<aside> <img src="/icons/conversation_purple.svg" alt="/icons/conversation_purple.svg" width="40px" /> Two tools for equalizing voices and removing groupthink in meetings

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Dory: Ranked Q&A to equalize your audience

One meeting ritual we use at Purpose in Play is what we call the "Dory." It's a simple ranked Q&A tool where everyone can add questions and upvote/downvote them. The name Dory was invented at Google and comes from Finding Nemo, i.e. the fish who "asks all the questions."

Here's a quick example of how it works:

Topics (3)

This ritual changes our meetings in a few key ways:

• Equalizing the audience: In meetings, we run through topics in order of votes, regardless of the seniority or volume of the person, to equalize voices.
• Discuss what matters: We go through questions in order, with high confidence that we're discussing the topics of most interest to the room.
• Well-formed questions: We have a best practice to ask the person who suggested a question to read it out loud and offer any commentaryーthis maintains the "human" element of the interaction. We've found that questions come out more factual and more respectful if they are written first.

We use this tool quite oftenーnot only for Q&A, but also for selecting agenda topics, or even brainstorming a set of ideas.

Pulse: Remove groupthink to hear what your team really thinks

A second tool used frequently at Purpose in Play is a "pulse check”. This tool gets used in many different ways. In decision making meetings, it can be used as a way to quickly poll to see where everyone stands. In status meetings, I'll often use it to get a pulse on how everyone is feeling and draw out any latent concerns.

Here's a quick example of how it works:

Pulse (4)

Like the Dory, this ritual has a big impact on our meetings:

• Avoid group think: In going around a room to hear what everyone thinks, each person implicitly biases everyone who speaks after them. With the pulse check, reflection is done privately first, which leads to more honest and independent thinking.
• Equalize hierarchy: A private pulse check allows for everyone to express their opinion at once without influence from the vocal minority.