A structured process for designing a proposal for an intervention that draws on the collective intelligence and diversity of perspectives to understand context and elicit ideas about how to fulfill a purpose.

Table of Contents

Overview

Proposal Forming is a process that guides people in designing a proposal for an intervention through a logical series of steps that build on one another. It consists of a defined sequence and a clear way to approach each step. This combination of structure and step design supports shared understanding and balanced participation, which makes it effective in facilitated group workshops.

When used by a group, it helps draw on the collective intelligence and diversity of perspectives to understand context and generate ideas for fulfilling a purpose; its participatory nature fosters creativity, accountability, and a strong sense of ownership among stakeholders. The same underlying structure — and parts of the step design — remain valuable without live collaboration, so groups can apply it asynchronously in time-boxed stages, and individuals can use it on their own when designing significant interventions. The process unfolds through the following steps:

  1. Consent to purpose: Check that the purpose is clearly summarized and relevant for the group to address.
  2. Questions about the purpose: Deepen individual and shared understanding of the purpose.
  3. Information gathering: Document any constraints, available resources, and other information relevant to consider when designing the intervention.
  4. Generative questions: Capture open questions that reveal essential or desirable requirements the proposal should fulfill.
  5. Collect ideas: Generate and record ideas about how to fulfill the purpose.
  6. Choose tuners: Delegate responsibility for putting together a proposal to 2-3 people.
  7. Tuners design proposal: The tuners design a proposal based on the information gathered in the previous steps.
Proposal forming process
Proposal forming process

Check that the purpose (driver and requirement) is clearly summarized and relevant for the group to address.

Facilitator asks: Is the description of the driver and the requirement clear enough? Is this an organizational driver? Is this driver relevant for you to address? And, is this requirement suitable?

This first step ensures the purpose is clearly summarized, and it’s the responsibility of those present to determine a way to fulfill it. Once the purpose is accepted, you’ll have the chance to ask further questions and learn more in the next step.

Tips for the Facilitator:

  • Ensure the description of the purpose is available to all stakeholders throughout the process and invite someone to present it at the start.
  • Check for any objections to the purpose or how it is described before proceeding to the next step, even if the group has previously agreed to the purpose prior to the meeting.
  • Guide the group in resolving any objections to the purpose or how it’s described.

Tips for Everyone:

  • As a general recommendation, aim to complete this step before the meeting. Doing so allows time to make any refinements in advance and save precious meeting time.
  • If the driver or requirement is not described clearly enough, take time to clarify and make any necessary changes to the description until there are no further objections.
  • If the driver is not relevant to this group, pass it on to the appropriate person or team, or, if you decide that this is not an organizational driver at all, discard it.
  • If participants consider the requirement is unsuitable, hear the argument(s) and if they qualify as objections, resolve them before continuing to the next step.

Step 2: Questions About the Purpose

Deepen individual and shared understanding of the purpose (driver and requirement).

The goal of this step is to deepen your understanding, individually and as a group, of the situation and what’s been determined as required to address it. You are looking back in time to the present moment to understand the situation.

Facilitator asks: Any other information you need to know about the driver or requirement?

Request and share whatever information you need to ensure you understand the driver and the requirement well enough.

Tips for the Facilitator:

  • Use rounds, hear one question at a time, and invite anyone with an answer to share it. Encourage people to be brief and concise.
  • Check regularly with the person who asked the question if the answers given are sufficient to move on.

Tips for Everyone:

  • Prioritize your questions in your mind, in case there isn’t time to ask or answer them all.
  • If you don’t have a question, when it’s your turn, say “pass.”
  • Keep both questions and answers brief. Avoid preamble and aim to stay focused on each question in turn.
  • Keep any conversation to a minimum and avoid getting into discussions.
  • Only record answers, NOT questions.
  • If there are 2 or more points of view, record them all.

Step 3: Information Gathering

Document any known constraints, available resources, and other information relevant to consider when designing the intervention.

Before jumping into ideas about how to fulfill the purpose, it’s useful to identify and consider any relevant constraints, available resources, and other contextual information worth keeping in mind.

Information gained in this step helps people make more appropriate and feasible suggestions for fulfilling the purpose. Important information-seeking questions that cannot be answered now might indicate the need to address them somehow in the proposal later.

Summary of this step:

  • Collect and categorize information: Place items on the board under “Constraints”, “Resources”, or “Other Information”.
  • Answer information-seeking questions: Hear questions, add answers to the board, and log unanswered questions if the answer could meaningfully shape the proposal’s design.

Note: In some cases, you may pause the Proposal Forming process at this stage to allow time to answer important information-gathering questions.

