The system of decision making many organizations use is majority rule voting, often following Robert’s Rules of Order.  Unfortunately, majority rule voting and Robert’s Rules depend on counting votes, which encourages competition, and are easily manipulated by people who know the system well.  Interaction, especially around difficult decisions, can be contentious, leaving people angry and frustrated.  People either stop coming to business meetings or don’t participate when they do come.

 An alternative to majority rule voting is consensus.  Unfortunately, most consensus based decision making systems have their own problems, primarily long discussions that seem to accomplish nothing, and the ability of one person to block a decision and stop the group from doing anything. 

            Formal Consensus is a rule-governed, consensus based decision-making system that is cooperative and inclusive, and avoids the common pitfalls of general consensus.  It has rules and a series of steps, which, when followed, allow groups to reach decisions that benefit the whole group.

            The most important characteristics of Formal Consensus are: 

• Power is shared.  All roles of the meeting, including facilitator, are rotated, so everyone has a chance to participate. 

• Conflict is welcomed.  Conflict is seen as a way to find out how we can improve a proposal. 

• Conflict is between the proposal and the group’s mission, not between individuals. 

• All concerns are voiced before the group tries to resolve them. 

• Blocking is done by the group.  An individual cannot block consensus. 

By sharing power, welcoming conflict, and separating out the voicing of concerns from the resolving them, groups can have productive and timely meetings, and people leave them feeling energized and willing to participate in the group’s goals.

 For more information: www.consensus.net, catherine@performanceschool.org