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Exercise in Nominal Group Technique* <br />Adapted for the Human Services Advisory Commission Forum - September 13, 2000 <br />This exercise is useful for groups to make judgmental decisions such as "what is the most <br />important problem for our group to tackle ?" or "What is the best approach to solving the <br />problem we identified ?" It provides the opportunity for everyone in attendance to contribute <br />ideas and participate in the judgment. It offers the opportunity for a small or large group to <br />have some results after a few hours work. One round of voting can be done in about one <br />hour. Two rounds of voting takes about two hours, and more if you include a lunch break. <br />It is called "Nominal Group" because a group is formed in name only to benefit from the <br />creativity and versatility that comes from many minds thinking about the same issue. <br />Preparation: <br />1. Organize the meeting room so that people can meet in small groups. You can <br />have a hundred people meeting at the same time, but they will be meeting in small groups. <br />The ideal group size for this exercise is no more than nine members, each with two <br />facilitators. We will be meeting with larger groups which makes the facilitators' tasks a <br />little harder. <br />2. Each group will have two trained facilitators. The facilitator with the best <br />handwriting should be the recorder on news print. Neither facilitator will act as a group <br />member. That means the facilitators should not give their opinion about the issues that are <br />raised, and should not suggest that one idea is in any way more important than another <br />idea. This is not easy, but the facilitators must try very hard to be neutral. The ideas <br />should come from the participants. <br />3. Each group needs a flip chart, at least one good felt pen, a sheet of paper with <br />the question to be considered at the top for each group member, and enough colored dots <br />so that each member has five different colored dots. <br />4. Give people a little time to eat their lunches before starting the NGT process <br />formally. <br />5. We will consider two questions for the NGT process. <br />• What are the most important mental health issues that should be <br />considered by the County Commissioners for this age group and /ability <br />level? <br />• Among the issues we listed, what are the top five choices in order of <br />importance? <br />V ,A -out b,l Q-ee "mble, VI2o1z�o 1 <br />