Sometimes it can be difficult to know if a particular idea your group is embracing is truly the most preferred or desired by your group. I have found this method to produce the most accurate result.
First, distribute an index card or something similar to every person in your group. Their first task is to write the letters A, B, C, and Total on one side of the card, one under the other. See the Resources tab to see what I mean. I often find it useful to show a ‘demonstration model’ to make it crystal clear how each index card should look.
In consideration of surveying your group’s collective wisdom, articulate a question or statement that you can pose to your group. For example, you could ask or say the following:
- What is community leadership?
- Effective group facilitation means…
- One thing our group could do to improve is…
It may help to display this on a whiteboard or flip chart paper to keep it ever-present in people’s minds.
It’s now time to allow your group a minute or two to consider their response to your question/statement. Instruct them all to write their answer clearly and succinctly on the other side of the index card. Legibility is also important because other people will have to read it.
When ready, announce that over the course of three distinct rounds – called A, B and C – each person will have a brief conversation with a different partner to discuss the relative merits of two different responses to the question at a time.
To start, instruct your group to re-distribute the cards in a series of one-for-one swaps with as any other people until you say “STOP.” The objective here is to produce a random redistribution of the cards. To this end, ensure that no one ends up holding their own card when the shuffling has stopped. If they do, simply ask them to swap their card with someone else.
With a new card in their hand, invite each person to seek out a new, random partner. Invite them to have a brief 1-minute conversation in regards to each of the two ideas/answers/responses they are holding.
Now, for the fun part.
When ready, ask each pair to allocate a total of seven points across the two ideas to reflect their relative worthiness. This allocation of points must be shared in agreement and always add to seven points. For example, the pair my award 5 points to one of the ideas and only 2 points to the other based on their relative preferences.
This next step is critical. Each person must now write the score allocated to the idea belonging to the card they are holding on the back of the card next to Round A. So if I am holding the card with the least preferred idea (my partner and I gave it only 2 points) this is the number I write on the back of the card next to Round A.
You are now ready to launch into the next round.
Simply repeat all of the above steps – redistribute the cards, check that everyone is holding a new card (and not their own,) everyone looks for a new partner, each pair discusses the relative merits of these two new ideas and then awards a total of seven points shared across them.
Complete this task three times for Rounds A, B, and C and then ask each person to add the total of all points written on the back of the card (for all three rounds) and write it next to Total. The sum will equal anything from 0 to 21 points.
Working from the presumption that the result will reflect the group’s collective wisdom, your final task is to identify those ideas/responses that attracted the most number of points, ie the most preferred ideas. An idea with 21 points means that each of the three pairs that assessed it gave it 7 points in every round.
In my experience, it is unusual to see many if any ideas awarded 21 points. Equally, there are few ideas that end up with 0 points.
From here, I typically record or document the top 3 or 5 ideas on flip chart paper or a whiteboard and invite my group to discuss them further in a large group plenary.
To reiterate, the presumption is that if we can trust the process, the result of this exercise will reflect the collective wisdom / intelligence of your group. That is, the best result will likely be voted to the top of the list, ie more points.
Even when the two ideas are equally preferred, each pair must choose one of them to earn the 4 points. It is not possible for people to sit on the fence, nor to use fractions.
I like to ask people to circle the total number (sum of three rounds) on the back of their card to make it super clear which number is the total.
It is important that for each round, no one ends up holding (and therefore, assessing) their own idea. This means, that you should check before each round starts that everyone is holding a card belonging to someone else. Also, if someone happens to end up with a card (not their own) that they have seen before, invite these folks to swap that card with another person.
Reminder, when each pair allocates their points, it is necessary for this allocation to be an agreed split. That is, each person will be sure to write what was agreed to on their card. What we’re trying to avoid is when two people can not agree on the allocation of points, and each of them write a number that when added together total more or less than 7 points. For this process to work, every allocation must add to seven.
Love this!
Can i check, after each round of scoring, do they shuffle the cards again? so there’s three sets of shuffling?
Yes, good question David – the cards are shuffled between rounds so that each person receives a card that (a) that is not theirs, and (b) neither partner has seen before. This last point is easier when the group is large. The bottom line, be sure that the pairs are not reviewing their own card at any time.
Mark, thank you for this technique. I’m looking forward to using it.
Love this idea! Am going to put this in my “bag of tricks.”
Excellent Mary. I think it would come in very handy in your coaching. Have fun.