049 KJ Technique

A silent sort method to help teams work through a problem space and prioritize focus

• The KJ Technique is a consensus-building exercise that helps teams externalize a complicated range of ideas and information.

• It focuses the team on one question and sets everyone to work on the same task at the same time.

• Everyone in the group writes as many problems, data, insights, or opinions as they can think of, in silence.

• Sticky notes are posted simultaneously, opening up the opportunity for a holistic assessment of the problem space rather than competing opinions.

• By providing a framework where everyone silently works together, decisions are made democratically, with little or no opportunities for coercion.

• Working efficiently, a team can organize their notes into an affinity diagram.

See also   Affinity Diagramming • Value Opportunity Analysis • Weighted Matrix

Everyone writes all of their concerns…

…then, notes are sorted in silence…

Using the KJ Technique, team members independently identify their respective concerns and project requirements on sticky notes and then silently cluster similar concerns and challenges.