Stepladder Technique

The stepladder technique is a decision-making approach intended to facilitate group effectiveness by structuring the entry of members into a group. Step 1 of the technique involves the creation of a two-person subgroup (the core) that begins preliminary discussion of the group task. After a fixed time interval, another group member joins the core group and presents his or her ideas concerning the task. The three-person group then discusses the task in a preliminary manner. The process continues in steps until all members have systematically joined the core group. When this occurs, the group arrives at a final solution. Figure 1 displays the stepladder technique as applied to a four-person group.