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Fast Prioritization

Fast Prioritization

When a group needs to rapidly prioritize or eliminate some items from a list
Three steps: Create a list, vote and count the votes. The voting has the particular characteristic that each person is given several votes to distribute. The way of registering and counting the votes eliminates undue influence.

What is
Fast Prioritization
about ?

What is
Fast Prioritization
about ?
What is this Method about ?

Create a list of options. Each participant gets the same number of dots (votes), often six, to indicate their preferred option(s). The options with the most votes ‘win’.

When and why is this Method used ?

Whenever a list of options needs to be shortened, by consensus.

Where does this Method come from ?
Original Source Details
From the Learning for Change L4C methodology
Additional Questions about the Method
What do we do if there are no clear ‘winners’?
Try running it again, but give each participant fewer points.

Audience

Audience

Is participant experience relevant for Fast Prioritization ?

It's okay if participants haven't seen the inside of a classroom in years

Audience description for Fast Prioritization

Any group that is faced with an unreasonable number of options and needs to prioritize.

Requirements

Requirements
Experience level of the facilitator
Self explanatory, no experience needed
Number of Facilitators :  
0-1
How Stationary
Stationary and moving are both necessary for different parts

How to prioritize among numerous options?

Run Through
Prep Work (excluding materials)

Prepare a list with possible options to vote upon.

Pre Exercise

The list of options may emerge from a prior exercise, for instance using Devil’s Advocate or Nominal Group Technique.

Steps

Create a list

The full list of items to be prioritized is numbered or lettered, and displayed on one or more flip-charts.

Instructions about voting

1. Each person is given a certain number of votes. If the list is no longer than 6 items, participants should get as many votes as there are items; otherwise a good number is 6 votes per participant.
2. The votes can be distributed at the will of each participant, for example all votes can go to one option (if they find it absolutely more important than any of the others). Alternatively the participant could decide to distribute the votes. For example: ✴ The favourite item on the list gets 3 votes ✴ The next-preferred gets 2 votes ✴ The third choice gets 1 vote

Register and count the votes

It’s possible for each person simply to mark their choices on the flipchart or board. However, to avoid any undue influencing the following procedure can be followed:
  1. Each person considers his or her options, and writes on a piece of paper the numbers or letters of the selected options, and the number of votes allocated to each.
  2. Each person exchanges her or his voting paper with another person – this is optional, but helps avoid undue influence from seeing the accumulating votes of others.
  3. Each person in turn allocates the votes on the voting paper they have received, by marking with a coloured pen on the flipchart or attaching the appropriate number of coloured stickers.
At the end of this step, the choice can usually be significantly narrowed, and often even concluded.

Harvest

Highlight the options with the most dots to make visible the group’s preferences.

Online

Online
Online facilitation possible
Hybrid facilitation possible

Material for

MaterialMaterial : Drawing Paper, Flip Chart / White Board, Marker Pens, Sticky Notes / Post Its
Additional Material Description

Provided everyone has pens and paper/sticky notes, preparation time is 0 minutes.

Additional Resources Description

Impact

Impact
Hidden Curriculum This promotes ‘participatory democracy’: it is an inclusive tool that gives equal weight to each person’s opinion, without emphasizing who has voted for what.
Group EmpowermentThe Fast Prioritization tool is highly empowering for a group, since it promotes not only participation but also transparency: there is no doubt about how decisions are reached.
Fast Prioritization
project

project

IN WHICH THIS method WAS DEVELOPED
 
 
 
Hosting Empowerment
Hosting Empowerment
author(s)

author(s)

OF THIS method
Marilyn Mehlmann
ERASMUS +

ERASMUS +

Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union. Find more information about the program and its goals here: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/.

Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Creative Commons license:

CC-BY-SA You are free to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes with mention of the source: Transformation Hosts International, www. hostingtransformation.eu. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.