ABSTRACT
The technique known as "nominal group" is one that builds on the brainstorming idea and represents a highly structured approach to generating ideas. The Nominal Group Technique (NGT) is a way to help a small group or team of people survey and clarify their thoughts concerning an issue. NGT helps the team prioritize the list of concerns, opinions or possible ideas to study. It is often used to select a process to study an improvement effort, for an end result of NGT is consensus by team members as to what they consider important. The word "nominal" is used because NGT involves nominal discussion vs. open, unregulated discussion in other brainstorming techniques. NGT is also very valuable as an aid when someone is working with a larger group of people addressing conflicting ideas. The leader or facilitator explains the topic, process or problem that will be discussed by the group.
