10/10/10 Analysis on Zoom

1. During a decision-making process with multiple options on the table, explain that you are going to send all participants into breakout room pairs. Once in pairs, they are to discuss how they anticipate they’d feel about their ideal option in ten minutes, ten months, and ten years. Then you’ll encourage them to do the same process with other options, before coming back to the full group and sharing what stood out.
2. Check in for questions or clarifications. Send instructions in the chat for reference.
3. Move all participants into breakout room pairs.
4. Give them time updates and nudges via broadcasts.
5. Return everyone to the main session to discuss what they heard from their pairs.
6. Can be repeated with new options, if the 10/10/10 analysis ruled out contenders that previously seemed like winning choices.

Have the breakout rooms you’ll need set up prior to giving the instructions for this activity to make that transition smoother. You’ll need rooms for your total participants divided by two. If you have an odd number of participants, plan to either stand in, or have one three-person group (and provide them tailored instructions).

Having a short version of the instructions in step 1 to copy-paste as a broadcast, or into the chat, will also help things run more smoothly. Specifically, “Talk through how you anticipate you’d feel about your ideal option, if we chose it, in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years.”

The discovery here is as much about the hypothetical future perspective of one’s own stance on the option, and how time might change what they see as ideal, as it is about hearing from their partner’s perspective and using that to inform their preference.

Assigning the rooms based on what options people are considering isn’t as important as making sure both partners are able to process through their own ideal option (whether both partners have the same option, or an antithetical one). So random pairs are totally okay, as long as the partners are both allotted time to talk, and they are encouraged to ask one another clarifying questions.

If you're using apps other than Zoom, here are the specific things your software will need to be able to do: