User:Maurreen/Sandbox 4

Working on a draft for "How to hold effective discussions"

Possible guidelines

 * Get at the root question(s).
 * Deliberate in voice and action.
 * Summarize.

Analysis suggestion
From User:TerryE's input -- "Use a multi-factor clustering analysis: to try to identify the main modes of view and drive opinion around a compare and contrast of these. Get all of the outlier noise off the table (whilst remembering that the odd outlier might actually in the end prove to be a basis of mutual acceptability). Isolate disruptors from the consensus and above all keep the process going. There are tools and techniques to help, but this is a specialist area -- which is why I suggested seeking advice from the appropriate project. This all being said, it seems to me that you are already doing all this. The trouble is that you've got a pig of a job. You can put lipstick on the pig, but ..."

Also see this talk page.

Fodder
Possible fodder or help at:
 * Consensus decision-making
 * Facilitation (business)
 * Community Facilitation
 * Village pump (policy) -- Links
 * Policies and guidelines
 * Refactoring talk pages
 * WP:RFC
 * Polling is not a substitute for discussion
 * http://www.fullcirc.com/

Copied from Goals section
Wikipedia has grown exponentially since its founding. Decisions that were made after discussions by small groups of dedicated editors have since become much more cumbersome as the number of people involved grows larger and larger. As the discussions grow bigger, the amount of text the discussion generates becomes huge. The more text, the harder it becomes for community member to read through the discussion and understand the issues being discussed. This is not a problem unique to wikis.

Formal consensus decision-making practices using facilitators, can improve the process. Community discussions can be facilitated by either an individual editor or a group of editors. Facilitation improves discussion by:
 * Outlining the process to be used to make decisions before the process begins
 * Summarizing the work that has already been done
 * Keeping the process on track
 * Stimulating creative input
 * Keeping discussions fair
 * Encouraging solutions that accommodate the concerns of minority opinions
 * Documenting the process
 * Evaluating results

All of the work of this WikiProject focuses on Issue pages, which are discussed below.