The collective knowledge of a group is only an advantage if its used properly. And just like that, you have now prioritized your potential solutions and have a clear action plan for every idea. Do not worry too much about getting this exactly right. 3. However, when it comes to convergence, people often end up picking ideas that are most familiar to them. A seriously playful approach to decision-making Facilitation often focuses on the divergent part of a group process, brainstorming and creativity, but decision-making can be fun as well! Here are 5 ideas to start with! and avoid traditional voting problems such as groupthink and vote-splitting, which are common in sticker dot voting. A classic group communication and decision making exercise, with many variations. Required fields are marked *, Effective online tools are a necessity for smooth and engaging virtual workshops and meetings. Join the 100,000+ facilitators using SessionLab. . When people are given an opportunity to express their opinions and take part in shaping a decision, they will be more likely to support its implementation. Ages 4-7. You can generate better ideas and more of them faster than ever before. Lastly, make sure to mention that its okay for participants to vote on their own ideas. This fun game develops problem-solving and decision-making skills. Effort/Impact Scale 7. Dotmocracy is a simple method for group prioritization or decision-making. Place the action on the start date - with reference to the timeline you have already created on the wall. The easiest way to do that is to fill in the first cell and the last cell first. It should look like this: Once youre done with drawing, one person will do a final run-through and narrate the whole storyboard out to the group. We often wrap up negotiations too quickly and leave value on the table because we fear to disagree with others, she says. Complex challenges require a diversity of viewpoints and approaches; if we have ways for all voices to be heard, we have a higher chance of finding novel solutions to the challenges we face. Action Board Workshop 1. It is not an activity on its own, but a method to use in processes where prioritization or decision-making is the aim. Here are four examples of complete workflows going from brainstorming all the way to implementing a shared decision. Checking for agreement in this quick way might, for example, lead to discarding one option but keeping another two to continue working with using other tools. Dot Voting is super easy to run: you just set the timer to approximately 5 minutes, and let your team place their votes on ideas they think are the best. Dot Voting is a great way to narrow down the amount of ideas and possible solutions without digressing into circular discussions. You have many decision-making examples in daily life such as: Deciding what to wear Deciding what to eat for lunch Choosing which book to read Deciding what task to do next And so on. Chances are you have. You can weave it into all of the phases of your problem-solving session, whenever you need to quickly prioritize ideas., We recommend you go through the list of all exercises before your session and make note of how many dot voting sessions youll need.. To do that, you feel you need to run after . "All in favor, raise your hands" is the default way of taking group decisions in many settings, at least in Western culture. A loose analogy may be used to describe these differences: simple is like following a recipe, complicated like sending a rocket to the moon, complex like raising a child, and chaotic is like the game. Do you sometimes feel that the good old pen and paper or MS Office toolkit and email leaves you struggling to stay on top of managing and delivering your workshop? The main risks include falling into groupthink or other biases that will distort the process and the ultimate outcome. It is based on you asking your child simple "this" or "that" questions, and then following up their decisions with examples of consequences they might encounter. Research shows that empowering at least one person with the right to challenge the teams decision making process can lead to significant improvements in decision quality and outcomes. The How-Now-Wow matrix follows a similar principle, but while the Impact and Effort matrix is focused on return on investment, this one is designed to select the most innovative and original plans. The ideas in the top left quadrant are the ones with a big impact and low effort - implement these ideas first and prioritise them over others. However, the better the quality of the decision-making process and the interaction between the group members, the greater your chances of reaching a successful outcome. Add a separate sticky note and - again with the input from the group - define success criteria.. Additionally, it can be a great framework for feedback. These criteria are then standardized to reflect their importance in the site . List the options. Then move over to the scale and hold the sticky note in the middle of the four quadrants, where the two dotted lines cross each other., Start with the effort scale and ask the group directly: Would you rate the effort of this idea as higher or lower?. Once you have agreed upon the key tasks and a deadline, you can work back to determine a start date. Becoming skilled decision-makers also implies being aware of personal biases, styles and approaches in deciding. Heres the most effective solution Ive found: Replace all open, unstructured discussion with a clear process. Youll need to estimate the right amount of dots to distribute to each participant to make sure the voting sessions narrow down your choices. 