National Center for Cultural Healing Tool Series Electronic Surveys Today's "information economy" offers access to a lot of information--and challenges us to use it in innovative and effective ways. Electronic surveys and other GroupWare tools offer an automated way to gather and analyze information from large numbers of people in order to develop a sense of the "climate" within the group.

Overview: Use of consensus as a decision tool has world-wide historic roots. True consensus involves dialog and awareness that many and complex systems make up "reality." Paths to common ground and consensus include: awareness that human beings share needs to laugh, love, work and perceive; belief that people can develop a "shared field" of understanding; and knowledge that people share common ground and conditions of life. Historically, people have continually scanned or surveyed their day-to-day environments and used information to plan. How Electronic Surveys Work: Participants build a common database, interpret it together, and decide what--if anything--needs to be planned or accomplished. Survey tools can improve participation, dialog, learning, and planning. The Payoff: Survey tools can help create an open environment and help groups to understand, communicate, and interact in productive ways about: business issues and goals, government agency roles, non-profit activities, community-based programs, and networks and links. Survey tools can be a cost effective way to: gather and analyze information, seek feedback to improve customer or client satisfaction or product design, and search for values and choices that all group members can share. How to Make It Happen: Survey tools can be used for "real time" meetings or from a distance--by using the web to collect and post data. Trained facilitators work together with a group or organization to: establish a purpose, goal, or plan, and integrate survey tools with group work. Opper, S., & Farsko-Weiss, H. (1992), Technology for Teams: Enhancing Productivity in Networked Organizations, NY, NY: Van Norstrand Reinhold. Rousseau, B., "Better Meetings Through Electronic Thinking," Meeting News, April 6, 1998. Weisbord M.R., & 35 international authors, (1992), Common Ground: How Future Search..., San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.