The Nominal Group Technique

Prioritizing Issues and Projects to Achieve Consensus

Unanimity is often hard to get.

© iStockphoto/shironosov

When a group meets, it's often the case that people who shout loudest, or those with higher status in the organization, get their ideas heard more than others. So when it comes to gaining consensus on important decisions or priorities, how do you make sure you get true consensus and a fair decision for the group?

One technique to help with this is the Nominal Group Technique, a face-to-face process for gaining consensus. A typical application is in organizational planning, when a group needs to agree priorities in order to assign resources and funds.

The benefit of the technique is that the group shares and discusses all issues before evaluation, with each group member participating equally in evaluation. The evaluation works with each participant "nominating" his or her priority issues, and then ranking them on a scale of, say, 1 to 10.

Nominal Group Technique is just one group process for achieving consensus. Another group consensus technique is the Delphi Method, which is used among groups of experts to make complex decisions, usually without face-to-face meetings.

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