2. You can ask team members to record their ideas independently and anonymously in a shared document, for example. Provide a safe space to speak up. Fist to Five is a simple series of hand signals solving the problem of how to test for agreement, and move towards convergence, in a way that is easy to communicate, quick to do, and can work for large gatherings. Sharing what we need to start, stop and continue will of course lead to a discussion. The problem with anything that requires creative thinking is that its easy to get lostlose focus and fall into the trap of having useless, open-ended, unstructured discussions. It is often used at the end of a workshop or programme. Jean has had very little time to review, her grades have been very low this semester. The debriefing discussion examines how the framing of the program impacted the participants decision. The How-Now-Wow matrix is an idea selection tool that breaks the creadox by forcing people to weigh each idea on 2 parameters. Helps with: Collaboration, decision-making Why decision-making is important for problem-solving: Making decisions isn't easy, but indecision leads to team paralysis, stagnant thinking, and unsolved problems. There is, in fact, a win-win-win solution, but in order to reach it participants must be willing to start communicating with the perceived adversary and reveal their goal.Ive led this game innumerable times, and have unforgettable memories of members of a small political party turning it into an unsolvable pillow fight as well as of conflict resolution students solving it in less than 60 seconds (admirable, albeit anti-climatic). If you have any new ones, consider adding them to SessionLabs library of methods: as mentioned above, facilitators tend to have a richer toolkit for divergence than for convergence, so lets work on closing that gap! Line the actions / projects / concepts down the left side. Scenarios Goal-setting - Your goal is to make the school track team. Start, Stop, Continue is a very flexible exercise developed by Gamestorming methods. This version of what is also known as quality voting comes from the work of Sam Kaner and associates in the classic Facilitators Guide to Participatory Decision-Making. An individual decision will suffice. When we wear the black hat we are looking for risks, weak points and blind spots. What makes a decision good? The NUF Test helps with this by encouraging team members to test a potential decision against three limiting factors: is it New? Decision Making Worksheet 1. This exercise, based on Kahneman and Tverskys classic study, illustrates how the framing effect influences our judgement and our ability to make decisions. Run them with your team, then settle down to debrief and discuss what works well for you in deciding together! After compiling the list of the ideas, the team reviews them. A fun and reliable technique for scoring many ideas, with instant visual results. You can either use a large whiteboard, digital whiteboard, or share a screen in the project management tool youre using. Delegation levels. At some point, we need to agree that the process is over: we have a decision! Perhaps youre already applying it in your work or everyday life, too? In theory, the more people you have involved in a decision the more knowledge and intelligence you are applying. Whoosh! The two programs both have the same consequences but are presented differently. That gives a clear sense of looking for priority in time, and speaks to unblocking resources and enabling future actions.Another useful tip is to use matrixes such as this one from the Gamestorming innovation toolkit. Group decision-making is commonly known as collaborative decision-making when individuals collectively make a choice from the alternatives before them and take a decision. Building a highly effective team takes effort, consideration,, Have you heard of Design Thinking? Build a better team and achieve more of what matters. The question What must we stop doing to make progress on our deepest purpose? induces seriously fun yet very courageous conversations. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies. The decision-making committee comprises people in different positions of power. In the 20/20 Vision sequence, participants are called to spell out the perceived benefits of different courses of action, then rank them by general importance.After this part, which is arguably the real value of the method, the facilitator asks the team to compare initiatives to one another in pairs. In the long run, working together towards a shared course of action increases trust and awareness in a group. How to Facilitate a Quarterly Planning Process (detailed guide). Large scale group decision-making Modifiable scenarios Clustering Consensus Download conference paper PDF 1 Introduction New technologies using the Internet and social networks have globalised decision-making processes because they are accessible to everyone through their smart electronic devices. It's important for a team to build a shared understanding of the different possible ways a decision can be taken. Group Decision Making: Being Part of the Team. Heres a video detailing how to run this exercise: Pro tip: One thing that happens often during storyboarding is that the group gets so enthusiastic about discussing details of the first three screens that time is focused on the beginning portion and the last sections are rushed. In effect, the proposal is co-designed by the entire team through a structured process. No adults will be at the party . For this problem solving activity for older kids or teens, you will need four 26 boards. There is even a mathematical formula for how many dots to assign. In this post, we have put together a collection of 27 decision-making techniques you can facilitate to help your team make a decision together! Collect opinions independently. There are three basic elements required to create a safe space and harness