Stepladder is an effective decision-making technique. It ensures that each member of the team gets equal opportunity to present their views and ideas, leading to effective group decision whilst preventing groupthink.
Process: Explain the challenge clearly to the entire team. Give some time for everyone to gather their thoughts. Now, start with just two members in a room discussing their views. After some time (say 10 mins), ask 3rd member to join the group. 3rd member presents her/his views before listening to other two and then have a group discussion. Repeat this process unless you cover all the members. Finally, reach a final decision as a group.
Benefits: This technique provides opportunity to all members to present their views (even to the shy/introvert members as well).
Team size: Ideally, team size should not be very large for this exercise (8-10 members), else the process could become lengthy and messy.
Pro-tip: It will be good to have one person for facilitation and timekeeping of the entire exercise for the effective execution of this technique.
Have you tried stepladder with your team? I will be happy to hear about it.
Regards,
Piyush Singh
#innovation, #decisionmaking, #creativesolutions, #problemsolving