CMC
Magazine

October 1996 http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1996/oct/mengab.html


Root Page of Article: Feeling Between the Lines, by Joyce Menges

Appendix B - The Nominal Group Script

THE NOMINAL GROUP TECHNIQUE

[1] Silent generation of ideas
[2] Round-robin recording of ideas
[3] Discussion for clarification
[4] Preliminary vote on item importance
[5] Discussion of the preliminary vote
[6] Final vote

[1] SILENT GENERATION OF IDEAS

Please take some time to think quietly about the following question.

"What are the most significant ways humans EXPRESS and PERCEIVE feelings in the synchronous environments of cyberspace?"

Now, write down your ideas regarding this on a piece of paper. Use brief phrases only, please; you do not need complete sentences to capture your best thoughts. For example "using the /me command" is one idea. Let your thoughts flow without constraint or inner debate. There are no wrong answers. And, please, work independently for now. There will be time for discussion a bit later on. I will call "TIME" in about 5 minutes.

[2] ROUND-ROBIN RECORDING OF IDEAS

Now is the time to get the group's ideas out "on paper." What's important here is that everyone finds voice for their ideas. I will ask each of you to type out your ideas to the channel, one idea per line. Remember: short phrases please. Repeat until you have recorded all of your ideas. Please feel free to add new ideas as they occur to you even if they are not down on your paper. Also, please continue with all your ideas even if you think they may be duplicates of ideas already presented. The group will weed out the redundant thought.

Since we are brainstorming here, discussion is inappropriate. We will just get the ideas down then we can discuss them in the next step.

[3] DISCUSSION FOR CLARIFICATION

This next step allows us to discuss and clarify our brainstorming ideas. Before we can make decisions about which of these ideas we think are most important we have to be sure we understand each notion. Does anyone need clarification or want to talk about the logic behind their ideas? Let's start by weeding out duplicate ideas.

[4] PRELIMINARY VOTE ON ITEM IMPORTANCE

Please take some time to select the 6 items you think are most important and rate each #s 1-6 with 1 being the most important and so forth. This is a secret vote so, when you have made your choices, please /MSG JOYCE_ with your response.

[5] DISCUSSION OF THE PRELIMINARY VOTE

Now is the time to discuss briefly, the results of the preliminary vote. We do this not so much for consensus, but for clarity. We don't have to agree we just have to be sure we all understand each other.

[6] FINAL VOTE

The final vote provides an opportunity to rethink and to codify the best thoughts of the group as a whole. This time I would ask that you make your vote a part of the record by typing them in one long comment to the channel like this... "1. blahblahblah, 2. etcetcetc,..."


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