If you are a consultant, manager, meeting facilitator, team leader, community organizer, or simply someone who is involved in lots of group decisions, Consensus Through Conversation was written for you.
I wrote the book based on a number of important premises. First, consensus is a misunderstood, underused, and at times misused method for inclusive decision-making. Second, consensus is most effective when every participant understands the fundamental principles and practices. Third, building consensus in groups involves a learnable set of ideas and skills that do not require a week-long workshop to master. Fourth and perhaps most importantly, consensus building is not a skill reserved for top leaders and professionals. By definition, consensus is for everyone and can be learned by anyone.
Consensus Through Conversation is a portable, easy-to-read reference to help you facilitate and participate in consensus decision-making processes. It contains the basic principles and methods for making consensus work, whether in the corporate boardroom or in the community meeting hall. This book was developed as a companion to Consensus Cards?, a tool I developed to assist groups in making consensus-based decisions. The book can be used on its own or in conjunction with this tool.
This is not a general guide to effective meeting facilitation. It is written for people who are taking part in a specific kind of meeting—one in which a consensus decision must be made. While implementing the tips and methods described in this book will no doubt improve most meetings, my focus is to help you create effective consensus decision-making processes. If you are looking for more general references on how to conduct better meetings, you will find some of my favorites in the Resources Guide in the final section of this book.
Consensus can be a powerful and transformative tool. However, it is by no means a panacea that will transform your organization into a perfectly democratic or otherwise utopian world. Your job as a leader will be to decide when and where to use a consensus-based approach (see Guidelines on page 4).
As an organizational change consultant, I often learn as much from my clients as I teach them. The person who taught me the most about what consensus actually looks like in action is auto industry executive Pierre Gagnon. As Pierre describes in the Foreword, he brought consensus-based decision-making from Saturn Motors to Mitsubishi where he served as that company's CEO. Pierre doesn't just use consensus as a tool, he leads from the fundamental belief that participation yields higher-quality, higher-commitment decisions.
For me, doing the work of consensus building is quite a bit easier than writing about it. My secret to writing was to surround myself with people who are clear thinkers, painfully honest givers of feedback, and skillful writers. For their good counsel and collaboration, I want to acknowledge with gratitude Angela Antenore, Tree Bressen, Mary Campbell, Sherri Cannon, Jane Haubrich Casperson, Marcia Daszko, Susan Ferguson, Katrina Harms, Sandy Heierbacher, Diana Ho, Peggy Holman, Brian Ondre, Diane Robbins, Arnie Rubin, Hal Scogin, Kathe Sweeney, Annie Tornick, Johanna Vondeling, and Melissa Weiss. Whether facing the daunting task of writing or the sometimes exhausting work of helping groups reach consensus, at the end of the day, I get to come home to my wife, Linda Smith, who is my most solid sounding board, supporter, and inspiration. To all these people, thank you! Your thumbprints are all over this book.
My career has been dedicated to helping people have conversations that result in high-quality decisions, increased trust, higher commitment, and real learning. In my experience, the proper use of consensus fosters these outcomes. As you read this book, I hope you will begin to recognize more opportunities for using the tools of consensus in your organization and community.
Larry Dressler
Boulder, Colorado
July 2006
