Method guide · Progress through phases
Confirming Summary
Use to check a brief summary in participants’ actual words while keeping common understanding, differences and unresolved matters separate.
- People
- 3–40
- Base procedure time
- 12 minutes
- Recording
- Shared record
Purpose: Organise and narrow ideas; Explore through dialogue.
English guide
Text acceptance is not approval of this rendered page, its media, or publication.
How this method works
Briefly return the immediately preceding dialogue in participants’ actual words and check it. The facilitator presents no more than three key points without adding new interpretation. Receive corrections, omissions, holds and requests not to record, then confirm common understanding, remaining differences and unresolved matters separately. Do not merge minority or conditional views into unanimous agreement or ask for reasons for deletion. An oral summary does not replace legal minutes, formal testimony, safety reporting or records requiring identity verification. The outputs are corrected common understanding, differences and unresolved matters. This description independently adapts Rhizome’s Summarising, published by the Commons Library, with changes under CC BY-SA 4.0 and is provided under the same terms.
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.
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- Extract key points and differences from actual words0–3 minutes from the start (3 minutes)
Action: Extract. Participation: Facilitator and everyone.
Shared record
- Present up to three points without interpretation3–6 minutes from the start (3 minutes)
Action: Present. Participation: Facilitator.
Shared record
- Accept corrections, omissions, holds and deletion6–9 minutes from the start (3 minutes)
Action: Accept. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
- Confirm common understanding, differences and unresolved matters9–12 minutes from the start (3 minutes)
Action: Confirm. Participation: Facilitator and everyone.
Shared record
Facilitation steps
- For 3 minutes, extract key points, differences and unresolved matters from participants’ actual words and write them on the three-field sheet.
- For 3 minutes, briefly present no more than three key points to everyone without adding new interpretation.
- For 3 minutes, receive corrections, omissions, holds and requests not to record, then amend the relevant record.
- For 3 minutes, confirm common understanding, differences and unresolved matters separately without turning minority views into agreement.
If something changes
If
A speaker does not want their contribution included in the summary or requests deletion even once.
Then
Delete the relevant part without asking why; retain no personal name or inference.
If
A minority or conditional view is merged into unanimous agreement even once.
Then
Stop confirmation, return to the person’s actual words and separate them into the differences or unresolved field.
If
A formal record, identity verification or safety report becomes necessary.
Then
Do not substitute the oral summary. Separate the matter into the appropriate recording, verification, safety or consultation procedure.
Preparation
Materials
- One original three-field sheet for actual words, differences and unresolved matters
- Correction, omission, hold and do-not-record cards: one set per person
- One shared card for separate formal-record and safety-reporting channels
- Broad-tip pens: 2 for the whole group
Room and setup
- Place participants’ actual words where everyone can read them and provide an anonymous route to indicate correction, omission, hold or do not record.
- Use no more than three key points and add no new interpretation. Keep common understanding, differences and unresolved matters separate; do not merge minority or conditional views into unanimous agreement.
- An oral summary does not replace legal minutes, formal testimony, safety reports or records requiring identity verification. Use a separate formal procedure when needed.
Adjust for people and time
For 3–40 people, do not divide the whole group. Briefly return no more than three points from the preceding dialogue within 12 minutes. Corrections may be spoken, anonymous or individual. For 41 or more people, do not ask one person for a representative summary of everyone; check separately in later sessions for the original dialogue units.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Accept corrections, holds, omission reports and requests not to record. Delete requested content without requiring reasons. Do not add interpretations, convert minority/conditional views into consensus or substitute an oral summary for formal, identity-verified or safety records.
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.
- Commons Library / Rhizome Facilitation Tools and Techniques: Summarising
https://commonslibrary.org/facilitation-tools-and-techniques/#h-summarising
CC-BY-SA-4.0 adaptation; changes made
- Conditions applying to CC-BY-SA-4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
CC-BY-SA-4.0
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.
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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.