Option Explorer — choosing a design for your event

You know an event needs to happen — the group, the problem, perhaps even the date are set — but not yet what shape the session should take. This page is for that moment. It won't hand you a script; it helps you make the two choices a design comes down to: where to enter the process, and which tools to enter it with.

Start from what the group already has

Sessions rarely start at the beginning. You enter the process wherever your group's work already is, and finding that point is quicker than it sounds:

• The process at a glance lays the six steps side by side. Read the Start here when… column until a row sounds like your situation — that's your entry point.
• The four stages is the map behind the table: what each stage is for, and what "done" looks like in each.

Turn the step into a flow

Once you know the step, the flow largely designs itself, because every step has the same heartbeat: widen the field first, then make sense of what you got. Pick one tool from each side:

• Generating tools widen — many ideas, options and possibilities before any judging starts.
• Focusing tools narrow — compare, weigh and choose among what the group produced.
• Organising tools make sense — group, map and sequence without cutting anything.

A session usually chains two or three of these widen-then-narrow pairs. Resist the urge to add more: a good design has fewer steps than you think, each given more time than feels comfortable.

The classic shape

If you're unsure, start here: Brainstorm → Clustering → Voting. Generate widely, group what emerged so the room can see its own thinking, then choose together. It fits in an hour, it works with six people or sixty, and every part of it is forgiving — whatever the group produces, the next step can use.

Then vary it as the situation demands: swap Brainstorm for Brain Writing when a few loud voices are likely to dominate; follow the vote with PPCO to strengthen the winning idea rather than merely picking it; put Five Whys in front of everything when the group isn't yet sure it's solving the right problem.

Or start from a template

A template is a saved flow. When you create an event you can start from one instead of a blank flow — a design you've saved yourself, or one your organisation shares with everyone. And it works in both directions: when you build a session that works, save it as a template (event settings → Template) so the design is there waiting the next time you need it.