Blog. Ideas for better meetingsProfessional Meeting Facilitation

What is Focused Discussion? (ORID)

12/01/15 11:24 Filed in: Gridcard... | Technology of Participation... | Focussed Discussion... | Decision Making...

Helping diverse groups to get to consensus

Martin Gilbraith is an experienced facilitator and previous Chairman of the International Association of Facilitators.

At a recent IAF meeting Martin gave his overview of the Focused Discussion method (ORID) developed by the ICA as part of their ‘Technology of Participation’.



The purpose of focused discussion is to help take a diverse group with a different ideas, feelings, insights, observations, interpretations and action logics to an informed consensus about how to act.



This method is informed by business theorist Chris Argyris’s work on advocacy and inquiry by moving participants though steps on the so called ‘ladder of inference’ together.

Progressing though these four steps also help’s people with different learning styles and actions logics engage with the ‘truth’ as they see it, creating a collective sense of understanding and implying decisions or actions that take into account all views of facts, feelings and interpretations.



You can download these four gridcards here.