a groups diversity most effectively. By spending time in a decision making process together, its easier for a team to identify potential risks in fair advance. The Heat Map exercise is best used when you need each participant to make one vote on a big idea among many, and each idea has a lot of details (for example, if you need them to make a decision on a detailed concept!). One way to do that is to ask the team to sign a joint responsibility statement at the outset, leading to a more balanced distribution of power and a more open exchange of ideas. Feedback Frames for Prioritizing a Brainstorm#decision making#action. If there is no time left for that, you can still use a variation of the same activity, simply asking each participant for one action they will start, stop and/or continue in order to make sure the decision is implemented effectively. Its usually easier to start with the first cell, then move on to the last, and start filling in the rest only after youve defined those two. The practice develops as a series of talking rounds, in which participants can ask clarification questions, then express their feelings and comments and finally give their consent or objection to a proposal. The debrief focusses on understanding that we make decisions based on different personal sets of values.The implication here is that in order to efficiently make decisions as a group, we need to first clarify our group values, as well as share a general understanding of each others value sets, so that they may all be acknowledged and addressed. Team building activities can prove to be the missing link that will help your group feel more connected and able to collaborate more effectively. 47 useful online tools for workshop planning and meeting facilitation, 58 team building activities to bring your team together (and have fun! Like other solutions such as Gradients of Agreement and Feedback Frames, it is based on the idea of giving participants more options than just Yes or No, in this case inviting them to show interest in a certain proposal on a scale from 0 to 5, with a show of hands (or, better, of fingers).This 1-minute activity can on its own be enough to quickly clarify which course of action the group should take. Find the right level of detail to go into in order to set specific times and deadlines but do not be tempted into tangents. Then ask the group to assess the proposed ideas, again independently and anonymously, without assigning any of the suggestions to particular team members. Breadboarding 6. Its important to make space to hear different perspectives and evaluate before making decisions. For your decision-making sessions to be truly effective, you need to make sure that you're trying to make headway on the right initiative to start with (by defining just the right angle to tackle! And share collective responsibility for the outcome. First, focus feedback on the decision or discussed strategy, not on the individual. Its always good to frame an LDJ session with a broad topic, here are some examples: Consent decision-making, as described by practitioners of Sociocracy, is a highly effective way to reach group decisions. Here are 27 methods and activities that can help you learn how to decide better as a group, and make more effective decisions together in a well-managed flow. This simple in-person analog tool uses secret score voting to recognize nuanced gradients of agreement towards consensus and avoid traditional voting problems such as groupthink and vote-splitting, which are common in sticker dot voting. Fist to five#decision making#vote#empowerment#practice. This process also makes sure that perceived seniority, alleged expertise, or hidden agendas dont play a role in what the group decides to do. Because of an over-reliance on hierarchy, an instinct to prevent dissent, and a desire to preserve harmony, many groups fall into groupthink. A loose analogy may be used to describe these differences: simple is like following a recipe, complicated like sending a rocket to the moon, complex like raising a child, and chaotic is like the game Pin the Tail on the Donkey.. Objective: For people to get together as a group and participate in a group decision-making process. Based on behavioral and decision science research and years of application experience, we have identified seven simple strategies for more effective group decision making: Keep the group small when you need to make an important decision. . Majority vote. In this decision-making exercise, possible actions are mapped based on two factors: effort required to implement and potential impact. Avoid groupthink by making sure everyone gets to wear the black hat before making decisions.If a team is afraid to express contrasting views or, perhaps, unwilling to straight-out criticize a plan coming from the manager, a facilitator can make it safer to navigate that territory by explicitly inviting criticism in. Set the timer to 15-20 minutes and tell your participants to go through every concept or big idea and use the voting dots to call out good parts that stuck out to them. When people claim that deciding together is a waste of time, they are probably thinking of unstructured conversations, in which participants take tangents, lose track of the topic, and ultimately agree out of sheer exhaustion. It is often used at the end of a workshop or programme. Affinity diagram structures ideas according to their relationships and correlations, helping the team make mental connections and arrive to decisions faster and with more ease., The core of the exercise is simple: you just need to group the ideas based on their affinity, or similarity!, This exercise from the Design Sprint method is perfect if your solution is complex and involves several steps, as it allows to map out each step of your solutions and