The Psychology of Quality and More

A Toolbook for Quality Improvement and Problem Solving (contents)

Voting: How to understand it

The Quality Toolbook > Voting > How to understand it

When to use it | How to understand it | Example | How to do it | Practical variations

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How to understand it

The situation often arises within projects where a number of items are identified, for example as generated by a Brainstorming session, from which the team must select a limited number for further action. The generation of this list may be an interesting and creative activity, but the selection is not always so convivial, and can be driven by the personal power of an individual in the group, rather than any agreed method.

Voting uses the democratic principle to enable all members of a group to agree on a final selection by giving equal selection power to each person. It is usually an acceptable selection method, as it uses a well-understood and fair principle. By accepting the tool, the group members accept the result.

Voting may be done in secret, preserving the anonymity of each voter, or may be public, for example by a show of hands. Although it is often done as a public activity, this can result in individuals being influenced by others, even within friendly peer groups, where later voters typically follow any emerging trend. With a public voting system, people are also more likely to cling to the items for which they voted, reducing the chances of early consensus.

A good voting session results in a very clear majority for one or two items. If there is either clustering or a wide spread of votes across items, then this may indicate that different criteria are being used, possibly from different points of expertise or different opinions. The advantage of voting within a group situation is that it is easy to discuss and resolve causes of variations in voting.

Although an item selected through voting may be agreeable to the group, this does not always mean that it is correct, and subsequent verification activities may be appropriate if a more confident decision is required.

In addition to selection, voting can also be used for prioritization of a set of items, arranging them in order of importance.

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