Iowa State University Extension

Extension to Communities

Tips For Charette Procedure

The Charette Procedure is a group idea generating and prioritizing tool. Its strength is its ability to address several issues at once in a highly interactive group setting. The charette procedure involves several small groups simultaneously discussing parts of the "big picture," then passing their ideas on to the next group for refinement, enlargement, and eventually, prioritization. The charette procedure is especially useful when a group has decided what they want to do, but is unsure of all the details involved in how to do it.

The technique is effective for:

An Illustration of the Charette Procedure:

A community group has decided that they want to build a skateboard park for the area's youth. Their task now is to decide how to implement their plan for a skateboard park. The group decides to address the following issues:
  1. Where should the skateboard park be located?
  2. How should the issue of liability be handled?
  3. Where are the funds going to come from to build the park?
  4. How are they going to raise the public's interest and acceptance for the project?
To start the Charette Procedure, the group is divided into four smaller groups, one for each of the issues to be addressed. Each small group is assigned one of the issues to discuss. Each small group designates someone to record all the ideas generated. The small groups brainstorm to generate as many ideas as possible. The recorders write all ideas on newsprint. After about 10 minutes, the discussion is stopped and the recorders take the newsprint and move on to the next group. The next group reviews the newsprint items, refines and adds their own. The rotation continues until each group has discussed each of the four issues. The last small group in the rotation priorities the newsprint items. The total group is reconvened. The recorders for each issue report on the priorities set.

Procedure

  1. Divide the participants into small groups (5 - 7 people), either by numbering off, or some other method.

  2. Ask each group to select a recorder, then provide each group with a discussion topic or question. If there are many small groups, some groups may get the same discussion topic or question; otherwise, each group should get a different topic for discussion.

  3. Establish a time limit (8 to 10 minutes) for the groups to generate ideas in response to the topic. The recorder should write all responses on newsprint.

  4. The leader gives a two minute warning then calls time at the end of the time period. The recorders take the newsprint responses from their group and rotate to the next group, i.e., the topic goes with the recorder. A suggested rotation order for the recorders (and the topics) is shown below.

  5. Once the recorder joins his/her new group, all groups are asked to review the information generated by the previous group and quickly add any other ideas they have.

  6. Repeat steps 3 - 5 until each group has had an opportunity to discuss every issue. During the last rotation, each group should prioritize the most significant or important ideas generated on that topic.

  7. The total group is reconvened. Each recorder displays the newsprint and summarizes the discussion and priorities generated by the topic.

  8. At this point, the total group may want to discuss the small group reports and review priorities and reach consensus.

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last updated Thursday March 01 2001