Facilitators love their flipcharts and markers. And they love their dots! Sticky dots are often used to cast a vote. This is primarily done when there are many choices and you want the group to narrow the choices and prioritize. The challenge of voting with dots is that group think can influence the outcome.
Participants who cast their vote after many of their peers have already placed their dots, may start to see a pattern develop. These participants may be swayed to vote for a more popular choice rather than the choice they originally planned. There is an easy fix that prevents this from happening.
Start with number one and write a number next to each item listed on the flipchart. Instruct participants to select the number of the item they are voting for and write that number on their dot. If they get to cast more than one vote, use the same process so that each dot has a number written on it.
Once everyone has their number(s) written on their dot, invite them to place their dot on the flipchart next to the numbered item they selected. This keeps everyone committed to their original idea and ends the impact of group think.
It’s a simple change that provides a more accurate picture of what all the participants are thinking.