Plus Minus Voting is a great activity for time management and prioritization. It is typically used for focusing the conversation on fewer items of the group’s highest interest.
Running the activity:
- Instruct the participant on the voting rules:
* Each participant is entitled to three +s and three -s votes (each vote will be represented by a + or – mark on the sticky note).
* Participants can place more than one vote on a card.
* (+) represents your agreement with a note and that you want to talk about it.
* (–) represents your disagreement with a note and that you wantto talk about it
“Please, vote on the items that you want to discuss. The items with the most votes will be picked up first.” - Go vote!
- Engage on a group conversation following the group’s interest rank (notes with most marks first).
This is a variation of the Dot Voting activity which allows participants to be clearer about agreements and disagreements. You can also change it up so that participants put a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down.”
Remote-team advice: If the remote board of your choice supports voting, use that feature. If it does not, you can ask participants to add “+”and “-” to the sticky notes.