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Simple & Pragmatic Problem Solving
#87Chapter 6: Group Creative Option Generation• Group Creative OptionsConvergent, democratic and priority-driven (Consensus-Driven) ThinkingGroup (combination of individual work and collective decision) Mode60-90 Minutes(Time-consuming)

Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

From the book "Advanced Problem-Solving Toolbox: 115 Creative Plays" | Compiled & Edited by: Mojtaba Goudarzi, Open translation: Mehrshid Goudarzi
Executive Synopsis & Core Logic:

structured group process for ideation and fair decision making; Generating ideas in silence, periodic registration without criticism, collective clarification and finally secret voting and mathematical scoring.

Operational Parameters & Specifications

Category
Group Creative Options
Dominant Thinking
Convergent, democratic and priority-driven (Consensus-Driven)
Participation
Group (combination of individual work and collective decision)
Estimated TimeTime-consuming
60-90 Minutes
Workshop
Input Format
Written problem statement, cards or note sheets, rating matrix
Output Format
Idea generation and mathematical prioritization of votes
Key Application
Improving employee participation in remote working conditions, determining annual strategic priorities, allocating organizational budgets and resolving team decision-making conflicts.
Core Differentiator:

Completely separating the idea generation phase from the evaluation, and using weighted secret voting (eg 1-5 rankings) to neutralize the influence of talkers and senior executives.

Quick Field Example:

A company holds an NGT meeting to improve the motivation of remote workers; Everyone writes ideas in silence, a turn is recorded on the board, and 3 solutions with the highest collective acceptance are selected by secret voting.

Operational Benefits & Implementation Risks

Advantages & Value Creation:

Full equality of opportunity to comment for all members, elimination of psychological and political group pressures, mathematical transparency in the final result.

Risks & Potential Trade-offs:

Less flexibility than free and fluid discussions, time-consuming process of turn-based registration and vote counting in large groups.

Real-World Organizational & Industry Scenarios

Human resource management: Solving the crisis of job burnout and improving the belongingness of remote workers with NGT.
Strategic planning: prioritizing the board's annual macro goals in a half-day meeting.
Safety and health committee: identification and ranking of occupational hazards of the workshop with the direct opinion of the workers.

Strategic Rationale & Why to Apply

1Silence is more productive than hustle and bustle: 10 minutes of deep thought alone produces far more mature ideas than shouting at the same time.
2Curb the talkative: turn-based recording gives each person exactly one idea per round, and no one can take over the session.
3Honest Secret Voting: Personnel vote on the most realistic priorities without fear of backlash from the manager.
4Fast Convergence to Action: The output is a mathematically prioritized list where there is no room for doubt or disagreement.

Conceptual Framework & Book Method Description

"Nominal Group Technique" (NGT), which was developed by Andre Delbeck and Andrew Van de Van, is one of the most standard organizational democratic decision-making methods. In this method, the group is only nominally a group, because in the first phase, each member writes his ideas individually and in complete silence (10 minutes). Then the facilitator takes an idea from each person in turn (Round-robin) and writes it on the board. After a brief clarification of the concepts, members secretly rate the ideas. The sum of the rating points is calculated and the final decision is revealed.

Step-by-Step Real-World Implementation Scenario

Designing a strategy for the participation of remote working personnel with nominal group technique
1
Step 1: Problem formulation and silent reflection (10 minutes)Facilitator asked: 'What actions promote the participation of remote workers?' 12 participants wrote their ideas in complete silence.
2
Step 2: Round-robin registration of ideasRound-robin facilitator; Each time, one idea from each member was recorded on the whiteboard without discussion, until 28 distinct ideas were collected.
3
Step 3: Clarifying and Consolidating Overlapping ItemsEach idea was reviewed for one minute to remove ambiguity; Totally similar ideas were merged by agreement of the authors.
4
Step 4: Secret Voting with Score SheetEach participant wrote their top 5 ideas on the sheet and assigned them a score of 5 (most important) to 1 (least important).
5
Step 5: Deriving Mathematical Priorities and ActionThe points were added up; 3 ideas (weekly virtual cafe chat, home equipment ergonomics budget and two-by-two mentoring) with the highest score entered the company's calendar.

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