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HARVESTING
GROUP BRAIN POWER
By Robb Murray,
ctoncall@aol.com
There are many occasions when you may be part of a group that has to solve problems as a
unit. For example:
·
Your family is
trying to decide where to go on vacation.
·
Your condo
association is trying to deal with a rogue owner who is flagrantly violating important
policies.
·
Your resource
team is trying to decide how to allocate a quarterly budget.
·
Your staff
meetings always run way long because of a manager who feels called upon to pontificate at
gassy length.
Have you ever found
that discussions to resolve such issues were not going anywhere? Have you ever felt a kind of agony, knowing that
brains and talent on the scene were being wasted? Sometimes
a group cannot get off square one because of dominating egos, excessive deference, or a
flock of normally effective people who suddenly exhibit mental dissociation from what is
going on.
A great way to
harness the brain power of a group is a structured exercise called
The leader or
moderator in charge announces the time of a special meeting that will last sixty minutes,
and sixty only, regardless of what is happening. There
will be special directions, which will be explained at the meeting.
Before the event, a
flip chart or white board is set up in the meeting space.
The moderator writes a question at the top:
“How will we allocate the $5,000 budget for this quarter?” When participants arrive at the appointed time, the
moderator welcomes the group and introduces the question under consideration.
After checking for
agreement with, and accuracy of, the question, the leader passes out six index cards to
each participant and says, “During the
next thirty minutes or so, I will ask that there be no side talking.” (During this period, you are a group in name only
– hence, “nominal group”)
The leader
continues, “I want each person, including myself, to write down one idea for a budget
expenditure on each of these cards. Write down
the item to be funded, and the amount. Write
just one idea on each card. The cards belong
to you and no one will read the cards except you. If
you need extra cards, hold up your hand. Again,
no side talking. When you are finished, put
the cards face down in front of you so I will know you are done.”
Once people are
finished, the leader says, “As I now come around to call on you, I will ask each
person to share one and only one idea from your deck.
We want to use all of your ideas, so I will keep making rounds in the room until we
have all the ideas. When you are finished
contributing, say ‘Pass!’ at your turn. You
can come back into the circle again during the next pass through if you think of more to
say. Please, no discussion of the ideas yet
whatsoever. We want no bias to inhibit new
ideas. All ideas are valuable right now. I will begin. My
first idea is to purchase a refurbished photocopying machine for $1,200.”
At the top left of
what is to be a two-column list (and that may go on to another page or more) the leader
writes “1. Photocopier: $1,200”. Then the polling begins around the table. The leader calls on each person in turn, and each
contributes one and only one idea. After a
number of rounds through the group, all the
ideas have been gathered and added to the numbered list.
The leader then says, “We will now create a preliminary ranking for the
suggestions. Write down on a card the numbers
of the five top items you favor. Again, no
discussion, please. When you are finished, put
your pen down.”
The leader then
goes around the room and gets the votes from each member and records them as hash marks
next to the numbered items on the flip sheet. When
the votes are all tabulated, the leader circles the three or four top items -- in this case, perhaps, circling items until an
implied expense total of $5,000 has been reached. Then
the leader says, “We now have a preliminary idea of our thoughts about the budget. Let us open the floor for discussion about these
priorities to refine our thinking. Raise your
hand to be called on as we will speak only one at a time.”
At this point, the
discussion becomes wide-ranging. And by this
time, participants are usually very excited. All
their ideas have been recognized and given a chance for consideration in the presence of
others. For some, especially shier people,
this may be the first time in their entire lives that they have felt remotely heard in a
meeting, or have made a personal contribution on a valued subject that was not drowned out
by others.
When discussions
are finished, perhaps resulting in some regrouping and rephrasing of listed items, a vote
is again taken and a new results list is generated. The
group is then asked if this is the result they want. Once they agree, you’ve got your
decision. The results are recorded and
distributed to the participants as minutes.
If the hour
scheduled for the meeting expires before a resolution is reached, the leader adjourns the
meeting (utilizing the old show biz custom, “Leave them wanting more!”). A follow-up meeting is then scheduled during
which discussions conclude and final votes taken.
I urge you to try
this method for developing and focusing group brain power right away. There is great buy-in to results that have been
reached through true deliberation like this. The
quality of these results is usually high. Because
of the “forced” and structured participation, all have been heard from, even the
usually quiet people. And because the first vote results are discussed and re-voted,
preliminary understandings get adjusted for a truer fit.
Let us not waste the presence of wise minds in our midst due to the accident of ambient group dynamics. Utilize this tool to get the best team thinking out on the table where it can be seen and used. Let the best ideas guide us, not just the loudest mouths.
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The Corporation.