Consensus decision-making involves a collaborative process where all involved parties discuss and agree on a decision they fully support, leading to strong unity and commitment, but requiring careful management to avoid inefficiency or dominance by individuals.
Primary Implication
The consensus decision is the most inefficient decision-making approach, yet the most efficient in executing the decision. The post-decision efficiency results from the time and effort expended by everyone directly accountable for executing the decision coming together to make the decision.
Overview
Consensus decisions are made when everyone agrees and then fully supports the final decision.
The post-consensus decision efficiency results from the time and effort expended by everyone directly accountable for executing the decision coming together to make the decision. When considering using this approach, keep the following in mind:
- Consensus means you talk until everyone honestly agrees to one decision.
- This method can produce tremendous unity and high-quality decisions. If misapplied, it can also be a horrible waste of time.
- Consensus should only be used with high-stakes and complex issues or with issues where everyone absolutely must support the final choice.
- The consensus method is used on decisions where everyone is affected, everyone cares, and there are several options that are not equally liked.
- During consensus, everyone meets honestly and openly to discuss the choices and develop various ideas. Then, they jointly make a decision that each person agrees to support.
- Don’t force consensus onto everything, especially to situations that don’t deserve the time
The challenge with consensus decision-making lies in keeping the group focused on the decision before them so the best decision gets made versus endless discussion. The other challenge lies in a group member bullying others to accept their position, resulting in no real consensus around the decision forming.