How can you help your committee reach a consensus? While it might sound like a daunting thing to do, it can actually be straight forward. Most decision making specialists take a similar approach.
1. Present the proposal to the group.
Be as clear as you can about what the proposal covers. The more work you can put into this proposal the more likely it is that the next stages will go smoothly. I know that sometimes our committee could have reached consensus a lot earlier if the proposal had been better presented. It’s those gaps that leave space for lots of question and debate.
2. Question time.
Once the proposal has been presented the committee is able to ask questions. People need to be sure that they understand the proposal and some need more information than others.
3. Open Discussion
The committee is encouraged to talk it through. You may find that you need to make some alterations to the original proposal – clarify, rephrase or even remove bits.
4. Call for consensus.
The leader asks for consensus and each committee member must give their opinion. This is a ‘first sweep’ of opinions and if you are lucky everyone will be in agreement. During this phase you can also pinpoint who are the people wiht objections and talk them through.
5. Present rephrased/rewritten proposal and call for consensus.
This is usually a formality by this stage. All concerns have been addressed and your proposal modified so you should reach consensus now.
6. Work out objections.
There are 2 scenarios that you might come up against.
Sometimes a member of the committee is totally against the proposal. If it can’t be modified to suit then consensus cannot be reached and the proposal has to go back to the drawing board or be scrapped.
It is also possible that a committee member is not in favour of the proposal but he or she can ‘live with it.’ In that case, make a note of his or her opinion and then consensus is reached.
As you can see, consensus isn’t about everyone being in support of a proposal. It is about everyonne being able to accept it. Once you reach that point you can relax knowing that the committee is going to work in support of it and there will be no dissenting voices to cause problems.
Thanks. It’s good to hear someone talking positively about consensus. There’s a lot written about consensus and sometimes people just need to be told “you can do it” and jump in.
Having said that I think there’s a potential danger in not preparing people for some of the common pitfalls of consensus, which, with the right support, can be avoided.
I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts and experience on dealing with situations such as say, an individual or individuals who regularly find major objections with proposals. This is a common complaint in groups using consensus, and one that’s often handled badly (by excluding theindividual[s])..
I’m sure you can think of other examples – this is just the one that sprang to mind.