing decision collaboration?

Other Links

• http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2011/06/german_officials_declare_e_col.php
• http://scienceblogs.com/thepumphandle/2011/06/culprits_in_germanys_foodborne.php
• http://www.rki.de/EN/Home/homepage__node.html

[post updated to reflect new name, StreamWork]. SAP’s decision-focused collaboration project, 12sprints, is now in “open beta”, so that anybody can sign up. Here’s the blurb from the web site explaining what it is:

Bring order to chaos and transform teamwork into results quickly. Collaborative decision-making brings together:

• People – Get everyone on the same page
• Information – Share documents and data all in plain view
• Methods – Provide structure with business tools for brainstorming, strategizing, and decision-making

And it’s built for speed – use for free and be up and running in minutes!  Learn more

This post gives an introduction to what you can do with the technology, and points you to some useful links. First, here’s a video that explains some of the basics, and you can find a full set of Tutorial Videos on the SteamWork YouTube Channel.

When you log in, you’ll see a screen like this one:

Once you’ve signed up you can start to create activities. In order to show you a glimpse of some of the things you can do, lets look at a couple of examples.

A “First Introduction to StreamWork” Activity

Here’s an example Activity I put together to illustrate the concepts and tools available in StreamWork. Each “activity” is broken down into sections, or “activity tools” chosen from a large catalog of possibilities. In this example, I’ve pulled in a selection of these tools to explain the overall layout of a typical decision (in this case, I chose to discuss a high-level comparison of StreamWork and other collaborative environments).

Here’s an overview of the activity, and then we’ll look at each section in turn:

The first block in the example is an introduction to the activity, to explain to new participants what the Activity is about, where to get more information, etc. Participants can make comments on any section, and add links to other resources to back up their arguments. Note also the feedback tab on the right-hand side – this opens a full forum designed to streamline user feedback about the prototype, powered by UserVoice.

StreamWorkis focused on decision-making, so let’s start by explaining the decision we’d like to make:

Let’s add an example of one of the most basic decision-making tools – a comparison table. Note that we can change from a “list view” to a “single item” view in order to see all the information without scrolling.

Here’s another simple decision tool – a pro/con table. Participants can add their own pro/con comments. I can see the information as a simple table, and mouse-over to see the details:

Or I can expand the table to see the full set of information:

You can group several related activities into a single high-level section:

Finally, here’s another simple tool, asking people to give their reactions to the decision and the process (positive/neutral/negative):

Throughout this process, you can make comments, upload documents, add invite/manage participants using the menu at the top of the screen. There’s also the ability to add and track action items for basic “decision workflow”

Here are some of the other tools you can currently add – the goal is to extend these over time.

A “Real” StreamWork Example

I wanted to get a feel for what it would be like to use StreamWork in a real situation, so I applied it to a life decision of my own: whether or not I should vaccinate my daughter against the H1N1 flu virus (the “swine flu”). I was pretty sure it was the right thing to do, but I knew others disagreed, so I wanted to understand their point of view, and see if that would sway my decision. Here’s the full activity, as an image:

Conclusion

I didn’t change my mind about vaccinating my daughter – but the process certainly opened my eyes to aspects of the decision-making process that I had not taken into account, and I ended up with a much better understanding of why others might disagree. I believe that this aspect – making sure that all relevant angles are being taken account of when making a decision – will prove extremely useful in real-life implementations.

Other links

• Chris Kanaracus, SAP’s Enterprise Collaboration Tool Entering Public Beta
• Clint Boulton, eWeek, SAP Offers 12Sprints As Enterprise Alternative to Google Wave