SORT DOWN

Following group discussions, brainstorming activities, etc., many teams find it useful to narrow down their list of alternatives before making final choices. Here is a useful set of processes:

1.	Popular Acclaim:	Before going into more elaborate sort-down methods, simply check with the group to see if there is already a consensus choice among all the members. If not, proceed to method number two, below.

2.	Chicago Election:	Recorder points, in turn, to each item listed. Members get to vote each for any item they'd like to see left on the list. Members may vote as often as they like, but may only vote "for," not against any item. Recorder simply counts the "yes" votes and enters the tally next to the item. Any item that receives even one vote stays in the race. All others are dropped.

3.	Disqualification:	Ask the team if there are still too many choices left to help them get on with the task at hand. If "yes," ask for a minimum qualifying vote count below which any of the Chicago election candidates will be disqualified (members may suggest that items be dropped if fewer than three people voted for them, for example, or they may suggest dropping every item that is not supported by a majority of 60, 80 or even 100 percent of the members).

		If a member would "lose" an item that he or she feels very strongly about, ask that member to make a campaign speech for the item, then conduct another vote on that item before applying the disqualification cut-off.

4.	Weighted Primary:	With the alternatives now sorted down to a more manageable number, ask the team to use a weighted-vote method to rank the remaining items in priority for further analysis or elimination.

		If there are 10 items left, for example, allow each member 10 points for the item of most interest to him or her, 9 for the second-ranking item, and so forth. Collect and tally the results.

5.	Negotiated Winner:	All final candidates should be subject to thorough analysis and discussion by the entire team. Perhaps a matrix format would help:  List the items on the vertical axis, and the standards against which they'll all be considered across the horizontal axis. These standards might include factors like time, cost, data availability, and so forth. Collect and discuss the data (or use estimates).

		To arrive at the best possible consensus choice, ask the team if two or more of the final candidates might be combined in some way to take advantage of the best features of each.

A note on consensus:	Most teams try to reach important decisions by full consensus of the members. Hard-nosed majority-rule voting is not consensus. Use these sort-down procedures only if all the members first consent to use them and to abide by the results of these methods.