diverge · Decision Making, Conflict Resolution · 10–20 min · 40-40000 people · low energy

Polis Opinion Mapping

Participants write short statements on a question and vote agree, disagree or pass on statements written by others, which are shown to them semi-randomly. An algorithm groups people who vote alike into opinion clusters and finds statements that all clusters agree on, and those that divide them. The results usually feed a live dialogue among stakeholders or decision-makers.

When to use Polis Opinion Mapping

Use for contested topics with many stakeholders, when you want to find the common ground that exists across camps before people meet.

What it solves

Public debate rewards the most extreme statements, so people never see how much they actually agree on.

How to run Polis Opinion Mapping, step by step

  1. Frame one question and write 10-20 seed statements covering different views.
  2. Open the conversation and share the link widely. Participants vote and add their own short statements (10-20 min each, over one to three weeks).
  3. Moderate new statements for duplicates and off-topic content daily (10 min a day).
  4. Read the report: opinion groups, what each group believes, what all groups agree on, what splits them (60 min).
  5. Bring the consensus and divisive statements to a live dialogue to work on next steps (60-120 min).

Materials needed

  • Polis or a comparable wikisurvey tool
  • Seed statements
  • Moderator
  • Venue or call for the follow-up dialogue

Facilitator tips

  • Keep statements short and single-claim. Two ideas in one statement make the votes unreadable.
  • Seed statements from all sides so the first participants have something to react to.
  • Show participants the live visualisation; seeing other clusters often softens positions.

Common pitfalls

  • Running it without a follow-up step, so people see no result from their effort.
  • Too few participants, so clusters are unstable.

Variations

  • Use inside an organisation before a strategy offsite to find the real fault lines in advance.

Running it online or hybrid

Fully async and online. Participants join through a link on any device. Results feed a later live dialogue, which can be in any format.

What it produces

A report with opinion groups, consensus statements and divisive statements.

Origin

Polis is open-source wikisurvey software from The Computational Democracy Project, used with groups from 40 to 40,000 people. — source

Build a session around Polis Opinion Mapping

METODIC places Polis Opinion Mapping inside a complete, timed session plan — agenda, worksheets, facilitator guide and slides — matched to your group and goal.

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