Nominal Group Technique
A structured way to generate and prioritise ideas in which everyone gets the same chance to contribute. People write ideas silently, share them one at a time in a round-robin with no discussion, then clarify what each means, and finally rank them privately. Separating generation from evaluation keeps strong personalities from steering the result.
Use when a group must pick priorities from many options and you want every person's view weighted equally.
Solves: Open brainstorming lets the most senior or most vocal people decide what counts as a good idea.
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Step 1: Present the question and check everyone understands it (2 min).
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Step 2: Silent writing: each person lists ideas on their own (10 min).
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Step 3: Round-robin: each person reads out one idea per turn, recorded on a flip chart word for word, no discussion, until all ideas are up (15-20 min).
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Step 4: Clarify each idea so everyone understands it. Explain, do not argue (15 min).
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Step 5: Private vote: each person ranks their top five ideas on a card (5 min).
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Step 6: Tally the votes, discuss surprises, and re-vote if the result is inconsistent (10 min).
- Number the ideas as you record them to make voting easy.
- Treat every idea the same, however unusual.
- For larger groups, run parallel groups of about ten and combine results.
- Combine with dot voting for a quicker, less formal ranking.