About Purpose is about your purpose.
Aim: Identify and articulate your purpose.
Arm: Shape yourself around your purpose.
Act: Achieve your purpose.
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How to Build Consensus
©2004, Bob Ryan
In an age of increasing diversity the need to be purposeful and effective in building consensus is becoming more and more important. And yet that same diversity makes it a greater challenge. This article is intended to help anyone involved in consensus building gain the knowledge and skills necessary.
What is your purpose for building consensus? You may have three very different purposes.
First, you may be trying to influence a pre-ordained decision. You have a platform, a specific action. You want to make sure you have enough support to carry it. Your interest in what people think is in knowing how to bring them to your way of thinking. Essentially, this is SELLING.
Second, you may be trying to build shared vision. You have a vision, a direction. You want to get out there, test it against others and craft it in such a way that it is truly shared. Your interest in what people think is in identifying the passion that exists. Essentially, this is MARKETING.
Finally, you may be trying to influence future action. You don't know what to do. You want to explore options and come up with a decision that meets people's needs and expectations. Your interest in what people think actually informs your own thinking and action. Essentially, this is STRATEGIC PLANNING.
Your task is to set realistic goals and choose the most appropriate methods to meet them. The methods you choose will depend in part on what your definition of consensus is.
Definitions of Consensus: There are three common definitions of consensus.
1. Unanimity, that is, when everyone is in total agreement. It is important to strive for unanimity when total buy-in is desired or necessary. In a small community or a highly visible, political issue; when action by a part would divide the whole. Achieving unanimity takes time and resources. Once unanimity is reached, you MUST follow through afterward on the actions upon which people agree.
2. “I can live with that,” is the classic description of consensus. It includes an agreement to disagree, but requires a “go-along” decision. Participants are able to agree that the action is best for all, even if they do not agree with all the parts. This is most often used when “moving forward” is important. There’s a lack of permanency in this type of consensus and you must go back often and take the pulse on people’s thoughts and opinions. It’s important to talk here about dangers of compromise. Compromise is a “lose-lose” solution. By definition, everyone gives something up. Whenever possible, strive for a “win-win.”
3. Some people describe consensus as a Majority. There are dangers inherent in seeking a majority. It is actually the enemy of compromise. By definition, it divides the group and buy-in is compromised. However, when action is more important than buy in, or in the realities of political systems, majority may be the only type of consensus that is practical.
Methods of Building Consensus: Once you have determined your purpose for achieving consensus, and what type of consensus fits that purpose, you are ready to apply the skills of building consensus.
There are basically two ways of working toward consensus, informal and formal. You can have the informal without the formal, but to have formal without informal is just plain shortsighted. Let me explain. Informal “informs” formal, that is, the informal methods help you define areas of study, questions to ask, people to involve, etc. Formal is more important than informal in influencing decisions, but informal is more important than formal in building shared vision and influencing future action. Informal doesn’t mean haphazard, or invalid or cheap, but neither does formal doesn’t mean arduous, statistically significant or expensive. Either method can yield both quantitative and qualitative results.
Informal Methods
The best methods, informal or formal, are characterized by methods of listening and watching. Spend time just “hanging around” those people whose thoughts and opinions will be important to you. Check out what you are hearing and seeing. Carefully build in “feedback loops” that help you truly understand what you’re hearing and seeing. Use others’ ears and eyes: “What’s the word on the street?” Teach your staff or board or volunteers etc. how to listen and watch.
Document what you are observing on a regular basis, and share the documentation as part of the feedback process. This is called “appreciative dialogue,” and refers to a process in which you purposely build on previous information to gather new and more information.
Informal methods can be either face-to-face, such as interviews, meetings, informal visits, etc. or through other means in which people are less identifiable. There are pros and cons to each. The advantage to regular, in-person listening is that you avoid the verbal vomit that you sometimes get in writing. In-person captures the emotion, the passion and the non-verbal communication such as facial expressions and other body language. By the same token, in-person makes the listener much more vulnerable and less anonymous. The method you use depends on your purpose in consensus building.
Less personal methods might include electronic media such as e-mail, websites, special telephone lines, call-in radio or TV shows, chat rooms, paging, 360-degree feedback systems, either on-site or in kiosks. However, don’t get carried away with the “latest fads.” Remember the entire constituency. Some will not use or have access to electronic media. Don’t forsake the old fashioned letter writing, inviting yourself to lunch, volunteering, etc.
Formal Methods
The formal methods use the same media as mentioned earlier, but be careful with the conclusions you draw. Be especially mindful of cultural and political realities. For example, watching the televised marches in support of Saddam Hussein, would you conclude there is solid consensus? Why or why not?
Many of the formal methods need consultant help, if only because of their scale and complexity. These can be internal consultants who already work in your organization, or outside contractors.
Here are some common methods along with their advantages and disadvantages.
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Surveys: This is a typical starting point for information gathering. An obvious advantage is their anonymity. They also tend to be reasonably inexpensive. Pitfalls include the difficulty of doing it well. (Think about the last survey you received in which the questions were difficult to answer because of the way they were asked.) Surveys tend to raise expectations. People believe that what they answered will be put into effect. There are also a myriad of diversity issues, in that surveys assume cognitive ability, that the recipients speak whatever language the survey is written in, that people trust the sender. Return rates are notoriously low for mailed surveys, and other kinds lack either anonymity or controls around who fill them out. |
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Focus Groups: Most of us have participated in focus groups. They are semi-anonymous and they can easily account for cognitive and cultural differences, etc. They are qualitative in nature and yield richness in their feedback. They can be structured to build consensus in a dialogue fashion. They can be used as longitudinal feedback for continuing to build information and consensus over time. They are a good opportunity to blend the formal and informal. They do tend to favor people who are more outgoing and communicative. They can be fairly expensive and you need to be careful in generalizing the results to other groups. |
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Participatory Forums: These are much more public. They favor verbal and outgoing personalities. They can be used either one time or longitudinally. You can structure them to gather feedback from either “John Q Public” or key persons. They are much more visible than focus groups and they hold up the issues to the public. In using either the Participatory Forums or Public Hearings, be sure that with highly emotional issues, you have always worked at an informal level first, so that you can design the more public, formal process in a way that doesn’t “open a can of worms.” |
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Public Hearings: By the time you use these, you better know which way the wind is blowing. Hearings can be a big detriment if you plan on doing what you want regardless of the outcome. They are very formal and favor vocal, outgoing participants. Since they provide a forum for the opposition, you’re very vulnerable to surprises. |
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Large Scale Intervention is a catch-all term for combinations of various methods used at the systems level. They recognize the consensus building process as a whole-systems issue. They require professional assistance. Types include “Appreciative Inquiry,” Open Space Technology, Intergenerational Dialogue and others. |
The most important thing in building consensus is to be clear about your objectives and to use those methods which accomplish your goals. Be only as sophisticated as you need to be. When you need help, ask for it. Achieving consensus in this world of expanding diversity may one of your most important job skills.