In any kind of company workshop or company meeting, the voting process can’t be avoided. It is necessary in order to determine the preferences of the majority of an agile team for example. There are times that a company requires a voting process to ensure that the right decision is achieved and no delays are present after the meeting.
This is often referred to as a simple method of voting wherein stickers are used in order to cast votes and be able to make an estimate on what are the best preferences or things to do when it comes to suggestions and problems faced by the company. A careful deliberation is needed in order to ensure that all things are done and decided properly. It is also sometimes considered as a simple group activity where in the choices of preferences are found using a number of limited options including:
1. A participant or voter is given a set number of dot stickers, which are marked green for like or red for dislike.
2. The participants places these stickers in the preference or choice that they like.
3. The options or preferences having the most number of dots “win”.
Achieving the best results on dot voting is great. It will not leave you with problem at all. Here are a few tips in order to attain the best voting results.
• Always keep the number of your options to be about a dozen or less. The participants are expected to rethink, weigh and compare all the options before they stick their dots to avoid mistakes or problems in the vote count.
• A new option cannot be added once the voting process has started because this would be unfair in the new additions of dots that are already counted.
• Participants should avoid similar or related options when casting a vote because these can cause vote-splitting. This might require participants to combine options that are less specific.
• Have a credible person to check or monitor the process of the voting in order to ensure that no one cheats through adding extra dots to the given options. This practice is done through peeling off dots or moving dots. This makes the balloting more reliable and trusted at the same time.
• Provide dots in two sets of colors for both positive and negative such as the colors green and red. This will allow you to see which ideas or options are favored and are not favored.
• Conduct this process more than once with the options given in a different order to see if the correct results are presented. Some people will just ‘get on the bandwagon’ and place dots where everyone else has placed his or her dots.
Dot voting is very essential in casting votes for the proper estimation of options that needs to be considered important. One will be able to set a good track with the result of this kind of voting process. Participants would be able to set accurate preferences or choices just by using dots.
— Slimane Zouggari