The Negative Five to Five™ Scale (NFTF)

Have you ever been in a group situation where no one can seem to make a final decision? Whether it is where to eat or what to watch or any other activity, everyone has some sort preference but it’s rare when there is a clear right answer.

This is where the Negative Five to Five™ (NFTF) scale comes into play…

The Negative Five to Five™ scale - I created this system with my husband Seth, when we were having the quintessential couple conversation of trying to figure what to eat for dinner and we have never had an issue since!

The Negative Five to Five Scale is a way to score how you feel about an activity or an option. If you sincerely have no preference then you would give it a zero (0). If you feel inclined towards the option, you would give it a positive (+) score to degree of how much you like the idea of the option. If not, you’d give it a negative (-) score to the degree of how much you dislike the idea.

The psychological benefits:

Often, people are reluctant to make a choice between viable options because they do not want to make it seem like they dislike the option(s) they did not choose. Maybe they would even use the apples and oranges cliché to cop-out of making a decision all together.

But…what if we used this scale to actually compare apples and oranges? Let’s give it a try:

I like apples and I like oranges. On most days, with everything being equal (fruit being in season, accessibility etc.) here is how I would rate it:

Oranges: +3

Apples: +2 (unless I have some good cheese available to eat with it, then I would give it a +3.5)

What I’m quantitatively communicating here is that I like both fruits and I would have a positive experience with both. Perhaps I may have a slightly more positive experience eating an orange, but I would not be unhappy with an apple. In fact, I would have a +2 to +3.5 experience!

Now imagine having a full group use this scale to quantify the nuance of their personal feelings…it’s revolutionary!

But why wouldn’t we use a scale of 1 to 10?

Let’s be real, if you ever felt neutral about something would you give it a score of 5 out of 10? I didn’t think so. Enough said.

How it works:

Suppose your group is trying to make a decision between several options

Step 1: Have each person assign their personal rating for each option. This works best if they do not share the rating with other members of the group until they have decided on their score for each so that they do not influence each other as they go through the options.
Step 2: Have each person share their scores and tally them up for each option.
Step 3: The option with the highest score is the winner!

If there is a tie for the highest score, either choose the option that has the fewest negative scores or re-vote with the remaining options, since most people will change their opinions as options get eliminated.

As you can see, this scoring system helps you automatically choose the option with the highest net positive sentiment. By using this system, you are selecting the option that carries the most goodwill.

I’d love to hear how this works out for you. Comment on this post or contact me so we can discuss it further!