Tool 187: Sticking Dots

AKA

Color Dots Rating, Team Rating

Classification

Evaluating/Selecting (ES)

Tool description

The sticking dots technique introduced by H. Geschka, et al. is a simple, yet effective team rating process. It gives all participants an opportunity to get directly involved and vote for individual preference or priority from a list of ideas or items. Participants indicate their choice(s) by sticking adhesive-backed colored dots next to them on a chart.

Typical application

• To allow every participant of a team or large group to vote for an idea or item.

• To provide participants direct involvement in a selection process.

• To assign priorities on the basis of collective team input.

Problem-solving phase

	Select and define problem or opportunity
	Identify and analyze causes or potential change
→	Develop and plan possible solutions or change
→	Implement and evaluate solution or change
	Measure and report solution or change results
→	Recognize and reward team efforts

Typically used by

	Research/statistics
	Creativity/innovation
	Engineering
	Project management
	Manufacturing
3	Marketing/sales
2	Administration/documentation
	Servicing/support
	Customer/quality metrics
1	Change management

links to other tools

before

• Double Reversal

• Brainstorming

• Round Robin Brainstorming

• Affinity Diagram

• Pin Cards Technique

after

• Different Point of View

• Resource Requirements Matrix

• Team Process Assessment

• Team meeting evaluation

• Presentation

Notes and key points

• Participants may be grouped by gender, age, experience, membership, or other characteristics. Assigning different colored dots to particular groups will allow better analysis of preferences, attitudes, or evaluation by participants of each group.

• Colors can also be used to indicate first, second, third priority or preference.

• Recommendation: For 10–40 items give each participant 10–20 colored dots.

Step-by-step procedure

• STEP 1 The team facilitator displays a list of previously generated ideas or items on a whiteboard or flip charts.

• STEP 2 Groups are identified and different colored dots are given to each group. See example Preference for Tools Training.

• STEP 3 Participants consider their choices and show their preference by sticking dots adjacent to the idea or item listed. Each participant (in this example) has been given 10 dots of the same color.

• STEP 4 Facilitator counts the number of dots given to each idea or item and provides a summary to the team for further analysis. Finally, the summary is dated.

Example of tool application