Snowball

The Snowball method offers a dynamic approach to exploring climate resilience topics within small to medium-sized groups. Beginning with individual reflection, participants pair up to distill their thoughts into three key points, which are then merged and expanded upon in increasingly larger groups. Through this process of consolidation and consensus-building, the group ultimately arrives at a set of top priorities or ideas. With active facilitation, this method encourages inclusive participation, generates diverse perspectives, and fosters collaborative decision-making, making it well-suited for groups seeking structured yet flexible dialogue on climate resilience issues.

Steps:

• Initial Reflection:

• Present a specific climate resilience issue, question, or idea to the group, such as "What are the most critical barriers to community-level climate action?"

• Give each participant one minute to think independently and jot down at least three reactions, comments, or answers related to the topic.

• Pair Up:

• Have participants form pairs. In these pairs, they share their initial thoughts and agree on three key points that they both believe are most important or relevant.

• Group Expansion:

• Each pair then joins with another pair to form a group of four. This new group discusses their ideas and must agree on three consolidated points.

• Continue this "snowballing" process by doubling the size of groups (from 4 to 8, 8 to 16, etc.), each time aiming to agree on three primary issues or ideas.

• Final Group Discussion:

• Once the group has reached a manageable size, or once all participants are back in a single large group, each final group presents their top three agreed-upon points.

• Facilitate a group discussion to explore these points further, possibly voting to rank or prioritize them if the group is still too large to reach consensus through discussion alone.