Consensus, the worst C-word?

At Monday’s team meeting you’re discussing when to come back to the office. Most of the team clearly prefer to work from home, but (once again) minor concerns keep coming up. The boss apologises, “there’s a lot on the agenda, so let’s pick this up next week”.

The following Monday, the boss decides: “leadership want us back, and 3 days a week in the office seems fair”. No one is happy, but no one argues.

A month later Anthony finds a new job “with no awful commute”. The boss puts ‘where we work’ back on the agenda, maybe 2 days in the office is OK?

The long road to consensus risks delays, while the autocratic short-cut undermines your team. So how can we make decisions that are fast enough to be useful, good enough to be safe, and inclusive enough to build trust?

There is another way, and it’s easier than you think!

By focusing on consent (instead of consensus) you can make fast, safe decisions while increasing trust and ownership. With its bias towards action, you’ll be learning lessons while others are still debating details.

This method isn’t new, and it often gets fancy names like Sociocratic, Integrative or Generative Decision Making. You can call it what you want.

How it works

I often introduce this process as ‘a liberating structure for decisions’. It needs tight facilitation, a brave person to make a proposal, and a team willing to make a decision that’s “good enough for now, and safe enough to try”.

5-Minute video walkthrough of the process

The Facilitator leads the team through these steps:

1. ‘The Proposer’ makes a proposal (anything from “I propose we have lunch together at the cafe” to “I propose that we move to a four-day work week”)
2. The Team ask clarifying questions (The Proposer answers these)
3. The Team offer reactions (from😍 to 😠 to a helpful suggestion)
4. The Proposer makes some edits, before pitching this back to the Team
5. The Team offer objections (which must demonstrate the decision would be an unsafe, risky, or backwards step)
6. If there are no objections, the decision is made! 👍

New practices often feel weird, so be brave! Was it a success or a failure? Let us know in the comments.

Cautiously curious? Here’s some fantastic links to get you started:

• A short explainer video plus a real life Reinventing Work decision
• Great blogs from Percolab, August and The Ready
• The Ready’s superb ‘Participatory Governance’ podcast
• The ‘Decision Making’ chapter of Samantha Slade’s Going Horizontal

When you’re ready, Mark Eddleston’s slides can guide you through. If you’re still nervous, come say hi at Reinventing Work, we 💖 to practice!