What is it?

Build a shared understanding within a team about what’s working well, areas for improvement, and opportunities.

Why is it useful?

• Easy for people to grasp with minimal facilitation needed.
• Transparent and democratic process.
• Stimulates meaningful conversation within the group.
• Works well for assessing how multiple teams collaborate with each other.

Objective

To build a shared understanding within a team about what’s working well, areas in need of improvement, and areas of opportunity.

When would you use it?

• In team meetings when reviewing current progress.
• When assessing how multiple teams are working together.

Resources required

• 1 hour.
• Large blank paper up on a wall.
• Space around the paper for people to stand and move comfortably.
• Post-it notes and markers for each participant.
• Dot stickers (cut so each person has a limited number).
• Scissors.

Process

1. Facilitator explains the purpose: reviewing progress as a team.
2. Spend 10 minutes on “What are we doing well?”
   • Each participant writes as many points as possible (one per post-it).
3. Spend 10 minutes on “What could we do better?”
   • Keep it focused on improvements, e.g. “It would be even better if we…”
4. Spend 10 minutes on “What more could we do?”
   • Generate new opportunities rather than refining current activities.
5. As a group, cluster the post-its into themes.
6. Give each participant a fixed number of dots. Ask them to vote on the themes most important to them.
   • They may place all dots on one theme or spread them out.
7. Lead a discussion on next steps. One option is to take the top 3 themes and run a Brown Paper Planning session to turn them into an action plan.

Secret Sauce

• Tackle each question separately – don’t jump straight to improvements.
• Adjust the number of dots to group size: 3 dots each for large groups, 5 for small groups. This ensures a visible spread of votes.