Method guide · Work with a structured grid
Community Activity Inventory
Use to make activities’ value and workload visible and prepare review candidates without deciding to abolish required work.
- People
- 4–30
- Base procedure time
- 75 minutes
- Recording
- Shared record
Purpose: Reflect and learn; Organise and narrow ideas.
English guide
Text acceptance is not approval of this rendered page, its media, or publication.
How this method works
Make community activities’ value and workload visible and create candidates for review. Put events, meetings, organisations and roles on a monthly table using role names, not personal names. For each activity, record its value, observable work volume, evidence and affected people, then place it provisionally under continue, merge candidate, stop candidate or hold. Exclude statutory duties, lifesaving/disaster response and contractually mandatory work from stop candidates. If users, current owners or decision-makers are absent, do not decide: retain a checking method and deadline. Do not publicly use health or family circumstances as workload evidence. The output is a candidate list, not an abolition decision.
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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- List activities and role names0–10 minutes from the start (10 minutes)
Action: List. Participation: Groups of 4–6.
Shared record
- Place timing and roles on a monthly table10–30 minutes from the start (20 minutes)
Action: Place. Participation: Groups of 4–6.
Shared record
- Compare value, workload and evidence30–50 minutes from the start (20 minutes)
Action: Compare. Participation: Groups of 4–6.
Shared record
- Make undecided merge/stop candidates50–65 minutes from the start (15 minutes)
Action: Propose. Participation: Groups of 4–6.
Shared record
- Hold with absent stakeholders and deadlines65–75 minutes from the start (10 minutes)
Action: Hold. Participation: Groups of 4–6.
Shared record
Facilitation steps
- For 10 minutes, write events, meetings, organisations and roles one per card without personal names.
- For 20 minutes, place activities by timing and role name on the monthly table, marking statutory, lifesaving and disaster-response duties separately.
- For 20 minutes, record each activity’s value, observable work volume, evidence and affected people.
- For 15 minutes, place activities provisionally under continue, merge candidate or stop candidate, without deciding in this session.
- For 10 minutes, record absent users, owners and decision-makers, checking methods and verification deadlines in the hold field.
If something changes
If
At least one statutory duty, lifesaving/disaster response or contractually mandatory task is placed as a stop candidate.
Then
Remove it from stop candidates and pass it to a separate legality/safety check by the department with authority.
If
At least one merge or stop candidate emerges while a user, current owner or decision-maker is absent.
Then
Do not decide. Move it to hold and record the absent stakeholders, checking method and verification deadline.
If
At least one identifiable workload item includes an owner’s name, health circumstances or family circumstances.
Then
Remove it from the public table. With the person’s consent, rewrite it using only role names and observable work volume.
Preparation
Materials
- One original blank monthly table per group for activities, timing and roles
- Activity cards: one per activity
- Comparison forms for value, workload and evidence: one per activity
- Continue, merge-candidate, stop-candidate and hold cards: 10 of each per group
- Broad-tip pens: 2 per group
Room and setup
- Display that this is an inventory, not a decision-making meeting, and that statutory, lifesaving and disaster-response duties must not become stop candidates.
Adjust for people and time
For 4–6 people, address one set of activities. For 7–30 people, distribute people into groups of 4–6 differing by no more than one person, each covering an activity field. Check duplicates by activity name only; do not automatically decide merge/stop candidates. Pass candidates to a separate setting with users, owners and decision-makers present.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Do not turn statutory, lifesaving/disaster-response or contractually mandatory work into stop candidates. Keep candidates provisional and hold them when necessary stakeholders are absent. Do not expose health, family circumstances or personal names as workload evidence; obtain consent before rewriting to role names and observable work volume.
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.
- The source requires groups of 4–6 throughout the 7–30 participant range, but 7 people cannot all be partitioned that way. The translation preserves the stated range and group size without adding a remainder rule.
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.
- Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications: A Guide to Discussion Using Workshop Methods, p.7 menu 4
https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000997425.pdf
PDL-1.0 adaptation; changes made
- Conditions applying to PDL-1.0
https://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_kyotsuu/policy/tyosaku.html
PDL-1.0
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.
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.