Card sort is a means of drawing out dialogue from an individual or group through asking them to prioritise, rank, order or position a series of statements or words/phrases printed onto a set of cards. The cards can relate to current issues, aspects of the vision, values, process steps – virtually anything …, and they can be ranked or positioned by any criteria: importance; urgency; ease of implementation; precedence; impact; enthusiasm.
For group discussions, the cards provide a basis for people to share their experience and insights as they seek to agree on the correct order for the cards. For instance, the cards may contain the titles of ten important projects for the business, and the group may be asked to schedule them into the next twelve months. Or they may contain six value statements for the business, and the group might be asked to place them on a grid which maps achievement vs importance.
The goal of the cards is to drive dialogue, and it is useful to set a rule that any member of the group can move a card, but the cards can only be moved one at a time, and the person moving the card needs to provide new understanding or insight that has not already been shared. Once all understanding and insight have been shared, the group can agree a final order/arrangement.
For individual discussions or interviews, the cards can help to ensure the key topics for the interview are covered. For instance, the interviewer can put a series of statements about the business on separate cards, and then ask the interviewee to place them on a grid where one axis reflects how true the statements actually are, and the other axis reflects how strongly the interviewee feels about that. Once the cards have been placed, the interviewer can pick one card at a time and ask the interviewee for their evidence and the reasons for their strength of feeling.
A useful variation of card sort is to allow people to bin any card they don’t want to include, and to create any new ones they feel are missing. This is a helpful strategy in planning a set of actions to deliver a project. The initial set of cards can reflect a comprehensive collection of the ideal steps (and thereby introduce the necessary rigour) but the final set and sequence (which is often very close to the original) has the additional advantage of having the full ownership of the group.
Please subscribe to access clinic content
Subscription to the Inspirometer Information Service is free of charge and grants you instant access to a wealth of meeting effectiveness resources and guidance. It also provides you with regular updates direct to your mailbox at a frequency of your choosing.
I am happy to consent to the Inspirometer cookies and Terms and Conditions
■ We will not use your information for any other purpose than to keep you informed of developments in meeting effectiveness and the Inspirometer system, and we will not share your information with others.
■ You are able to unsubscribe from this service at any time. Each email you receive from us will contain a link where you can reset your preferences for all future emails, or unsubscribe for the service entirely.
■ We will contact you on a minimum of a quarterly basis to ensure that our service is continuing to meet your needs, to give you a general update on key developments in our service, and to provide you with the option to change your contact preferences
■ We will hold your data on file to enable your access to the Information Service until such time as you unsubscribe from the service
■ If we hold your data outside of the information service as a result of you contacting us by email or purchasing our service, we will hold your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy (https://inspirometer.com/privacy-policy). We will delete such data, in situations where we are not legally required to retain it, on receipt of a verified request from you
■ All information provided by us is provided in good faith. All information submitted by you is to be provided in good faith.
■ In compliance with the GDPR 2018, you acknowledge that clicking the subscribe button grants us your consent to hold the data you have provided, and to contact you using that data, in the manner described above.