5.2 Stepladder technique

The benefit of using the stepladder technique is that it helps individuals who may tend to keep quiet to contribute their ideas. This technique works better with smaller groups or it might take too long.

1. Share the problem with all group members before you get together so that everyone has time to think about it and come up with their own ideas.
2. Form a group of just two people to start and get them to discuss the problem and their ideas.
3. Add another person to the group of two and get the new person to share their own thoughts before hearing the ideas of the group of two.
4. Add another person to this group and get them to share their ideas before discussing as a group.
5. Reach a decision only when everyone has been involved.

Remember that if the group or team wants to benefit from the diversity of ideas it is necessary to provide a mechanism where these can be equally shared.