Collect and Categorize Information

Facilitator asks: “What constraints, available resources, or other relevant information are you aware of that might be valuable to keep in mind when designing this proposal? What information are you missing but might be helpful?”

Collect constraints, resources, and other information in rounds and place them on the board. Answer any clarifying questions that may arise during that process.

Examples:

  • Constraints (factors that limit what’s possible)
    • Budget, time, or capacity limitations
    • Legal, policy, or compliance boundaries
    • Technical or infrastructure dependencies
    • Commitments to other priorities or projects
  • Resources (anything that you can make use of)
    • Available budget or funding
    • People’s skills and experience
    • Existing tools, materials, or infrastructure
    • Supportive networks, relationships, partnerships, or allies
  • Other relevant information (contextual insights or situational factors)
    • Stakeholder expectations or needs
    • External conditions (e.g., market, season, regulations)
    • Historical context or lessons learned from past efforts
    • Related initiatives that could align or conflict
  • Questions to answer (what people might want to know)
    • Who will be affected by this proposal, and how?
    • What existing commitments or timelines could influence implementation?
    • What support or resources are available from outside the group?
    • What risks or uncertainties might impact success?

Answer Any Remaining Questions

Hear any questions about constraints, resources, or other information that are still unanswered (one at a time), and record the answer in the appropriate place on the board. Also, keep questions that cannot be answered on the spot for later consideration.

Tips for the Facilitator:

  • Begin by giving people a few minutes to reflect individually and record any information and questions on sticky notes.
  • Once the time is up, use rounds to collect all the information and hear one point from each person in turn. Go in rounds until all relevant information is visualized on a board.
  • Then continue with rounds, hearing any questions that remain unanswered. If the information is available, add the answer to the board in the appropriate section. For questions that cannot be answered immediately, add them to the board for later consideration.

Tips for Everyone:

  • For this step, allocate four areas on your (digital) board, one for each of the following: ‘constraints’, ‘resources’, ‘other information’, ‘things to find out’.
  • When it’s your turn, read out one of your points, or later, questions, and add it to the appropriate section on the board.
  • Use the “Bingo” and “Sort-of Bingo” technique to avoid duplication and to identify and cluster related points together: When you have the same point, say “Bingo”; there is no need to repeat what’s on your sticky note. When you have a related point, say “Sort-of-Bingo” and jump in and add the additional details.
  • To increase meeting effectiveness, you can also prepare by documenting relevant information and questions in advance and bringing them to the meeting.

Step 4: Generative Questions

Capture and sort open questions that reveal essential or desirable requirements the proposal should fulfill.

Generative questions are open-ended, which means they can be answered in many ways. Reflecting on such questions stimulates creative thinking and invites people to consider multiple possibilities in the next step (Collect Ideas).

Summary of this step:

  • Collect generative questions: hear questions and place them on the board
  • Sort questions into three categories: “Essential”, “Desirable”, and “Maybe Later.”

Note: Do not attempt to answer the generative questions yet; that happens in the next step.

Facilitator asks: “Keeping in mind what you’ve learned about constraints, resources, and other relevant information. Turn your attention toward fulfilling the purpose. What open questions arise that point toward possibilities and options for how to proceed?”

Examples:

  • How can we utilize our existing platforms to address this issue?
  • What’s the simplest way to begin?
  • What can we learn from how others have dealt with this before?

Collect all questions using rounds and place them on the board. Avoid discussing questions at this stage unless necessary to understand what is meant.

Once all questions have been collected, sort them into the following categories: essential, desirable, and maybe later.

Tips for the Facilitator:

  • Begin by giving people a few minutes to reflect individually and write down their questions on sticky notes
  • Once the time is up, use rounds to hear and collect one question from each person in turn and place it on the board. Go in rounds until all questions are on the board.

Tips for Everyone:

  • For this step, allocate four areas on your board: One large area to collect all questions, and three more to categorize them later (“Essential”, “Desirable”, and “Maybe Later”)
  • When it’s your turn, read out one of your questions and add it to the board.
  • Use the “Bingo” and “Sort-of Bingo” technique to avoid duplication and to identify and cluster related questions together: When you have the same question, say “Bingo”; there is no need to repeat what’s on your sticky note. When you have a related question, say “Sort-of-Bingo” and jump in and add the additional details.
  • When it comes to sorting the questions into the three categories, consider beginning in silence. Invite everyone to move the sticky notes into the appropriate categories. If someone disagrees with the categorization of a question, they can move that question aside until all other questions have been placed. Then have a conversation to decide where to position the disputed ones.
  • In the case of a solution disguised as a question (see below), rephrase the question or bring it up in the next step when you collect ideas.

