"The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men." - Lyndon B. Johnson, American President

Narrowing the field from an overabundance of good ideas can be done by voting. ThinkTank's Alternative Analysis activity is a multi-criteria voting tool that offers a diverse range of capabilities. It allows teams to rate, compare, and analyze alternatives, as well as develop consensus concerning specific issues.

Alternative Analysis supports collaborative efforts in a variety of analysis and evaluation tasks, such as:

• Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your own or competitors' products and services. Tailoring the merits, and developing ways to avoid the disadvantages, of proposed policies or strategic plans.

• Developing consensus within a group, pinpointing and encouraging side discussions about areas of disagreement.

• Evaluating the job performance of employees or the strengths and weaknesses of job candidates.

• Prioritizing requirements for new products or services.

• Allocating resources among projects, departments, or services.

• Determining the impact of a plan on individuals and organizations in order to design and implement the plan more effectively.

Criteria for voting can be any one of six distinct types from a sliding scale to a simple yes or no. Even the sliding scale can be set for custom high and low values. The session leader decides how many criteria to use and which voting methods to apply to each of the criteria. After the leader has set up the ballot, participants simply mark each item with their votes.