Laura Nash's 12 questions

The method works a problem or a decision through ethically.

It lets you judge whether a decision being introduced is sound, or prepare your own position and the arguments for it.

When to use it

  1. When a decision has been taken, or is about to be, and you are one of the people it affects.
  2. When you are taking a decision and want to think about how the people it affects will take it.

When not to use it

  1. When the decision has to be taken anyway — because the organisation's survival depends on it, say.
  2. When the decision reaches one person, or a handful.
  3. When the decision has nothing to do with changing how people behave.

The goal: used well, the tool leaves you with a set of arguments for where you stand on the decision, which you can then use.

How to use it

Laura Nash put together twelve practical questions that lay out the values, and the case for supporting or opposing a decision, in a logical order.

1. Ground rules — what to keep in mind

That you are trying to understand where you stand on the decision, problem or issue:

  1. What are our arguments?
  2. What are our values?
  3. Why these arguments and these values in particular?

2. Defining it

You can start by asking the 5W+H questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?

3. Running the meeting

  1. Work out together how you see the issue or the decision.
  2. Write down the definition you all agree on.
  3. Go through the ground rules from point 1.

Depending on the situation, your team is either the people the decision affects or the people taking it. If you can, put both in the same room.

4. Answering the questions

Prepare an answer to each of Laura Nash's questions. Where you disagree, have the argument out — or, where it makes sense, write down both versions.

Good practice: if there are a lot of disagreements, split the team into groups that hold a common position, and let one group work its position out while the others listen. Do that for each position held.

5. Marking what matters

Between you, pick out the points whose presence or absence is the biggest problem, or the biggest gain, in the decision.

6. What to do with it

A position worked out this way can be written up as a statement, or used to prepare for a discussion with the decision-makers or with the people the decision affects.

Important decisions then get taken more deliberately, and the discussion can be about the arguments.

Use it in TeamKit