the scenario:
The last exhibit was a fiasco. For the second year in a row, the judges completely ignored the quality of the work and instead voted a badly done (but admittedly very colorful) piece as best of show, and...

Being in charge of next year's show, you have already heard rumblings that many of the true crafts people won't be showing since they feel they can't get fairly judged.

what could consensus do:
Help by developing a tool and process to assist in standardizing the judging and compiling the results.

Our first step would be to sit down and asses the true nature of the problem. The first problem, that the judges weren't being provided with a good set of scoring criteria, would be apparent. We would help your group develop a set of criteria that reflected both the craft and artistic aspects of the work. Second, we would show you how to use those criteria to define "Best Of's" in a number of categories in an easy, efficient manner. Finally, we would help set up the actual scoring process for the judges to use and actually facilitate its first use.

a potential outcome:
A new standard for judging the competition could be established.

The result… after initial reluctance to have their "freedom" curtailed, the judges were surprised to find the process easier, faster and more complete than they expected. Both the judges and the exhibitors felt the juried part of the show was the best ever. After hearing about the success, other groups have been clamoring for permission to use your approach at their exhibition.

 

* Based on actual situation where the Consensus Technology approach was accepted as the appropriate response. Time and budget issues have prevented implementation.