Crowd Wise

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Brief Description:

Crowd Wise is a community participation method for making shared decisions such as setting priorities, allocating budgets or responding to a consultation.

It produces outcomes which the participants are more likely to support or be able to live with as consensus emerges through a combination of discussion and voting on a set of previously formed options.

Description:

Participants are given a range of options. These can be discussed, merged and negotiated further within the group to create amalgams. They are then ranked using consensus voting.

With consensus voting, each participant has an incentive to engage with the others, in the hope of persuading them to rate their preferred option, say, third instead of fifth. The process itself encourages a search for common ground. This incentive would not exist in an either/or vote, when everyone will talk up their choice and criticise the alternative. Nor would it exist if people were not expressing their preferences on all the options. This therefore encourages a constructive discussion.

If no option has much of a lead, it is probably best to keep talking and then run another vote.
Sometimes two options are ahead of the pack. Then it is a question of whether there are compatible elements in each that can be combined to make a new option.

Used For:

• Finding common ground
• Involving service users in decision making
• Developing policies and strategy
• Responding to a consultation
• Participatory budgeting

Suitable participants:

Lots of people can take part, both in developing and discussing the options and in voting. Can be carried out with a group of 15 people or 1500 people.

Cost:

Can be cheap if done online. The new economics foundation is currently developing a free tool for online consensus voting.

Time Requirements:

It can work for a single event of 2-3 hours or over a long period of time through a number of consultations

When To Use / What It Can Deliver:

When Not To Use / What It Cannot Deliver:

Strengths:

• Helping people find common ground
• Avoids polarisation of views
• Allows you to take decisions that work for everyone
• Achieve more productive outcomes as people have an incentive to engage with the other participants, to understand how they can make their preferred option more appealing to others.

Weaknesses:

Some participants may be uncomfortable with the 'compromises'

Origin:

New Economics Foundation

Case Studies:

Related Methods

Consensus Voting

Restrictions In Use

Further Information

Contact Perry Walker at nef: Perry.Walker@neweconomics.org 020 7820 6360

See also: Developing Policies and Strategy: "How much power should Local Councils, (Parishes and town councils) have in the 21st Century (see http://www.neweconomics.org/sites/neweconomics.org/files/Crowd_Wise.pdf)

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