This book describes an intriguing method of group analysis and problem-solving. The method was first devised by the senior author in 1925 while trying to organize a “drawer full of notes,” and it received significant impetus when the second author became involved in 1979. Essentially, the Crawford slip method is a process of collecting single-sentence ideas on slips of paper (1/8 letter-size page), organizing the slips, analyzing, and then acting on them. While this sounds simple and straightforward, the book is a detailed description of procedures, explanations, caveats, and cautions that have been learned and refined over the years of application of this methodology to a wide range of problems.

The Crawford Slip Method is a quick and efficient way to gather and organize a lot of ideas from many people. The steps are (1) writing input on uniform slips of paper, (2) sorting and classifying, and (3) consolidating the output report. Group size can reach 50 or more, the input is anonymous, and hundreds of single-phrase or single-sentence ideas, methods, answers, etc. can be obtained across a variety of disciplines involved in a problem or need. Skill in leadership, target selection, and slip processing is important.