Building Consensus

More and more groups are using consensus to make decisions. This decision making option, like all others, has its advantages and disadvantages. If your group is working with a consensus model of decision making, consider the following:

1) Make sure the topic is one that requires everyone’s input and support. I once lived in a community that valued group consensus for all decisions. In one meeting we spent 45 minutes talking about who was going to change the flat tire on the van. It could have been changed three times while we talked about it. Even if your group chooses a consensus decision making process, there may be decisions that can be made in other ways.

2) Often in large groups people get anxious as they are waiting to speak and end up repeating what others have said in slightly different words. Encourage disciplines such as saying, “They just spoke my mind” as a way of keeping people from repeating others.

3) Consensus is often misunderstood to mean a 100 percent vote in favor of an item. This rarely happens. Also, it is normal for most people to have a range of support for a proposal rather than either supporting it or blocking it. Therefore, it is often helpful to take a read of the group with a continuum. For example the facilitator might say, “Let me just check in with the group. If you had to decide right now on a scale of zero to five (zero being no support and five being full enthusiastic support) where would you locate yourself.” The continuum of support moves the conversation away from two choices (support the proposal or block it) and gives the group a good read as to how much support it actually has.

4) Always do as much work before the meeting as possible. When more thought and clarity that go into agenda items before a meeting starts, less time and energy are needed with the full group in the meeting.

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