What Are Vision Diamonds?
Vision Diamonds are participatory frameworks to examine sensitive, complex and potentially conflictual issues.
Vision Diamonds:
- identify elements of a vision – what is good and what is bad
- rank these elements as hierarchy of priorities
- facilitate consensus between on common values stakeholders
- clarify dimensions of difference for stakeholders to negotiate
- provide indicators with baseline to quantify achievements and things still to achieve
- provide the basis for multi-stakeholder negotiation on next ways forward.
How do You Use Vision Diamonds?
Vision Diamonds show the degree of spread of values horizontally around an established norm or average. They can also show differences between stakeholders in columns vertically.
Use Vision Diamonds to:
- Visioning and identifying change indicators: they establish locally relevant SMART indicators (eg gender justice and CEDAW diamonds, poverty diamonds, leadership diamonds)
- Family, group and multi-stakeholder negotiation: they clarify and analyse the extent and patterns of consensus or difference within families, communities and/or groups in visions and indicators
- Establish locally-relevant priorities for change and set targets for mutually beneficial change contracts (win-win diamonds, leader/member group norms)
- Rapid participatory impact assessment as a more rigorous and empowering approach to Focus Group Discussions
Individuals or families can use Diamonds eg Friendship Diamonds. For group activities they are an important participatory tool that incorporates drawing games and development of participant group facilitation skills. With experienced facilitation they are a good tool to use with very large numbers of people.
However Diamonds are the most complex of the GAMEChange tools to facilitate. They take time, particularly if dealing with sensitive issues. If time is very short and/or strong participatory facilitation skills do not exist, then use alternative visioning and assessment methods like simple Vision Drawing or Soulmate Visioning.
Vision Diamond Tool Examples
- Poverty Diamonds: the first Diamond developed with Rose Mutasi in SATNET, Uganda and used in many places including PASED, Sudan and ANANDI, India to establish women and men’s indicators for poverty targeting.
- Empowerment Diamonds: establishes criteria of most empowered and least empowered for different stakeholders (used in many places for women’s empowerment including ANANDI, India, MFIs in Latin America and staff of ASKI in Philippines, RWEE Kyrgyzstan, Gumutindo and Bukonzo Joint in Uganda and Nestle cocoa cooperatives in Cote d’Ivoire)
- Gender Justice and CEDAW Diamonds to identify detailed indicators for gender justice and reach consensus between women and men as part of a GALS Participatory Gender Review.
- Happy Family Diamonds: establishes criteria for women, men and youth in Happy and Unhappy Families (used in many places including Pakistan Micro-finance Network as more ‘men-friendly’ alternative to Gender Diamonds)
- Violence Diamonds: establishes a hierarchy of different types of psychological and physical abuse suffered by women, children and men to establish non-violent modes of conduct. Used in ANANDI, India.
- Food Security Diamonds: used in ANANDI to look at the types of food women and men had in the most food secure and insecure households.
- Leadership Diamonds: looks at criteria for good leaders and good members to establish agreed common codes. used in Vuasu Coffee Cooperative Union, Tanzania, to
- Decent Work Diamonds: looks at employee and employer criteria for Decent Work and establishing an agreed Code of Conduct as part of value chain training (ILO).
- Friendship Diamonds: a personal Diamond Tool used between two people to improve their relationship through bringing together what each person likes/dislikes about themselves and what they like/dislike about the other person.
vision Diamond: dna template
Key Elements
Diamond Framework on Flipchart
Diamond shape 1 for group: four horizontal ranking lines
Diamond shape 2 for stakeholder plenary: horizontal ranking lines and three vertical stakeholder lines
positive and negative indicators
Individual brainstorm of indicators drawn on colour-coded small cards, then shared groups as drawing energiser.
Group ranking and prioritisation
Indicators grouped, ranked and placed in the appropriate part of the diamond and voted on.
Action priorities are ringed.
Tracking over time.
Plenary Consensus Diamond
Cards are taken from the group diamond and placed on the plenary diamond: placing them to one side only if they are relevant for only one stakeholder or in the middle if they are common indicators.
Traking over time.
