Conducting a straw poll prior to a group decision can be a useful way of seeing where attendees stand. Data from the poll focuses conversations around solutions with the most support.
The most common poll is something called plurality voting: each attendee has one vote, and they assign it to one potential solution they find most compelling. However, another option called multivoting is showing better results, according to new research published in the Academy of Management Discoveries.
Multivoting Allows for Greater Nuance
In such a poll, each attendee gets, say, 10 votes — depending on the number of options being evaluated — that they can allocate across potential solutions. They can assign their votes any way they like. For example, they can allocate all 10 votes to one solution or perhaps five votes to a couple solutions they see as viable.
As noted, groups using multivoting outperformed groups using other approaches. This could be the case for several reasons:
Dispatches From The Front 