Convergence for Group Consensu

[Diane Gibeault]

Hi Kim,

 

When looking for the general directions the majority of a group wishes to
take after discussions in Open Space, here is an option similar to dot
voting but with less peer influence on the results. That may not always be
important but when it is, the following alternative helps. 

 

Canadian aboriginal people shared with us this technique for compiling votes
- or points of the survey as I now call it (Vote would imply decision making
by participants when often, it is the leadership group that decides and
confirms after the survey, that priorities proposed by participants are
effectively a go for action planning given resources, context etc.).

 

Their way is very quick and simple: tickets in envelopes attached to each
report on the wall. They prefer this method since the individual choices are
less influenced by the number of points (or votes) others have given to a
topic report for the simple reason that the points are not visible.

 

Participants read the Book of Reports identifying at the same time their top
priorities and combining identical topics with the initiators' consent.
After the combinations have been announced by the facilitation team, as
people walk out through each of the aisles in the circle, they are handed a
strip of tickets (e.g. 5 tickets).  They place their tickets in envelopes
attached under each report on the wall. 

 

Then, participants are invited to go to a report - not their own - count
results, mark the total on the envelope attached to the report. One
volunteer per report remains at the wall for the announcement of results.
When counting is all done, the facilitator asks if any report has the
maximum number of points a report could receive (e.g., same number as the
number of participants when it's one vote per person per report), and then
goes down by 10 until someone shouts that their report is in that range. As
report numbers and titles are announced volunteers note them on flip charts
to capture the priorities of the group. 

 

This approach was used with several OS events of 450 people and it works
wonderfully.

  

Diane

 

  


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