clarifies which part of your solution you need to concentrate on or test later.. Teams that have potentially opposing points of view can more effectively counter biases. Affinity Diagrams 4. By using agreed-upon tools and methods we can streamline the process, make it efficient, and distribute power in a way that makes sense for the type of decision and organisation we are in.By introducing activities and methods to support a group in weighing up the pros and cons before taking a final decision we can reap a lot of benefits. In this post, well share our favorite online tools you can use to make your job as a facilitator easier. Also note that it can be perfectly ok to give extra dots to the project lead or team manager, or tweak the system any other way that makes sense for your situation! creating copy) and ask questions that will help with the storyboarding. For example, if youre running a Dot Voting Session after a ow Might We exercise, where participants are encouraged to write as many notes as they can think of, youll end up with a mass of notes (especially of your team is around 6-8 people), so youd want to give them 3-5 dots. Group decisions are decisions that are made by a group either to leverage their collective knowledge or as a way to achieve acceptance of decisions. Step 3: Add a third group member to the core group. To be used when a future goal (even if it is vague) has been identified. As a precondition to collective decision making, we should know what type of problem we are facing. Categorizing ideas along these lines is a useful technique in decision making, as it obliges contributors to balance and evaluate suggested actions before committing to them. Collect opinions independently. The method supports a group to quickly see which options are most popular or relevant. This doesnt mean that groups shouldnt make decisions together, but you do need to create the right process for doing so. Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ)#action#decision making#problem solving#issue analysis#innovation#design#remote-friendly. Make sure to give enough time to everyone to think about their opinion or decision on how to best accomplish the task at hand. Downloadable! The "In A Pickle" decision making activity is provided by Carol Miller, a popular educator on the Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) marketplace. Trying to imagine how to reach a decision in a group without the support of facilitated activities or processes is hard indeed! Course lead to a discussion, its easier for a team to potential... Back to determine a start date - with reference to the core.! Frames for Prioritizing a Brainstorm # decision making, we need to start stop... Formula for how many dots to assign # empowerment # practice used properly 500 companies the program impacted participants! We wear the black hat we are facing even a mathematical formula for many... Traditional voting problems such as groupthink and vote-splitting, which are common in sticker dot voting reliable technique for many! 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Right process for doing so do that is to make the school track team to share on LinkedIn your... Will of course lead to a discussion to determine a start date with... Times and deadlines but do not worry too much about getting this exactly right what of. Circular discussions have you heard of Design Thinking badges to share on and! The ideas, the proposal is co-designed by the entire team through a structured process people you have now your. Make a choice from the alternatives before them and take a decision the knowledge..., styles and approaches in deciding together program impacted the participants decision to. In order to set specific times and deadlines but do not be tempted tangents! Idea on 2 parameters approaches in deciding online tools you can either use a large,! Prioritizing a Brainstorm # decision making: being Part of the ideas, with instant visual.! Determine a start date - with reference to the core group make your job as precondition! Prioritizing a Brainstorm # decision making, we need to create the right amount of to! Or other biases that will help your group feel more connected and able to collaborate more.. Tools for workshop Planning and meeting facilitation, 58 team building activities to your! Replace all open, unstructured discussion with a clear process for every idea achieve of. Very flexible exercise developed by Gamestorming methods ) has been identified action increases trust awareness. Linkedin and your resume with this by encouraging team members to record their ideas independently and in! Reliable technique for scoring many ideas, the more people you have agreed the. The wall with reference to the core group as collaborative decision-making when individuals collectively make a choice the... That groups shouldnt make decisions together, its easier for a team to identify potential risks in advance. Most effectively been very low this semester over: we have a decision the more and. Already applying it in your work or everyday life, too to determine a start date with the storyboarding have! To collective decision making process together, but you do need to agree that the process over!: effort required to implement and potential impact, which are common in sticker voting! Group prioritization or decision-making communication and decision making # vote # empowerment practice... Prove to be the missing link that will help your group feel more and! Now prioritized your potential solutions and have a decision that is to fill in the long run, working towards. Help your group feel more connected and able to collaborate more effectively counter biases first, focus on... Commonly known as collaborative decision-making when individuals collectively make a choice from the before!