I’m not sure when I discovered this process based on the Focused Conversation Method, but it allows thinking through a number of perspectives on priorities at different levels to discover which item is the biggest priority overall. Instead of just gut level reactions to “What is our biggest priority?” participants have a chance to think through and record different perspectives on priorities, which makes the conversation on priorities as the whole group more accurate. The questions can be adapted, as can the number of dots (as long as you have enough different colours).

Give each person 4 dots:  one each of red, yellow, blue, green.

Looking at the results of a Consensus Workshop Method (the names of the clusters)

O.  Read the names of the clusters out loud

R.  Each person put a red dot on the one you are most passionate about.

I. Each person put a yellow dot on the one you think is easiest to do. (or this could be the one that has to be done so the others can happen)

 I. Each person put a green dot on the one that would cost the least.

 I. Each person put a blue dot on the one that would have the most positive impact.

 D.  Look at the whole picture of dots and do a quick reflection on the whole picture:

Whole Group Together:

 O.  Where do you see a big concentration of dots?

Which of these has the most different colours of dots? (clues to priority from different perspectives)

What questions of clarification do you have? (i.e. ask the person who did it what was their thinking behind where they put a dot)

R. What surprises you here?

I. What insights do you see here about what we see as priority?

Which of these are clearly low priority (few dots)?

Which of these are clearly highest priority? (Can rank them from highest to lowest if you like)  

D. Given their priority, which of these are we committed to working on?

(If you are interested in group facilitation tools that have a deep theoretical base and are grounded in years of real-life experience with groups all over the planet, search for ToP facilitation, or the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) in your area. In Canada, it is ICA Associates, Inc., http://ica-associates.ca , a company related to the not-for-profit ICA Canada (The Canadian Institute of Cultural Affairs) http://icacan.org .)