In this article:

What is a ThoughtExchange?

What will your participants experience?

What is a ThoughtExchange?

An exchange is a special and unique two-way process to bring people together on important topics, which replaces the methods used in traditional surveys with a naturally collaborative platform. It can turn everyday challenges into opportunities for engagement and growth.

Participants are asked to share their ideas in response to an open-ended question. All ideas are shared confidentially (click here for more information). Once participants have shared their own ideas, they are asked to rate the thoughts that others have provided on a scale of one to five stars based on how much they agree with the idea or how important they think it is. In the final step, participants can view how the thoughts in the exchange have been rated by the group. Click here to learn more about the steps of an exchange.

Unlike a traditional, “submit-it-and-forget-it” solution, participants are encouraged to keep coming back to share additional thoughts, read and rate what others think, and view direct responses to their thoughts from the exchange leader.

Why do we do it this way? Great ideas don’t hit all at once, and they’re often a collaborative effort. An exchange helps people learn from one another, discover important insights, and make decisions quickly and effectively - all this with fewer meetings and better information.

If you would like to learn more about why an organization might choose to host an exchange click here.

What will your participants experience?

An exchange has 3 simple steps: Share, Star, and Discover.

• Share - share your thoughts, questions, or comments in response to open-ended questions, independently and confidentially
  
  
• Rate - read thoughts shared by you and other participants, and rate each one out of 5 stars
  
  
• Discover - learn what matters to the group by exploring the thoughts and how they were rated. (Learn more about the Discover step by clicking here.)

These 3 steps together bring structure to the conversation. People share their thoughts, rate the thoughts of others, and learn what matters to the group.

It’s fast, effective, and kinda fun!

Thoughts and ratings are public, but as to whose thoughts and ratings are whose? That remains confidential!