I’m a big fan of Sam Kaner’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, ISBN 0-86571-347-2. I highly recommend it to anyone who leads meetings.
In my post on Decide as a Team, I wrote about using a method called Roman Evaluation to reach a decision. Kaner talks about a more formal concept he calls Gradient of Agreement in his book.
I am less enthusiastic about the Gradient of Agreement today than when I was first introduced to it.
Why?
| Roman Evaluation | Gradient of Agreement | ||
| Thumb up | I agree. | Endorsement | I like it. |
| Thumb Sideways | I will accept the majority’s decision and support it. | Endorsement with a minor point of contention | Basically, I like it. |
| Agreement with reservations | I can live with it. | ||
| Abstain | I have no opinion. | ||
| Stand aside | I don’t like this, but I don’t want to hold up the group. | ||
| Formal disagreement but willing to go with the majority | I want my disagreement noted in writing but I’ll support the decision. | ||
| Formal disagreement with request to be absolved of responsibility for implementation | I don’t want to stop anyone else, but I don’t want to be in involved in implementing | ||
| Thumb Down | I disagree (veto) or I have something to say | Block | I veto this proposal |
| Table 1. A comparison of Roman Evaluation and Kaner’s Gradient of Agreement. |
Although I have experience successfully using Gradient of Agreements, it seems overly complex to me now compared to Roman Evaluation. Gradient of Agreement has levels, gray highlighted cells in Table 1, that seem ambiguous to me. I question whether a participant could support a decision when they don’t have an opinion about the proposal; or don’t like it; or disagree with it; or don’t want any implementation involvement. I suspect a participant that voted that way would provide, at best, lukewarm support.
I prefer the simplicity and clear meaning that comes from using Roman Evaluation.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
good point
I agree Its hard to support a proposal or an idea that you don’t like or agree with. It doesn’t feel comfortable backing something you don’t believe in. As my old coach you to say “Give 100% or don’t give anything at all”.