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Welcome
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We
offer the following services:
Parent-Youth
Mediation
Victim-Offender
Conferences
Peer Mediation
in the Schools
Organizational
Conflict Consulting
Eldercare
Mediation
Trainings
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Decision Making Options
Meetings – 1. The act or process of coming together;
an encounter. 2. An assembly or gathering of people, best in a group
of three with one person being sick and another out of town.
In making difficult decisions, groups need to be clear on how the decision
will be made. Will they talk until everyone agrees? How long will they
talk? Will they vote? Will they talk for hours only to have a supervisor
make the decision for them? Knowing how decisions are made is critical
to good group process. Here are some decision-making options.
| Method |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| The group talks until people become so frustrated they give in,
give up, or someone makes the decision for them |
None |
This lack of method, which is a common experience of groups, gives
meetings a bad name. It is unclear, generates mistrust, and is not
time effective. |
| Voting |
Quick and decisive. Efficient
Best for low stake decisions
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Leaves winners and losers who may not support the decisions with
much enthusiasm |
| Supermajority |
Quick and decisive and builds in some safeguards against low investment
in implementing the decision |
Leaves winners and losers |
| Consensus |
Best for high stakes decisions
insures high buy-in after a decision is made
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Can be time consuming |
| Levels of Consensus also known as fist to five consensus |
Shortens the time consensus can take while still giving everyone
a voice. Its strength lies in not framing the decision as a yes/no
vote but in allowing the group to read where it falls on a continuum
of support. It also allows people to express disagreement without
holding up the process |
While less time consuming than consensus, it still requires a
time investment to get everyone on board. |
Fist to Five consensus:
In this process the facilitator, after some discussion, would ask for
a sense of the group. Each member would then show either a fist, or
one to five fingers. The fist and the one to five fingers would be interpreted
in the following manner:
Five: Full enthusiastic support of the proposal.
Four: The proposal is perfectly acceptable
Three: The proposal is okay. It will do, although I
am not too enthusiastic
about it.
Two: I can live with the proposal, but I have some
reservations.
One: I have major concerns about the proposal, but
I am willing to trust the
groups wisdom. I don’t like it but I will allow the group to move
on.
Fist: I do not agree with this decision and cannot
allow the group to go ahead
with it. I do not believe it is in the long-term best interest of the
group.
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are free to use material from the Great Meetings Monday eZine
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