A spattergram is an instrument used for assessing a client's topics of interest in preparation for organizational design. It is a simple tool that consists of randomly placed concepts (spattered words), on a piece of paper and the client is instructed to circle the top x number of terms as possible topics of interest. (x is equal to 1/3 of the whole) It is used to start the conversation within a given range of possibilities.
When designing a day of learning for an adult learning client group, we had them self-select words from a "spattergram". We then referred to the selected words when conversing about what most interested the client to have us present on the day of learning.
by Tinderbox February 5, 2010