PRAGMA 17 Workshop in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Do they look like long-term collaborators that know well how each other works to you? ;-)

Left: GLEON 11 Student Workshop (Nanjing, China 2010)Top right: GLEON 12 Ecosystem Modeling Working Group (Israel, 2011)Bottom right: GLEON 12, Climate & Lake Physics Working Group (Israel, 2011)

A “hypothetical” problem-solving or shared goals discussion probably looks like this:

In reality, discussions may go like this…

The Idealized Group Decision Making Process

DIVERGENT ThinkingGenerate a list of ideas

Free-flowing open discussionSeeking diverse points of view

Suspending judgment

CONVERGENT ThinkingSorting ideas into categories

Summarizing key pointsExercising judgment

Coming to agreement

vs.

A more realistic model

The “Groan Zone” is where we – “struggle in the service of integration.”

The Diamond of the Participatory Decision-Making

The Diamond model is developed by Sam Kaner, Lenny Lind, Catherine Toldi, Sarah Fisk and Duane Berger. Co-authors of the Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making (Jossey-Bass Business & Management, 2011)

What are we doing in the “Divergent Zone”?

Pre-requisite of building sustainable agreements.

What are we doing in the ‘Groan Zone’?

To clarify competing frames of references, compare, negotiate goals and inclusive solutions, ensure full participation, establish mutual understanding and prepare to share responsibilities.

What’s the value and end result (we aim for) of the ‘Groan Zone’?

Creating the SHARED Framework of UNDERSTANDING.

The Convergent Zone AND the Closure Zone

What are we doing in the convergence zone?

Remember to discuss and establish clear “decision rules” when reaching the CLOSURE ZONE (Decision Point). This is the single most structural element of group decision-making to take the group beyond ‘Decision Point’ to IMPLEMNTATION.

Full Participation

Mutual Understanding

Inclusive Solution

Shared Responsibilities

The Four Participatory Values of the Diamond Decision-Making model for groups

By Midge Eliassen. LSPA, Sunapee, NH. January 2013

Thank you • The Diamond [or ‘fish’] of Participatory Decision-Making

diagrams, the definition of each zone and the value of the model are excerpted from Kaner, S., Lind, L., Toldi, C, Fisk, S., and Berger, D. The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011.

• All photos are used in this presentation are taken by Grace Hong unless noted otherwise.