Method guide · Arrange people and ideas
Priority Sliders
Show the relative priority of competing values and discuss their trade-offs without negotiating down law or safety.
- People
- 3–15
- Base procedure time
- 60 minutes
- Recording
- Shared record
Purpose: Organise and narrow ideas; Make a decision.
English guide
Text acceptance is not approval of this rendered page, its media, or publication.
How this method works
A method for placing each value's priority on a horizontal axis to make trade-offs visible. Use it when several values such as quality, speed, and safety cannot all be maximised at once and stakeholders want to align decision criteria. Participants decide their positions on each axis individually before consulting, then display them simultaneously to reveal the distribution. Start discussion with the reasons for widely separated values and move markers to a point or range that everyone can accept. The outputs are a relative-priority diagram and the reasons used in deciding. It is not suitable where the things being evaluated are mixed into the axes themselves, where law or safety is lowered as a negotiable value, or where the decision-maker has already fixed the conclusion.
Phase schedule
Minutes are cumulative from the start of the base plan, not a live timer. Read scaling for any additional time. Phase controls do not advance automatically.
Use the arrow keys, Home or End while these controls have focus. The complete phase schedule remains below, including without JavaScript.
- Choose decision axes0–10 minutes from the start (10 minutes)
Action: Choose. Participation: Everyone.
Recording not separately specified for this phase
- Place individual values10–18 minutes from the start (8 minutes)
Action: Place. Participation: Individually.
Individual record
- Show the distribution18–25 minutes from the start (7 minutes)
Action: Show. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
- Move positions25–50 minutes from the start (25 minutes)
Action: Move. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
- Test an option50–60 minutes from the start (10 minutes)
Action: Test. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
Facilitation steps
- For 10 minutes, choose at most 6 value axes that will be used repeatedly in the next decision, and define in one sentence per axis what 0 and 10 represent.
- For 8 minutes, before consultation begins, each person decides a position from 0–10 for every axis and prepares sticky notes privately, adding a one-word reason.
- For 7 minutes, on a signal, post individual values on all axes simultaneously, and everyone silently reads the ranges and concentrations.
- For 25 minutes, start with the axis with the widest range, listen to the reasons for its highest and lowest values, and move the agreement-colour marker to an acceptable point or range.
- For 10 minutes, compare the immediate options against the axes in descending priority order, and record acceptance or rejection and conditions for review on the rationale sheet.
If something changes
If
On the first display, at least 80% of all sticky notes cluster at 8–10, with 0 axes indicating low priority.
Then
Each person chooses one axis they can most accept lowering and explains which value can be protected in exchange for lowering it.
If
The highest and lowest values on one axis differ by at least 7, and a gap of at least 5 remains after explanation.
Then
Stop trying to agree on one point, and record as a band the range both sides can accept and the conditions for going outside it.
If
With 10 minutes remaining, 2 or more axes still have no agreement-colour marker.
Then
Move undecided axes to the next session's verification items, test one option using only the axes already decided, and finish.
Preparation
Materials
- One horizontal-axis sheet per decision axis, with 11 marks from 0–10; no more than 6 axes
- Individual-value sticky notes equal in number to the decision axes per person, at most 6 per person
- One agreement-position sticky note per decision axis, in a different colour from individual values
- One A3 or larger rationale-recording sheet per venue
- One dark medium-tip writing implement per person
Room and setup
- One wall surface per venue, at least 150 cm wide, displaying parallel horizontal axes with 0 as low priority and 10 as high priority
- Seating where individual values can be written without showing one another, with at least 45 cm of working width per person
Adjust for people and time
With 3–8 people, cover all axes in one circle. With 9–15, split into two groups; each group organises the reasons for the highest and lowest values on half the axes before returning to everyone. Provide as many individual sticky notes per person as there are decision axes, and as many agreement notes as there are axes. If there are more than 6 axes, combine them beforehand, limiting those covered within 60 minutes to at most 6.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Do not lower law or safety as negotiable values, mix the evaluated objects into the axes, or use this when the decision-maker has already fixed the outcome. Set individual positions before consultation and seek an acceptable range rather than forcing one point when the stated disagreement trigger is reached.
Historical translation and source notes
These original notes are retained verbatim with their fixed source versions. This historical label does not resolve a source-specific concern or establish current acceptance.
- For 9–15 people, each of two groups is assigned half the axes, but the permitted maximum of six also allows an odd number. The source does not specify how an odd axis is allocated; no rounding or duplicate assignment has been added.
Manuscript's recorded references
These translate the original manuscript's source and rights claims. They remain separate from any current-page notice below; they do not establish new verification.
- Tim Beattie; Val Yonchev: Priority Sliders
https://openpracticelibrary.com/practice/priority-sliders/
Adaptation under CC BY 4.0; changes made
- CC BY 4.0
Current-page licence notice
A Taiwa no Fumen adaptation based on the Open Practice Library practice identified below. The manuscript's recorded references and the source page checked for this notice are shown separately.
Changes: explanations, timings, instructions, materials and branches were edited for this site. The English edition translates that Japanese manuscript; it is not a verbatim translation of the original practice.
The checked source footer names CC BY 4.0 but links to CC BY-SA 4.0. The official site source code contains the same mismatch. This has not been confirmed with the rights holders. This notice does not change the terms of the original material.
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Credits on the checked source page
- Named contributors on the source page: Tim Beattie, Val Yonchev
- Contributors listed in the official practice source (repository handles): @tdbeattie, @valyonchev, @rdebeasi
Source page checked on 2026-10-17: Priority Sliders.
Source lineage
CC BY-SA 4.0 — this site's adaptation and translation contributions · Legal code · Official source policy
This material-specific notice does not itself establish publication clearance. Preserved manuscript references above remain separate from the current page's credits and licence evidence.
Diagram, print, and video language
Original Japanese guide, diagram, and print view. Their labels and print text have not been translated; an English print edition is not provided here.
English video-library navigation. Original Japanese audio, subtitles and transcripts remain labelled Japanese resources. Their translations are separate later work. No remote player is embedded here.
The manual English phase controls are a navigation aid, not a live facilitation timer. Interactive diagram motion remains pending.
Editorial provenance
Japanese source status and logs are provenance only. They do not mean this English text or interface was field-tested. Historical fixed-text acceptance and hold records remain specific to their recorded versions; displaying them neither asserts current acceptance nor resolves source-specific restrictions.