The three core ToP methods
1. Focused Conversation Method (ORID)
A structured conversation that moves through four levels of questions, corresponding to four levels of human knowing:
- O — Objective: What do you observe? What facts, data, and sensory information are present? ("What did you see in the report? What numbers stand out?")
- R — Reflective: What do you feel or associate? What emotions or memories does this trigger? ("What surprised you? What excited or concerned you?")
- I — Interpretive: What does it mean? What are the implications? ("What does this tell us about our situation? What patterns do you see?")
- D — Decisional: What do we do? What decision or commitment does this call for? ("Given all this, what is our response? What do we resolve?")
The ORID sequence is the foundation of all ToP facilitation. Without moving through all four levels, groups skip to decisions before they share a common picture of reality — producing decisions that don't stick because not everyone is working from the same understanding.
2. Consensus Workshop Method
A structured process for moving a group from diverse individual perspectives to a shared framework and collective decisions. Five stages:
- Context (10 min): Facilitator sets the question and explains the process. The focus question must be open and generative — "What are the key elements of our ideal community program?" not "Should we run the program?"
- Brainstorm (15–20 min): Participants generate individual responses on cards (one idea per card, large writing). No discussion — individual generation prevents groupthink.
- Cluster (20–30 min): Cards are posted on a wall and grouped by meaning, not topic. The facilitator asks: "Which cards belong together because they are saying similar things?" Groups are not predetermined — they emerge from the cards.
- Name (15–20 min): Each cluster receives a name that captures the essence of all the cards in it, not just the most common one. Names must be inclusive — if one card in a cluster doesn't fit the name, either the card is moved or the name is changed.
- Reflect (10 min): The whole group reflects on the completed map: What patterns emerge? What surprises? What is missing? Does the map accurately represent the group's thinking?
The Consensus Workshop is particularly powerful because it produces a shared framework that genuinely came from everyone in the room — no one can claim their idea was ignored because every card is visible on the wall.
3. Participatory Strategic Planning (Action Planning)
Combines the Focused Conversation and Consensus Workshop into a full strategic planning process that moves from vision to implementation:
- Practical Vision: Consensus Workshop on "What does success look like in 5 years?" — producing a shared image of the desired future.
- Underlying Contradictions: Consensus Workshop on "What stands between us and that vision?" — identifying the key obstacles and tensions to address.
- Strategic Directions: Consensus Workshop on "What actions would address these contradictions and move us toward the vision?" — producing the strategic framework.
- Implementation Timeline: Groups plan specific projects under each strategic direction, with timelines and ownership.
Materials
Platforms
For virtual sessions or collaborative documentation.
Practical recommendations
The focus question is everything. A weak or leading focus question produces a weak or predetermined Consensus Workshop. Test your question before the session: does it invite genuine diversity of response? Is it open enough that you genuinely don't know what cards will emerge?
One idea per card, large writing, only. Two ideas on one card cannot be separated during clustering. Small writing makes the wall unreadable. These rules feel pedantic until someone breaks them and the cluster falls apart.
Don't cluster by topic — cluster by meaning. The most common facilitator error is grouping cards that use similar words rather than cards that make similar points. Read each card aloud before placing it: "Does this card say the same thing as the other cards in this cluster?"
ToP certification is worth pursuing if you plan to use it professionally. The ICA offers ToP Facilitation Methods training (typically 2–3 days) through its international network. The methods are learnable from books, but the facilitation subtleties take practice to internalize.
Inspiration
- Community development: ICA used ToP with communities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America in the 1960s–80s to support village development planning — one of the largest applications of structured participatory facilitation in history.
- Organizational strategy: A nonprofit network uses the Participatory Strategic Planning process with 80 member organizations to build a 5-year strategy that every member contributed to and owns — versus a consultant-developed strategy that members implement reluctantly.
- Education: A school faculty uses the Consensus Workshop to develop shared classroom norms at the beginning of the year — producing a document that staff wrote, rather than received.
- Public sector: A government department uses ORID to facilitate a conversation about a controversial policy change, moving staff from emotional reaction ("this feels wrong") through analysis ("what are the actual implications?") to decision ("what do we do about our concerns?").
Consulted sources
- Stanfield, R. B. (Ed.) (2000). The Art of Focused Conversation: 100 Ways to Access Group Wisdom in the Workplace. New Society Publishers.
- Stanfield, R. B. (Ed.) (2002). The Workshop Book: From Individual Creativity to Group Action. New Society Publishers.
- Roelofs, E. (2003). Metaplan: Getting Better Ideas from Groups. Metaplan GmbH.
- ICA International. (2022). ToP Facilitation Methods: Practitioner Handbook. ICA Associates.
