Top Tips
- Practice consensus with some examples before you use it for real;
- Practice facilitation first - consensus won’t work without it;
- The facilitator should make the process explicit so everyone can keep up.
Participatory Decision Making is a creative process to give ownership of decisions to the whole group, finding effective options that everyone can live with. One form of this is consensus, which these pages look at further.
About participatory decision-making
A common form of participatory decision making is called consensus. This is a process that works to find common ground and solutions that are acceptable to all and best for the group. It tries to avoid the alienation of minorities that majority rule can create and values everyone’s opinion equally. With consensus everyone in the group must agree to a decision for it to be adopted!
Preconditions for consensus
- everyone must be committed to reaching a consensus view and have their personal agendas challenged;
- the group must participate actively in the process and good facilitation must be used;
- awareness of the common ground within the group is needed. This is useful for bringing the group back to if there are disagreements;
- everyone must understand the process;
- it must be a substantial decision;
- sufficient time must be allowed for the process.
When not to use consensus
There are also times when consensus is not the most appropriate system for decision making:
- Little or no common ground: if the group is not cohesive enough to generate shared attitudes and perceptions, consensus becomes an exercise in frustration
- There are no good choices: The consensus process can help a group find the best possible solution to a problem, but it is not an effective way to make either-or-choices between evils, for members will never be able to agree which is worse. If the group has a negative decision to make it may not be worth expending loads of energy, so try flipping a coin.
- When they can see the whites of your eyes: In emergencies where immediate action is necessary, appointing a temporary leader may be the wisest course of action.
- When the issue is trivial: Groups have before devoted half an hour to trying to decide by consensus whether to spend forty minutes or a full hour at lunch. Consensus is a thinking process - when there is nothing to think about, flip a coin.
- When the group has insufficient information: When you’re lost in the hills, and no-one knows the way home, you cannot figure out how to get there by consensus. Send out scouts. Ask: Do we have the information we need to solve the problem? Can we get it?
How it works
In the following sections there are guides to two consensus models:
Basic Consensus: is a model you can use in group meetings to make all kinds of decisions. It can be varied for your particular situation.
Quick Consensus: allows you to make group decisions in action situations when you don’t have time for a comprehensive discussion.