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Improvement Opportunity Selection

When working on improvement projects it can be difficult to gain buy in and consensus from within the team on which ideas to go for.

Whether you are trying to decide which problems to work on or which solutions to try out first, there are a number of methods and tools that can help the group prioritise. In the past I have found these two to be particularly useful:

  • Ease-Benefit Matrix - for high level prioritisation with clear distinction between ideas
  • Nominal Group Technique - for ranking those ideas that have less obvious differences

Ease Benefit Matrix... what is it?

A very simple but useful tool for prioritising where to focus. It can be used to help a team to decide which problems to work on or which solutions to try out.

What can it be used for?

To prioritise the things that will be easiest to do and have the biggest benefit.

How to do it:

1.  For each problem or solution ask two questions:

  • How easy is this to solve or do?
  • How big a benefit will we get from solving it/doing it?

2. Use the matrix as a guide for which problems to tackle first or solutions to implement.
3. Focus on the ideas in the No.1 box - these will be easier to do, yield the biggest benefit and give confidence to the team when they are successfully implemented.
4. Leave the ideas in the No. 3 box until you have dealt with all those in the No. 2 boxes.

You can put the different ideas onto post-it notes, stick them in the appropriate box and then move them around as the situation changes.

Be bold – don’t worry about where they sit within the box, if it’s high benefit and easy to do just put it in that box!

Nominal Group Technique... what is it?

A method to help teams to prioritise which ideas are the most important.

What can it be used for?

It can be used to categorise a brainstormed list of ideas – in order to prioritise which problems to solve or solutions to implement.

How to do it:

1.  Begin with a brainstormed list of ideas

2.  Clarify all the items on the brainstormed list to make sure that everybody understands them, combining any duplicated ideas

4.  Give each person 10 points to allocate to the idea they rate highest, 9 to the next best and so on..

5.  Allow each person to allocate total points per idea

6.  Complete a table showing total points per idea and total voters per idea

7.  Discuss the merits and practicality of the preferred ideas

example:

Carry out voting by giving people coloured dots rather than numbers


Got a tied number of points or dots, then use the number of voters to give an indication of how widespread the preference is for each option


This technique is designed to promote discussion and help the team to reach consensus. It will not give an automatic answer.

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