Activities and facilitation techniques
An activity belongs to a phase: frame, diverge, deliberate, converge, or ratify. Do not converge before participants have had a fair opportunity to contribute and understand the alternatives.
Response types
- Open response and brainstorm capture text without forcing premature categories.
- Likert and agreement checks record a scale and its anchors.
- Boolean, single choice, and multiple choice support structured form responses.
- Ranking records relative order.
- Pairwise comparison reduces the cognitive load of comparing many alternatives simultaneously.
- Argument boards connect support, concerns, questions, evidence, reservations, and objections to an option.
A reliable sequence
- Frame one clear prompt and define what a valid contribution looks like.
- Collect positions privately when hierarchy or anchoring may matter.
- Reveal simultaneously and clarify meaning before evaluating.
- Attach arguments and evidence to specific responses or options.
- Shortlist or compare using a rule the group understands.
- Draft the proposed group response in plain language.
- Check agreement and resolve reasoned objections.
- Ratify the final response and retain minority positions.