How do you build consensus with conflicting opinions?

1 What is consensus?

Consensus is a process of decision-making that involves seeking the consent of all participants, rather than imposing a majority vote or a top-down directive. Consensus does not mean that everyone has to agree on everything, but rather that everyone can accept the outcome as the best possible solution for the group. Consensus aims to foster collaboration, inclusion, and mutual respect among team members.

2 Why is consensus important?

Reaching consensus can bring many benefits to teams, such as increasing the quality of decisions through diverse perspectives and insights, enhancing commitment and ownership of team members by giving them a voice and stake in the outcome, reducing the risk of conflicts and resentment by addressing underlying needs and interests, and fostering a positive team culture through trust, empathy, and cooperation.

3 What are the challenges of consensus?

Consensus can pose some challenges for teams, such as being time-consuming and complex, especially when dealing with large or diverse groups, or controversial or sensitive issues. Power dynamics, groupthink, or hidden agendas can also influence the process and undermine its fairness and transparency. Achieving consensus can be difficult when there are fundamental differences in values, beliefs, or goals among team members, or when some parties are unwilling to compromise or cooperate.

4 How do you prepare for consensus?

Before beginning the consensus process, it is essential to do some groundwork to ensure that your team is ready and willing to participate. To prepare for consensus, you should define the purpose and scope of the decision, identify and engage the stakeholders, and establish the ground rules and norms. The purpose should address any problems or opportunities, while criteria and constraints should be considered for the expected outcomes and impacts of the decision. Stakeholders should be communicated with and invited to the process, ensuring equal access and opportunity to contribute. Furthermore, ground rules and norms should be established to facilitate discussions, manage disagreements and conflicts, document results, and communicate findings.

5 How do you facilitate consensus?

Once you have prepared your team for consensus, you can start the facilitation process, which typically involves four stages: explore, propose, evaluate, and agree. The explore stage should involve gathering and sharing information, perspectives, and ideas from all team members. You can use techniques such as brainstorming, surveys, interviews, or focus groups to elicit input. Additionally, tools such as SWOT analysis, affinity diagrams, or mind maps can be used to organize and visualize data. The goal is to create a common understanding of the situation and the options available. For the propose stage, you want to generate and present possible solutions or recommendations based on the input from the previous stage. Techniques such as voting, ranking, or dotmocracy can help narrow down the options and identify the most preferred or feasible ones. Tools such as pros and cons lists, decision matrices, or criteria weighting can also be used to compare and contrast the options. The goal is to create a shortlist of viable alternatives that can meet the needs and interests of the group. During the evaluate stage, you want to test and refine the shortlisted options and address any concerns or objections from team members. Techniques such as feedback loops, pilot testing, or scenario analysis can assess the strengths and weaknesses of each option and identify any gaps or risks. Tools such as fishbone diagrams, root cause analysis, or force field analysis can help identify and resolve any causes of resistance or disagreement. The goal is to create a consensus draft that can satisfy the criteria and constraints of the decision. Finally, for the agree stage you want to finalize and confirm the consensus draft and ensure that all team members can accept and support it. Techniques such as check-in, restatement, or confirmation questions should be used to verify understanding and agreement of each participant. Additionally tools such as action plans, timelines, or accountability charts can be used to outline the next steps and responsibilities for implementing the decision. Ultimately this will result in a consensus statement that can document and communicate both the outcome and process.

6 How do you maintain consensus?

After reaching consensus, you need to follow up and monitor the progress and impact of the decision. To maintain consensus, you should celebrate and appreciate the efforts and contributions of all team members. Review and reflect on the consensus process and decision outcome, as well as update and adjust the decision based on changing circumstances. To do this, you can use techniques such as thank-you notes, feedback surveys, debrief sessions, or progress reports. Collecting feedback and insights will help you communicate changes to stakeholders through change management plans or status meetings.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?