Alternative plays: Fist to Five, Roman Voting, Straw Poll
Follow-up plays: Fist to Five
See also: Dot Voting, Five-Fingered Consensus
Timing: Execution
Run time
2-10 minutes
Group size
3-12
Why: Leverage the collective wisdom of the group while providing a clear mechanism for decision-making
When: Use to end lengthy decisions in the need to make a final decision or reach a consensus on a specific issue or topic
This workshop exercise is part of the Workshop Patterns printed card deck.
A collection of workshop exercises that will help you ditch dull meetings and facilitate with confidence. It will help you master the design process and have more productive time with your team. The card deck will be ready for purchase in the end of 2025 and is now undergoing rigorous testing.
Reserve your deck!Instructions for running this play
- Let the decision maker of the group listen to each team member’s point of view and collective their interests.
- Ask questions to gain clarity.
- Share their own thoughts.
- Ask for feedback before making a final decision
- A precursor to this exercise could be Dot Voting, Roman Voting, Blind Voting, or any form of group voting.
- The Decider places the “decider dot” (with their initials) or vote on their final choice, determining the path, the idea, or concept the team will move forward with.
Tips to perfect this play
Master and adapt the play to fit your context and needs.
Tip: Two solutions is OK
The final dot can be duplicated if more than one solution is useful
Tip: Add Star votes
2-3 additional ‘star’-votes to be used to select individual ideas and bits from other concepts that should be added into the final concept
Tip: No roll-back
The Decider Vote is a critical milestone as the decision won’t be changed, rolled back or back-tracked. You are committing to the course of action 100%
This workshop exercise is part of the Workshop Patterns printed card deck.
A collection of workshop exercises that will help you ditch dull meetings and facilitate with confidence. It will help you master the design process and have more productive time with your team. The card deck will be ready for purchase in the end of 2025 and is now undergoing rigorous testing.
Reserve your deck!Related plays
- How to use dot voting efficiently in your next workshop by Sandy Lam
- Campaign Booster: The Quick & Effective Marketing Workshop by Anastasia Ushakova
- 30-min decision-making
