To stimulate the group's creative energy.

To produce as many ideas as possible without evaluating them.

To get a lot of ideas in a short time.

To make sure participants understand the meaning of each idea before you ask the group to evaluate the ideas and/or make decisions.

"First, we are going to get all our ideas out before evaluating them."

"Let's come up with 20 ideas in the next 15 minutes."

"Take five minutes to review the list of ideas we have just generated. Which ones need to be clarified?"

To eliminate duplication.

To merge very similar ideas.

To get a "sense" for which choices the group thinks are most important without actually making a final selection.

"We have about 50 ideas here. Which ones are duplicates or are very similar?"

"Let's try ranking the ideas to see how much agreement there is. There are 12 ideas, so each of you should vote for the four alternatives you like best. Ok, how many for alternative A? How many for alternative B?..."

To eliminate alternatives that have low priority and simplify the list of choices.

To reach quick agreement between a few remaining alternatives.

To negotiate an agreement between two parties.

To look beyond existing options.

To avoid either/or decisions with win/lose solutions.

"Would anyone object to eliminating #5 from the list?"

"Is anyone opposed to focusing on category #3 to start?"

"Is there anything you could add to option B to have it work for you?"

"What should be deleted from the current proposal to make it work better?"

"Do we need to choose between these final two decisions? Could we try both?"

Adapted from California Association of Student Councils.