What is a Nominal Group Technique?
Nominal group technique structures brainstorming to protect it from its own dynamics: ideas are generated silently in writing, shared round-robin, discussed for clarification, then ranked by private vote. Everyone contributes; the ranking reflects the group, not the alpha voice.
Cousin to Delphi, but faster and face-to-face — anonymity is partial (voting) rather than total. Exam cue: "silent generation and voting" = NGT; "remote anonymous rounds" = Delphi.
Worked example
A risk workshop with two talkative directors in the room: the facilitator switches to NGT. Silent idea cards produce 34 risks; private dot-voting ranks a supplier-concentration risk first — one neither director had mentioned, submitted by a quiet procurement analyst whose card counted exactly as much as everyone else's.