Solutions Disguised As Questions

Be aware that sometimes people present solutions disguised as questions. For example, “Could we use tool X to solve this?” or “Could we raise funds through an open campaign?”

Such questions invite listeners to converge on an idea. The purpose of this step in Proposal Forming is to keep the field open (divergent) for as many creative ideas as possible. Specific ideas are shared in the next step.

If you do come across a solution disguised as a question, have a go at reformulating it as a generative question, for example, “What tools do we know of that we could use for this?” or “How might we finance this?” Alternatively, save it and bring it up in the next step.

Step 5: Collect Ideas

Generate and record ideas about how to fulfill the purpose.

In this step, everyone shares ideas about how to fulfill the determined requirement. This can include ideas that provide a complete or partial solution, iterative next steps, and suggestions for addressing any of the generative questions collected in the previous step.

Facilitator says: Coming back to the purpose of this proposal, mindful of all we’ve learned so far, and considering the generative questions collected in the previous step, please take some time now to come up with ideas about how we can fulfill the purpose.

Tips for the Facilitator:

  • Begin by giving people a few minutes to reflect for themselves and record their ideas on sticky notes.
  • Encourage people to record as many ideas as possible. Reassure everyone that contradictory ideas are welcome.
  • Once the time is up, use rounds to hear one idea from each person. Go in rounds until all ideas are harvested.

Tips for Everyone:

  • Take time to reflect individually and write down your ideas on sticky notes.
  • Keep your notes brief.
  • Ask questions to clarify ideas if necessary, but avoid discussing, evaluating, comparing, or debating them.
  • Use the “Bingo” and “Sort-of Bingo” techniques to identify and cluster similar considerations together.
  • To increase meeting effectiveness, you can also prepare by recording your ideas in advance and bringing them to the meeting.

Step 6: Choose Tuners

Delegate responsibility for creating a proposal to 2-3 people (the tuners).

Tuners use the information and ideas collected in previous steps to design a coherent proposal. They review all input, select or combine promising ideas, and, if needed, introduce new elements to ensure the proposal effectively addresses the purpose. The term “Tuners” refers to the process of tuning a piano to create harmony and resonance. Tuners take the diverse input provided by the group and ‘tune’ it into a coherent form.

The Tuners do not make the final decision. Their responsibility is to produce a proposal that can later be evaluated, tested, and refined through the Consent Decision Making process.

When choosing Tuners, consider who has suitable experience and expertise, the level of investment, who is inspired and willing, and who has diverse perspectives or an outside point of view.

Facilitator says: “We need to choose tuners”. Then asks in this order:

  1. “Who do you think should be there?
  2. Who would like to be there?
  3. Can you think of anyone else, not present here, who might have a valuable contribution to make?”

Tips for the facilitator:

  • Ask people to make suggestions, including proposing themselves. If there are several suggestions, narrow them down to 2 or 3 people.
  • Check for any objections to the proposed tuners, and resolve them until there are none.

Note: Tuners take responsibility for ensuring the proposal is well designed. They may create it themselves or invite others to contribute if it’s necessary or valuable to do so.

Step 7: Tuners Design Proposal

The tuners design a proposal based on the information gathered in the previous steps.

A well-written proposal usually includes:

  • The purpose: the driver it responds to and the requirement it’s intended to fulfill.
  • The proposal text — what, how, rationale, etc.
  • Who will be responsible for what, e.g., overseeing application, implementation, etc?
  • Evaluation date or frequency — when the future policy will be reviewed.
  • Evaluation criteria — to measure/determine the success or effectiveness of the decision.
  • A due date, if necessary.

When scheduling a Proposal Forming session, leave space afterward for the tuners to design the proposal without switching context (provided there are no dependencies on others not present in the session). In any case, aim to tune the proposal as soon as possible, while the context and all other details brought up throughout the process are still fresh in people’s minds.

Once the proposal is ready, tuners share it with the rest of the group. The group can then evolve it further by inviting and resolving objections until an agreement is reached.

When developing the proposal, it is often enough to design a (few) viable and iterative next step(s). Alternatively, prepare a high-level proposal first. You can go into detail later, once the basic concept has been approved.

In any case, consider setting an early evaluation date to review progress and outcomes, and to develop next steps.

Of course, it’s sometimes necessary to develop a comprehensive proposal from the start, but whenever possible, aim to break it down into iterative steps, so you can learn fast and use what you have learned to evolve the policy incrementally.

Tuners, note: When writing down the proposal, aim to keep your explanation clear and concise. Describe it in a way that maximizes the potential that others will understand it without needing further explanation.