Unlock group intelligence with the Nominal Group Technique
We all know Brainstorming, don't we? Ask a group to quickly throw out a number of ideas on a topic. It's quick, there is participation and inclusion, it's easy to understand and set up. If you are working on a problem you've now got some strands to take forward. What's not to like?
Well… did everyone speak? No? So we got the input only from the people who are most extrovert or comfortable in the group. Maybe some people are experts or more senior… did others defer to them? What about that person on their phone? Did they contribute?
Did we really get the best ideas from the group, or just some ideas?
And which ideas should be taken forward? Are the ones suggested by the loudest, most comfortable, most experienced, most senior individuals the best? No? How do we know?
How bought-in to these ideas are the rest of the group going to be? Some will agree, some will go along with things, some might secretly oppose. On a program of significant change you want more support and feeling of ownership than that.
Overall, did we get the most from the diverse perspectives, skills and experience of the group? It's likely that we didn't.
That's not to say that Brainstorming doesn't have its place as a quick way to get some participation, but if you really want to generate more, better, inclusive, supported ideas then there is another technique: The Nominal Group Technique…
I learned about Nominal Group Technique from the wonderful
Dennis Skinner, who runs the
Many To One facilitation consultancy. If you are looking to achieve complex, innovative, transformative business results in record time and with remarkable levels of commitment then Dennis can lead you and your team through a collaborative process to do just that.
The Nominal Group technique is a "structured… group session with the purpose of achieving group consensus and action planning on a chosen topic"
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Don't let the academic-sounding name of NGT put you off. It is very practical. There are plenty of references to it you can find online, but here is a potted quick guide and reference from me on how to use NGT. Keep it for your toolkit as a workgroup facilitator:
How to facilitate an session using the Nominal Group Technique to unlock group intelligence
Setup
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Introduce the technique, rules and steps in the process.
Communicate the question the group is going to ideate on. You do need to have defined this ahead of the exercise. In my world it is likely to have come from one of the program goals, or a program risk.
This part can be a bit dangerous, as group members can start to want to restate the problem or dig in straight away. Guide them away from this, referring to how the structure will allow them to get their thoughts out as it unfolds.
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Individual Responses
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Quietly, individually, each person captures their ideas on the topic.
This is the part that ensures everyone participates.
You can use sticky notes for this if you are running an in-person session, or an online whiteboard equivalent if it is an online meeting. Most of the virtual meeting platforms have integrated whiteboarding tools by now.
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Clarification and Consolidation
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Arrange all the sticky notes so everyone can read them all
Each person reads out their top 2 sticky notes.
Clarifying questions can be asked but keep the group from evaluating the ideas
Add new ideas as people spark off each other - this is key
Clump similar ideas together - this is key, key, key to turning individual thought into the output of the group
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Ranking
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Each participant places a dot on what they think are the top 2-3 ideas
Be careful with the dot budget - too few dots per person will mean you can't select enough ideas. Too many and you won't get a short, actionable list. Dennis suggests one third of the options being ranked, with an upper limit of seven. So, for example, if you had 10 clumps to rank then use 3 dots per person. There should be some feeling of constraint in most circumstances.
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Output
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Identify the top-ranked ideas using the magic of... counting.
Enjoy how quickly you just got to a finite list of the best ideas from this group, with high participation and low interference from typical social inhibitors. Woo hoo!
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That's it!
It takes a little more setup than Brainstorming but you get a lot more. I've run short sessions successfully and been pleased with the quality of the output. Critically, because of the inclusive nature of the process you are building group ownership as you go: important for programs involving change. This connects back to stakeholder engagement.
If you would like more details on the steps and pictures of how a real session looks then consult
this helpful paper. The short process above should be enough to run sessions yourself.
1 Varga-Atkins, T., with contributions from Bunyan, N; McIsaac, J; Fewtrell J. (2011) The Nominal Group Technique: a practical guide for facilitators. Written for the ELESIG Small Grants Scheme. Liverpool: University of Liverpool. October. Version 1.0 Contact: Tünde Varga-Atkins, eLearning Unit, University of Liverpool, tva@liv.ac.uk