The Bookend Method: A Rhetorical Strategy for Facilitators to Improve Decision-Making

In managing capital projects or leading teams, facilitators often grapple with prioritization, where every item can feel equally important. However, allowing everything to be “most important” dilutes focus and slows down decision-making. This is where our Bookend method and accompanying rhetorical techniques come into play, offering a strategic solution to rank priorities efficiently and meaningfully.

Why the Bookend Method Works

The primary challenge with traditional, linear approaches to prioritization is that they encourage discussions around gray areas—those items that fall into moderate categories (e.g., “moderately important,” “reasonable cost”). Unfortunately, these middle-ground discussions often lead to drawn-out debates that add little to decision quality.

Instead, experience shows that extreme criteria—the highest and lowest importance factors—drive impactful decision-making. By focusing on these extremes, the Bookend method bypasses fruitless arguments and identifies the most crucial factors first.

The Problem with Traditional Prioritization

Untrained facilitators often begin with a linear approach, asking whether an item is high, medium, or low in importance. The result? Most items end up in the “high” category, diluting the overall value of the list. While each item on the list may indeed be important, the method fails to differentiate clearly between them.

By using the Bookend method, facilitators avoid these pitfalls and achieve better balance across categories. PowerBallls make this easy as demonstrated below.

How the Bookend Method Works

  1. Identify the Extremes: Start by asking, “Which item is the most important?” and mark it using the filled circle PowerBall icon. Then ask, “Which is the least important?” and mark it with the empty circle PowerBall icon.
  2. Work Toward the Middle: Repeat the process, alternating between the next most important and least important items, until two-thirds of the list is scored.
  3. Address the Middle: For the remaining one-third, ask the group, “Will you lose any sleep over categorizing these as moderate?”
  4. Consistent Language: Always ask in singular terms—“which is”—to focus discussions. Be ready to take multiple inputs if participants speak simultaneously.
  5. Bucket Distribution: Divide the total list into three categories (high, moderate, low) while ensuring balance. If necessary, adjust by adding or removing an item from a category, maintaining overall distribution.
  6. Force-Ranking Alternative: For a more granular ranking, apply the highest available number for the most important, the lowest for the least important, and alternate until all items are ranked.
Apply our Bookends Method to Avoid Wasting Time

Use the Bookend Method to Avoid Wasting Time with Lists

Use Cases and Flexibility

When comparing illustrations or scenarios, ask questions like:

  • Which is most similar?
  • Which is least similar?
    Repeat the process until one-third of the items remain uncategorized, placing them in the moderate bucket.

For discussions around personal or group strengths and weaknesses:

  • What is your greatest strength?
  • What is your greatest weakness?
    Again, repeat this process until the list is reduced to one-third, placing the remainder into the moderate category.

We discourage overly complex breakdowns (e.g., one-quarter or three-quarter categories) unless they help avoid unnecessary debates. Flexibility is key—apply this method pragmatically to keep the group focused on progress, not arguments.

Numeric Alternative (Six Levels)

For more complex scenarios where finer gradations are needed, consider this six-level system:

  1. Low Importance
  2. Moderately Low Importance (if needed)
  3. Moderate Importance
  4. Moderately High Importance (if needed)
  5. High Importance
  6. Null (Will not have)

By guiding groups to focus on extremes and avoid gray areas, the Bookend method enables efficient, impactful decision-making. It saves time, reduces frustration, and enhances the clarity of priorities.

Facilitate Simple Prioritization with our PowerBall Method

Power Ball poster available in our Facilitation Store at MGRush.com/shop

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In a world where everyone can engage in decisions that affect them,

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