Multi-voting: When More than One Vote is Better

Multi-voting: When More than One Vote is Better

In brainstorming, you may face a large number of unique ideas even after affinity diagraming. Multi-voting is a great tool to gain consensus on the top priority ideas with your team.

For less than 10 or so items we could use a rank ordering method, yet that method becomes cumbersome when there are a lot of items to prioritize. There are a couple of ways to conduct multiple-voting. Mastering this technique will help your team quickly focus on what is truly important.

Benefits of Multi-voting

You have been ‘those’ meetings where there is an endless discussion on which option to pursue. You may be working on a failure analysis seeking potential root causes, or developing a solution for a design challenge, or prioritizing improvement opportunities. Everyone has an opinion or favorite path to focus upon, yet you need the entire team focused on the right idea or path.

Discussion and debate have a role, yet that is best reserved for adding clarity or defining terms, not for lobbying for a priority. Everyone brings different experiences to the table. Rehashing and reviewing opinions is time-consuming and diminishes the chance of a team consensus.