How to decide?

Consensus decision making requires a number of prerequisites to be effective.  The prerequisites include a common goal, trust, commitment, participation, facilitation and a decision-making process.  There are numerous documented processes for making consensus decisions, each tailored to a specific set of circumstances.

Clear Process

A clear process makes consensus decision making easier because the process ensures that all viewpoints have time to be examined.  Following a defined process tends to be most impactful when the team is new, membership is dynamic or the group is large.  In all of these cases, a process helps to control potential chaos. The following process flow is a synthesis of a number of methods for team level consensus decision-making.

  1.       Introduce the Decision to be Made – Carefully state the issue so that everyone involved in the process understands what will be talked about.  For complicated issues, consider beginning the education/introduction process for the issue before the decision-making meeting.
  2.       Explore Issues and Look for Ideas – Get all perspectives and potential problems with making the decision and with potential solutions into the open.
    Some versions of processes for consensus decision-making begin with discussion as a process to generate an emergent proposal while others assume that a proposal is introduced as the first step in the process. Beginning the process with a proposal compresses the time to decide but can constrain the pallet of prospective solutions that will be discussed.
  3.       Look for Emerging Proposals – During the discussion, the facilitator should identify new proposals or changes to the current proposal.  Often many ideas can be synthesized to new ideas.
  4.       Discuss, Clarify and Amend the Proposal – The facilitator guides the group in discussing and reforming the proposed decision.
  5.       Test for Agreement – A Consensus decision is one that everyone in the group can support or will keep out of the way of (sometimes called having reservations or standing aside).  Members of the decision-making body that will actively resist a decision present a block to making a consensus decision.
  6.       Refine To Remove Blocks and Reservations – If there are blocks, reservations or more than a few members standing aside, review the proposal to see whether a better proposal can be synthesized to remove blocks or potential blocks.
    When blocks cannot be cleared or there are too many stand-asides/reservations the proposal is blocked.  Start again, consider putting the proposal on hold to let some of the passion recede.
  7.       Make the Decision – Many Agile ceremonies, which are consensus decision making events,  include public commitment to generate pressure to make the decision work.
  8.       Implementation and Change Management – Work out how to make the decision work.

The process described above is a common approach to making consensus decisions.  Twists such as cascading consensuses can be used to make consensus decision in large groups.  In this scenario, individual groups make decisions and then send a representative to interact with representatives from other groups.  For example, a scrum of scrums can use this type of decision making.  Regardless of approach, consensus decision making follows a process so that everyone involved understands their role and how a decision will be made.

Consensus Decision Making Theme:

  1. Consensus Decision-Making
  2. Prerequisites and Attributes for Consensus Decision-Making
  3. Process for Consensus Decision-Making ** Current **
  4. Issues with Consensus Decision.-Making