Large group decision-making made faster, easier and smarter

Group decision-making is faster, easier and smarter when you use the Dotmocracy process. This site is a free collection of resources for Dotmocracy facilitators.

Large group decision-making is faster, easier and smarter when you use the Dotmocracy process. This site is a free collection of resources for Dotmocracy facilitators.

What's New

Smiley Stickers in a Smart Way

The 2012 Prize for Most Innovative Use of Dotmocracy goes to Martha Griffin in Dublin, Ireland.

Martha came up with a unique method that has the fun of voting with big smiley face stickers, and still the sophistication of rating ideas on a five point scale. Here is her story...

Martha works with the Gateway Mental Health Project, a community based member led initiative for people with self-experience of mental ill health. The project aims to support the integration of members into the social, cultural, educational and commercial/working life of the community.

She has used Dotmocracy on multiple occasions with members to help decide which training courses and programs should be prioritized for funding applications.

Using Dotmocracy to Fight Homelessness

Housing Collaborative Example Dotmocracy ResultThe 2012 Prize for Most Inspiring Use of Dotmocracy goes to Christine Galvin in Port Clinton, Ohio, USA.

Christine is a founding member of the Ottawa County Housing Collaborative, a public/private multi-agency partnership that encourages advocacy and education regarding housing needs. Their collaborators represent a wide range of important local organizations, including the government housing authority, planning commissions, schools, family services and charities such as Habitat for Humanity and the United Way.

She described how their group was was stuck in a failed strategic planning process for two or three years; in her words "spinning our wheels, and getting nowhere".

New Zealand Pastor Teaches Wisdom of the Crowd in Cambodia

John Turton in Cambodia with StudentsThe 2012 Prize for Most Frequent User of Dotmocracy Sheets goes to John Turton, a Pastor at St. Marks Uniting Church in Wellington, New Zealand.

John conservatively estimates he has used Dotmocracy sheets in over 40 different meetings since he first discovered the tool in 2009.

Andy Talks About Dotmocracy (Video)

video

Andy is a professor, who was researching "consensus decision-making" with his students. They learned about Dotmocracy and thought it was pretty cool. Thanks to Kathleen Huggard for posting this.

Why Dotmocracy sometimes gets abandoned, and how this can be avoided

advice
tips

Dotting in progress Using Dotmocracy Sheets and the step-by-step Dotmocracy process to recognize agreements in large group meetings can be very productive, but it doesn't always work out that way.

On more occasions then I'd like to count, I've seen plans for a Dotmocracy process get abandoned in favour of a more traditional meeting format, sometimes during the late stages of event planning or even during the actual workshop. Why does it happen and how can it be avoided? Here are a few examples based on my experience...

Dotmocracy at Your 2011 Conference

conference

Photo from a conference with participants passing Dotmocracy sheets on clipboards

Big events like a conference are such amazing opportunities to recognize important agreements among the many participants with shared interests, professional experience and related work.

Here are a few ideas of how you might use Dotmocracy sheets at your next conference:

Dotmocracy: A top trend in 2011 says popular UK Blogger

UK event organizer and blogger, Julius Solaris, has included Dotmocracy as an example of the top 10 trends in event planning for 2011. View his quick and insightful slide how on slideshare.net.

Version 2 of the Handbook is Now Published

handbook

I am proud to announce the publishing of a new version of my Dotmocracy Handbook. After three years in the making, version 2 is more than twice the length of my original handbook. It's filled with full colour photos, improved layout and much clearer and refined instructions based on years of challenging and inspiring Dotmocracy facilitation experience.

New Photos and a Database of Results

Smiles while dotting I recently conducted two Dotmocracy sessions and took some great snap shots. Check them out on flickr.com:

I'm currently working to finalize the Dotmocracy results of the BikeCampTO uncoference into an online database you can browse. See the database in action within the BikeCampTO case study page.