The nominal group technique was introduced by Delbecq, Van de Ven, and Gustafson in 1971. It is a kind of brainstorming that encourages every participant to express his/her views. This technique is used to create a ranked list of ideas. In this technique, all the participants are requested to write their ideas anonymously and the moderator collects the written ideas and each is voted on by the group. It helps in decision-making and organizational planning where creative solutions are sought. It is generally carried out on a project to get feedback from the team members.
When using NGT, the individuals involved have minimal interaction with one another – so it’s actually a group in name only. What’s important is to start out with a topic or problem that’s presented by the facilitator.
NGT can be used in the following circumstances:
- when some members may not be participating very well
- when individuals feel they might concentrate better in isolation or silence
- when the issue dealt with is of a controversial nature
- when there are low levels of team cohesion
NGT Procedure – All the members of the team are asked to create ideas and write them down without discussing with others. The inputs from all members are openly displayed and each person is asked to give more explanation about his/her feedback. Each idea is then discussed to get clarification and evaluation. This is usually a repetitive process. Each person is allowed to vote individually on the priority of ideas and a group decision is made based on these ratings.
