Ranking — for facilitators

Samvinas

• Pipe in a short list — ranking works best with roughly 5–10 items; long lists are tiring.
• Set the criterion in the Prompt.
• Watch the average ranks and the disagreement colouring.

Ranking consumes items from any earlier tool — pipe in the finalists from a Vote rather than the whole field.

Paper and pen

You need: the shortlisted items written large on a flip chart and numbered, a slip of paper per person, and a marker for the tally.

• Read the criterion aloud and write it above the list.
• Everyone writes their own full order on their slip — item numbers, first choice at the top — in silence, before any discussion.
• Collect the slips and tally on the flip chart: a grid of items × slips, sum the positions per item. Lowest total wins.
• The spread is the second result: an item whose positions read 1, 2, 8, 9 has a story — mark it.
• One failure mode to avoid: ranking out loud as a group negotiation. The first confident voice anchors the order; private slips first, talk after.
• Harvest: write the final order and totals on a fresh sheet and photograph the tally grid — the disagreements are worth keeping too.

When & why

Reach for Ranking when the field is already short and the group needs a decision-grade order — late in convergence, choosing among finalists.

A convergent step — and one that shows its working: the colouring tells you where the group hasn't actually agreed yet.

• High disagreement on an item is a conversation worth having — surface it.
• Keep the list short. If it's long, Vote first to cut it down, then rank the finalists.
• What usually follows: developing the winners — Elaboration or PPCO — or an Evaluation Matrix if the choice needs several explicit criteria.