Page 189 - Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections

13Ideas generation - encourage dissent, make sure people know last call for ideas Coming up with ideas can be easy for some groups and hard for others. You should encourage them to focus on clarity of intent and to stay away from wish-list recommendations that do not factor in any trade-offs required to make something happen. Ideas generation exercises should start broad. People should be encouraged to disagree and come up with competing ideas. Remember to refer back to work agreements, critical thinking and biases training to ensure the group works together cohesively. It is important to be clear about when the final call for ideas occurs. Once you move beyond this point you cannot go back to idea generation. If you are not clear, and someone misses an opportunity to make their recommendation you risk losing the trust of the group. 14 Prioritising and combining ideas Are there any ideas that are similar or could be combined into one recommendation? Once the group has generated ideas they should look to combine and even group recommendations in themes. Logically organising recommendations into topics or themes can help give the final report a clearer narrative. 187