What is the Voice in Decisions Technique?
Created by the Right Question Institute, The Voice in Decisions Technique (VIDT), is a process that builds people’s skills to participate effectively in decisions that impact their lives. It helps people name or identify key decisions, ask their own questions about those decisions, and focus their questions on key elements of a decision.
Everyone should have the opportunity to have a say in decisions that affect them
A step-by-step process
The VIDT, a main component of the Right Question Strategy, along with the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), provides a simple, step-by-step process for participants to:
- Learn a simple, clear definition of a decision.
- Look at different components of a decision: the reasons for the decision, the process for making the decision, and the role the person affected plays in the decision.
- Come up with their own questions about a decision that affects them.
Participants learn to produce their own questions, improve them, and strategize about how to use their own questions about decisions.
The key elements of a decision
There are three key elements to look for in any decision:
1. The reason for a decision
2. The process for making that decision
3. The role you can play in the decision
Focusing on the reason, process and role makes it easier to hold accountable anyone who is making decisions about health care, job training, welfare, education and many other services. Put those three pieces together with the ability to ask one’s own questions and you have a very powerful advocacy and accountability tool.
RQI tools for self-advocacy
Connecting the VIDT to democratic decision-making
Each element of the VIDT relates to a fundamental principle of decision-making in a democracy: legitimacy, transparency, and opportunities for participation.
- When you ask questions about the reason for a decision, you expect that those reasons be legitimate.
- When you ask questions about the process, you expect that you have a right to know how the decision was made–a right to transparency.
- When you ask questions about your role, you expect or seek an opportunity to participate in the decision.
A vision of Microdemocracy
When people begin to ask questions and participate effectively in decisions, they are using fundamental democratic skills that are relevant on any level of democracy.
The Right Question Institute’s vision of Microdemocracy calls for transforming people’s ordinary encounters with public or publicly funded institutions into new opportunities for participation and new starting points for democratic action. Learn more
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