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Taiwa no FumenPractical methods for shared thinking

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Communities and disaster preparedness

Prioritize Community Issues and Owners

Compare issues from different districts using common criteria and assign owners for additional checks and initial action.

People
5–20
Session time
135 minutes
Format
In person

English session plan

Original program status: draft. Source safety category: Medium; this is not a guarantee of safety.

Preparation: Standard preparation. Facilitation team: Four roles, including an experienced facilitator.

What this session can decide

Decide priorities for verification and proposal preparation, not budget allocation, administrative decisions or the whole community’s collective will.

Outside its scope

  • Do not treat participants as representatives of the whole community.
  • Do not determine urgency from unverified information.
  • Do not approve budgets or construction work.

Primary caution: Do not treat participants as representatives of the whole community.

Before starting

Question and scope
Compare issues from different districts using common criteria and assign owners for additional checks and initial action. Before starting, state the subject and period covered in one sentence.
What is decided here
Decide priorities for verification and proposal preparation, not budget allocation, administrative decisions or the whole community’s collective will.
Output recipient
At the end, the Recorder keeps “List of support/opposition, potential owners and hold conditions”. Record priority and feasibility separately.
Participation and information boundaries
Explain that people may pass, rest or leave, and keep personal information, confidential information and judgements about attributes off the recording surface. Assign Participant support separately.
Operating team
Assign the Lead facilitator, Recorder, Timekeeper and Participant support before starting, and confirm who announces transitions and stops.
Next check
Set the review date, readers and person responsible for the next decision on “List of support/opposition, potential owners and hold conditions”.

Who takes responsibility

Lead facilitator

Uphold the purpose and out-of-scope boundaries of “Prioritize Community Issues and Owners” and announce each stage’s start and finish.

From before the start until the session ends.

Recorder

Record Issue cards by district, Issue ranking and evidence, List of support/opposition, potential owners and hold conditions at the relevant stages and hand them to the recipients at the end.

From preparation of recording surfaces before the start through storage after the session.

Timekeeper

Notify the Lead facilitator 3 minutes before each stage ends and when switching to breaks or buffer time.

At the start of every stage and 3 minutes before its end.

Participant support

Receive requests to pass, rest, leave or check individually, and decide with the Lead facilitator whether resumption is possible.

From before the start until the session ends.

Session flow

Minutes are measured from the session start. Method time, transition time, breaks and buffer are shown separately; they are not additional overlapping activities.

  1. 0–63 minutes

    Align district facts and issues

    Method: District Profile Analysis · 0–60 minutes. Transition: 60–63 minutes (3 minutes).

    For each district, write observed facts, affected situations, existing resources and information gaps. Add information sources and check dates, keeping opinions separate from facts.

    Responsible: Lead facilitator; Recorder; Participant support

    Output: Issue cards by district

    Handoff: Pass comparable issue cards to ranking.

    This stage may be shortened only in accordance with the stated conditions.

  2. 63–86 minutes

    Rank using common criteria

    Method: Ranking · 63–83 minutes. Transition: 83–86 minutes (3 minutes).

    Arrange cards using impact, urgency and verifiability criteria. Retain ties, insufficient evidence and matters outside the responsible remit rather than forcing them into one order.

    Responsible: Lead facilitator; Recorder; Participant support

    Output: Issue ranking and evidence

    Handoff: Pass top issues and unresolved conditions to owner confirmation.

    This stage is not marked as shortenable.

  3. 91–109 minutes

    Invite verification owners and collaborators

    Method: Support and Action Ballot · 91–106 minutes. Transition: 106–109 minutes (3 minutes).

    Indicate support for top issues separately from ability to undertake additional checks. Do not mark ownerless issues as started; set where to recruit owners and a deadline.

    Responsible: Lead facilitator; Recorder; Participant support

    Output: List of support/opposition, potential owners and hold conditions

    Handoff: Hand rankings, potential owners and unresolved conditions to the community-activity lead.

    This stage is not marked as shortenable.

What is retained and who receives it

Issue cards by district

Owner: Recorder

Compare different districts using the same fields.

Issue ranking and evidence

Owner: Recorder

Select issues to verify first.

List of support/opposition, potential owners and hold conditions

Owner: Recorder

Record priority and feasibility separately.

