To save colors and take care of the planet, print this text in shades of gray

Dotmocracy

Collect qualitative feedback during a collective decision-making process

Pratique

Aim

Dotmocracy is a form of advanced cumulative voting that enables participants to express a nuanced opinion on each idea or project, rather than simply ranking them by preference.

Instructions

Time needed: 30 to 45 minutes

Most dotmocracy files ask the participant to express their level of support for the idea/project, like this one:

^{Download the template}

Key steps

1. Before the session, prepare the following:

• At the top of each dotmocracy sheet, write the title of the idea or project that the group is being asked to give their opinion on (1 sheet per idea or project).
• Distribute the sheets around the room (on the wall or on tables) so that everyone can easily consult them and vote.

2. First present all the proposals to the group as a whole. It’s important that the participants understand the different choices properly before proceeding.
   You can present the proposals in different ways: verbally or in the form of summary sheets that you can show to the whole group or smaller sub-groups, or display on the wall so that everyone is free to read them as they wish.
3. You should also explain to the group how many points each person has.
4. Once the ideas and projects have been presented, the participants work their way around the dotmocracy sheets:

• They must allocate points to each idea by colouring in the empty circles on the corresponding sheet;
• Each participant is invited to explain their vote by writing a comment in the two dedicated columns: strengths and opportunities, fears and weaknesses.

5. At the end of the voting process, ask the group to look at what the sheets suggest their stance is in relation to each idea: very supportive, overall neutral, very divided or confused, etc.

Depending on the size of the group, the participants can either draw up an action plan immediately after this debriefing, or later when they can give it their full attention.

Tips and advice

• An idea that generates lots of positive and negative feelings should generally be looked into further.
• An idea that generates a great deal of confusion generally reveals the need for clarification or reformulation.
• At Imfusio, sometimes we like to adapt dotmocracy into a desire-based approach (cf. sheet below).

^{Download the sheet}