Generic Steps
STEP 1: Individual reflection
Participants identify what criteria they think characterise extreme opposites of an issue or spectrum eg poverty, empowerment, violence. They draw these extremes on a set number of colour-coded cards.
STEP 2: Sharing
Participants form groups of people as relevant to the issue and share their cards. This is often done as a game like charades where one person comes up and shows the card, the others first have to guess what it means. Then those with the same issue/criteria hand their cards to the person at the front. That person sits down and the next person comes up until all cards are finished.
STEP 3: Voting
When they have heard everyone else’s ideas, participants are then given a certain number of votes. They come up and confidentially put a mark on the cards they want to vote on. Or they can vote by show of hands. The difference between the number of cards and the number of votes for any issue can be taken as a rough indicator of changes in attitude/awareness as a result of the exercise.
4: Ranking
Participants then count the votes and place each set of cards on the relevant level of the diamond: best likes at the top, medium likes towards the middle, medium dislikes middle below the line, worst dislikes at the bottom.
5: Action priorities
Action priorities then ringed in green as planned fruits. These are most likely to be the things that people really want, but that few people have. Or the things that people want least and many people have.
6: Plenary sharing and negotiation
Participants from each group presents their group Diamond – those who are normally least vocal should present first with others adding. One person removes the cards from their own drawing and, with discussion with the rest of the participants, places these cards either on their side or in the middle of the ‘parent diamond’. This identifies common indicators and potential lines of difference to establish common Codes of Conduct. This should include discussion of how participants can improve the situation of the most disadvantaged people at the bottom of the Diamond.
Tracking and Impact Assessment
Ring achievement of action priorities as red fruits. It is also possible to show impacts retrospectively for individual indicators as mini-wiggly-road journeys.
Facilitation
It is very important that the Diamond is self-facilitated by the groups.
The facilitator’s role is mainly to ensure inclusive participatory process. They:
- Provide the Parent Diamond Framework – or guide participants to draw these – and give instructions on the main steps for the groups as people go along.
- Ensure everyone is participating and contributing drawings and ideas and that the most dominant participants stand back and listen.
- Document the process without interfering.
- Decide the order of group presentation in the plenary – if it seems that the more powerful stakeholder groups have already given a lot of ground, then they should go first. In the case of gender diamonds men should often go first. If the process has been too conflictual, then the plenary ahould take place later after ‘discussions over dinner’.
- The facilitator/s only intervenes on the main topic at the end through posing certain questions and a very brief summing up. The facilitator reserves a succinct and carefully considered contribution for the end when everyone else has spoken.
Action learning/building networks
Living action learning map that is revisited, tracking progress, analysing what works and does not work, and and tracked over time, not left in a drawer until the next workshop or visit by the donor.
Consistent colour coding so that the map and action plan is kept clear. Best to start with a draft in pencil, but then distinguish:
- red ‘ripe fruits’ are drawings and circles for vision and achievements/actions done.
- black ‘native fruits’ are what is already there.
- green ‘unripe fruits’ are drawings and circles of positive things yet to be achieved or actions yet to be done. Once one thing is achieved, think of some new green fruits.
- blue ‘perished fruits’ are drawings, crosses and circle for things thatare to be avoided, no longer want or you know from experience now will not work.
Change can also be shown retrospectively for individual indicators as mini-wiggly-road journeys.
leadership and Change Movement building
Relationship maps are often used to build networks and develop leadership.
- Share the steps with other people in your households, communities and networks so that they can do their own map – not copy yours. NOTE: some maps must remain confidential, particularly those showing interpersonal relationships.
- Meet together regularly to share experiences of what works and what does not work.
- Develop collective plans over time for individual and collective actions to support each other – change starts with the individual, that is where you have responsibility and some control, But not all things can be done alone. And not everything should be just for you if you want a community, society or world that is good to live in.
In a Nestle GALS Catalyst workshop with cocoa cooperatives in Ivory Coast used gender diamonds used with 350 women and men, many of whom had not been to a meeting before and could not read and write. The groups quickly learned to self-facilitate with a small number of people who were doing the exercise for the first time leading and in communication with the main facilitator. All the group diamonds were quantified and fed back to the plenary. But because of the gender imbalance – many more women than men – there was no bringing together in to a ‘parent diamond’.