Materials and setup

Material names, quantities, groups and handling instructions retain the fixed draft's original helper-derived guidance. Where a format is marked “Source material specification”, the entire bound English source material entry takes precedence over the old helper-derived format guidance. This format-only correction does not resolve other instruction or safety concerns. English names are not substituted into a Japanese-keyed lookup.

Everyday tools

Broad-tip pens

Quantity: 2 per group

Format: Dark broad-tip pens or whiteboard markers

Check that the ink flows and place the pens where participants can reach them. Avoid pale-coloured pens.

Pens

Quantity: 1 per person

Format: Dark broad-tip pens or whiteboard markers

Check that the ink flows and place the pens where participants can reach them. Avoid pale-coloured pens.

Sheets to prepare by hand

Table for checking indicator aggregation conditions

Quantity: 1 sheet per group

Format: Two A4 sheets placed side by side. Join them with masking tape if a larger surface is needed.

Divide the work surface into 6 fields: “Indicator”, “Source”, “Target period”, “Aggregation unit”, “Denominator” and “Handling missing data”. Do not rely on colour alone; write each field heading in words.

Cards separating ways to read aggregate values

Quantity: 3 of each type per person

Format: Sticky notes around 75 × 75 mm, or A4 copy paper cut into four pieces.

Write “Feature”, “Causal hypothesis” and “Additional check” on separate sheets, one label per sheet, and prepare the required quantity of each type. Distinguish them by written headings even when the colour is the same.

Paper pieces for covering non-public information

Quantity: 10 per group

Format: Blank pieces of A4 copy paper cut to the required size

Leave them blank before starting. Place them over non-public information and tape only the edges with masking tape to prevent slipping. Do not copy the hidden content onto the paper pieces.

Option cards

Quantity: 1 set per group; no more than 12 items

Format: Sticky notes around 75 × 75 mm, or A4 copy paper cut into four pieces.

Do not buy special-purpose materials. Write “Option” at the top of each paper piece. If participants will write on it, use one item per piece and handwrite the required headings before starting.

Ranking-criteria cards

Quantity: 1 per group

Format: Sticky notes around 75 × 75 mm, or A4 copy paper cut into four pieces.

Do not buy special-purpose materials. Write “Ranking criteria” at the top of each paper piece. If participants will write on it, use one item per piece and handwrite the required headings before starting.

Table keeping option order and holds separate

Quantity: 1 sheet per group

Format: Two A4 sheets placed side by side. Join them with masking tape if a larger surface is needed.

Divide the work surface into 4 fields: “Final order”, “Ties”, “Items held for judgement” and “Items not meeting mandatory conditions”. Do not rely on colour alone; write each field heading in words.

Anonymous support ballots and named implementation-participation ballots

Quantity: 1 of each per person

Format: Sticky notes around 75 × 75 mm, or A4 copy paper cut into four pieces.

Make a pair of two ballots: label one “Support ballot—anonymous” and the other “Implementation ballot—name”. Write support for the proposal on the support ballot, and willingness to undertake the first task plus the person’s name on the implementation ballot. Do not put the two types in the same collection area.

Table counting support and implementation participation separately

Quantity: 1 sheet per table

Format: A4 copy paper

Divide the work surface into 2 fields: “Number of support ballots” and “Number of named implementation volunteers”. Do not rely on colour alone; write each field heading in words.

Information to gather before the session

Verified aggregate materials

Quantity: 1 copy per indicator

Format: A4 copy paper or digital viewing data with the same content

State the content, preparation date and person who checked it. If distributing it, also provide a large-print version or digital viewing data with the same content.

Materials chosen for the session conditions

Separate collection areas for support and implementation ballots

Quantity: 1 of each per table

Format: Two existing envelopes or empty boxes. If unavailable, divide the tabletop into two areas with masking tape.

Label one clearly “Support ballots—anonymous” and the other “Implementation ballots—named”. Place them apart and do not mix them after collection.

Setup for each method

District Profile Analysis

  1. Align each indicator’s source, target period, aggregation unit, denominator, missing data and confidentiality designation on one blank table.

Ranking

  1. A table where all cards can be moved into one line or a leading group

Support and Action Ballot

  1. Make tables of no more than 10 people and keep the two collection areas apart at each table
  2. Display one proposal, required support count, and required number of people taking action where all tables can see them

When to switch or stop

Fallbacks

There are more than 12 district cards.

Cluster the same issues, separating only those affecting different situations.

Method guide: District Profile Analysis

Stop conditions

An emergency affecting life safety is raised.
Stop ranking and move to the designated emergency-contact procedure.
Participants speak for absent residents as if expressing a collective position.
Return the wording to participants’ observations and record whom or what to verify additionally.

Sources, rights and limits

This site has composed this programme’s purpose, method sequence, delivery instructions, roles, outputs and switching conditions. See each individual method page for that method’s sources and licences.

Original source records and their required notices are retained below. Their presence does not mean a new legal or cultural-safety clearance. Original citation titles are kept in their source language.

Sources and required notices for the 3 methods used

District Profile Analysis

  • Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications: A Guide to Discussion Using Workshop Methods, p.6 menu 3 | https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000997425.pdf | PDL-1.0 adaptation; changes made
  • Source: Conditions applying to PDL-1.0 | https://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_kyotsuu/policy/tyosaku.html | PDL-1.0
  • Attribution: Taiwa no Fumen Editorial Team | This site’s text and illustrations
  • Cultural caution: This manifest contains no structured cultural-safety assessment. Human checks are required for context, opting out of participation and power differences.
  • Limits of this record: Only the notices displayed in the public YAML were transcribed. This does not assert that no individual rights exist.

Ranking

  • Source: Seeds for Change Facilitation Tools: Ranking | https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/tools | anti-copyright adaptation; changes made
  • Source: Conditions applying to anti-copyright | https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/resources | anti-copyright
  • Attribution: Taiwa no Fumen Editorial Team | This site’s text and illustrations
  • Cultural caution: This manifest contains no structured cultural-safety assessment. Human checks are required for context, opting out of participation and power differences.
  • Limits of this record: Only the notices displayed in the public YAML were transcribed. This does not assert that no individual rights exist.

Support and Action Ballot

  • 対話の譜面編集部による設計 — This description is original
  • Source: Designed by the Taiwa no Fumen Editorial Team | This description is original
  • Attribution: Taiwa no Fumen Editorial Team | This site’s text and illustrations
  • Cultural caution: This manifest contains no structured cultural-safety assessment. Human checks are required for context, opting out of participation and power differences.
  • Limits of this record: Only the notices displayed in the public YAML were transcribed. This does not assert that no individual rights exist.

Japanese resources and historical source records

Original Japanese plan and its print view · Japanese operation pack or starter materials

An English print edition is not provided here. The linked plans, print views and operation materials are Japanese resources.

Historical recorded publication holds

The following original hold statements are retained verbatim with their fixed source versions. They are not a statement of current acceptance, nor does this historical label resolve a source-specific restriction.

  • English translation and rendered-page independent acceptance pending
  • Method dependency source/text SHA binding and current source-specific rights verification pending
  • Publication not cleared
Historical fixed-source and English-draft provenance

Japanese program SHA-256: e358ea309ad732c6cc75536f7594e93d5c40dbb2cc59e25019596d79d59ae12d

Fixed source context SHA-256: 2f607e8995a2c0c29e2cef9442ab477843e6c011f98b0822b235c701a7b2c07a

English draft SHA-256: fd65e90d9a7a301c2e801a774b8c25d82a8de0ac6c8da0d05aa5cda0ef07d178

  • seeds-card-ranking: source d57164cccee23b180db85ae49fe90bda72c5a9d7cbe8ca210683d8b398f6b77a; English draft 17bbde5f623d1feab9bad9c45c3dcf72685657cc97b84d41af7f8d1a3e4f60f6
  • soumu-district-card: source bf1cc1139b0e28a5da6caa305dbb8653268a146f36c6bcd4e7cb15464df43c36; English draft 07467c5c835331b5c9b0cbec3d3b2330ff497e4ec7faf5ae288c5facfbc4d2db
  • support-and-action-ballot: source a0e8a30418440d91eb8c25199b3a60b0acb2423d95031de2808cfcd33f60c3b2; English draft 1b5ac4982cffb5fed160e6c24d2ce06fe8a6ae9f06d08100399a19330a1565e5

These hashes identify the checked inputs; they do not grant independent acceptance or publication clearance.