How to make sure you choose the best ideas
Read why you should not vote about the good ideas - and how criteria-based prioritization ensures that you choose the best ideas.
If you have been involved in choosing between ideas at a brainstorm or idea generation, you may have found that you, or others, have questioned whether the ideas chosen on the day are in fact the best.
One of the reasons may be that you have held a vote on the ideas - for example by letting the participants rank or give points to the various proposals.
Regardless of the form, there are a number of disadvantages to voting.
First, one often has to choose between very different proposals, which can be difficult to rank or compare directly.
Second, participants' votes will - unconsciously - be affected by their intuition, the atmosphere in the room - and a wide range of factors that do not necessarily point to the best idea - e.g.:
- who made the nicest presentation
- which proposal sounded most optimistic
- who suggested it
- and not least what happens to just occupy the participant that day
This means that the result of the vote is uncertain. Therefore, you may have experienced that doubts are raised about the choices that were made - either from the participants, colleagues or the management. It can cause a lot of noise and extra work - and in the worst case, it all turns into nothing.
If you want to increase the validity and be sure that the group chooses the solutions that are best for the company, you must use clear criteria to qualify and select the ideas. Criteria that systematically uncover the value and feasibility of the ideas. It neutralizes the disadvantages of voting - and is a robust and efficient method of choosing between many different proposals. At the same time, you get a high level of assurance that the group points to the most valuable ideas. Finally it will be clear to all why exactly THOSE ideas have been chosen.
Criteria-based prioritization is an integrated part of Benelizer® Ideation Workshop - and you can also learn more about the method in one of our master classes.