How to build Consensus as a Facilitator Part 3: Strengthening good ideas

Strengthening good ideas

Strengthening Good Ideas is a type of thinking. It encompasses questions such as, “What resources will we need to make this work?,  Do we have them?” and “Who else should take a look at this idea?”

By having a shared goal and understanding of the problem, groups can focus and brainstorm on solutions without much facilitation

Clarifying evaluation criteria

When meeting participants come up with several brainstorming items, selection criteria to reduce the number of items might help. Facilitate the brainstorming of new ideas and ask participants to add to a flip chart with sticky notes. Then use another flip chart to consider what is the selection criteria so that we can reduce the items on the first list to about five itemsUsing the selection criteria to ask the participants to reduce the number of items on the first list. Discuss with each other to ensure that all voices are heard.At the end give everyone some votes (you can use a technique like dot voting to facilitate this final step)

Payoffs and risks

Imagine you have some budget and the proposals in hand have payoffs and risks.  Let’s say you want to buy an electric car and it happens to be a Tesla. The Tesla will ensure you never pay for gas again, good for the environment as well several tax breaks.  The issue is you need the car now and if you order a Tesla now, it will take 3 months to get it. Another car not an electric vehicle can be picked up tomorrow but will not have the same benefits.

On one flip chart list the payoffs and on another flip chart list the risks associated with the decision.  On a third flip chart title the page “Ways to reduce risks” Discuss the options you have in front of you, the budget you have and the costs associated with each decision

Can we really make this work?

A group decided to organize a cricket series with six teams for charity but did not know what it meant to organize it and what challenges they would have. They announced it. As they went through organizing, calling all teams and players, and ensuring there is availability, one of them fell sick and the other got a major assignment at work.

As a facilitator for this group, ask the group to list out the major tasks required to be done to achieve this series

Ask the group to list out the absolutely necessary tasks and break them into small doable tasks. As they break down tasks, ask them to ask each other if we can really make this really work?  They start to find tasks to eliminate and also brainstorm other people that they might be able to outsource the work.

Blog adapted from my learning from Facilitator’s guide to participatory design

Anil Jaising is a Certified Scrum Trainer®, Certified DevOps Institute Trainer and a Certified Training from the BACK of the Room – Virtual Edition Trainer.  Anil teaches Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Advanced Scrum Master (A-CSM), Certified Scrum Professional (CSP-SM) workshops from Scrum Alliance  He also teaches Training from the BACK of the Room  In Room and Virtual Edition). He is also the chief product owner of a telemetry plugin At A Glance on Atlassian Jira.