Managing Leadership^®

When everyone in a decision-making meeting is of equal status and authority, and when their full and enthusiastic support is necessary to a project, it is essential to approach the process of building consensus carefully. This situation can arise in various settings, including within and among commercial, governmental, and even military organizations. The easiest way to conceptualize the fragile nature of the matter is to examine it in the setting of a voluntary group, such as a charity, so that’s what we’ll focus on, here.

Building consensus invovles three side-by-side elements:

First, it is essential to keep everyone focused on the purpose of the organization, generally, and of the meeting, specifically. For example, if the organization has been created to provide scholarships for underprivileged groups, and the meeting has been called to organize the screening process for this year’s candidates, then these two items should be used to evaluate every topic and every solution that is brought up in the meeting.

Second, the group itself should determine if a particular idea meets these criteria – the meeting facilitator or chair should ask the questions that promote this screening, or monitor that they are being asked by attendees, and they should be asked of all suggestions, including those that seem obviously to pass. But the group should subject the ideas to this examination – not the chair or facilitator.

When a suggestion does not pass, the discussion in the group that determines that will generally also carry along with it the person who made the suggestion, including him or her in the consensual conclusion. However, a brief sidebar should be incorporated or notes made that the idea – or any associated ideas that it suggests – be included for discussion when the group meets to discuss a topic that would more likely benefit from the idea than the current topic, or even that a meeting specifically to address that idea be convened, or a committee or sub-committee formed. Alternatively, the suggestion might be more appropriate for another sort of non-profit or charitable organization than the one holding the meeting; attendees are likely to be members of such groups as well, and should be encouraged to note at this one that the idea will be conveyed there with attribution.

This sort of treatment of ideas that fall outside of the range of acceptance will do two things:

1. Similar to a brainstorming session, accepting for discussion every idea generated without prejudicial ridicule or rejection will encourage members to freely generate them.
2. A generous and respectful effort to find a time, place, or home for every idea will encourage the spirit of willing consensus for whatever ideas are selected for the specific purposes of this meeting. This is especially (but certainly not exclusively) important in a non-profit or charitable group.

Third, the facilitator or chair should be mindful of the individual and organizational motivations for the membership and attendance of each member of the group. These should be given due weight when evaluating and making determinations about particular ideas. The point here isn’t to allow the group’s agenda to be hijacked by those of its members, but to find a way to validate the diverse individual decisions that brought these members to the table and integrate them into the purpose of the group. This will perpetuate their membership as well as the consensual atmosphere.

With this in mind, it is important for the chair – or facilitator, certainly – to not come to the meeting with a pre-ordained set of results that he or she just wants the meeting to endorse. If this is done, you may get grudging consensus at this meeting, at the cost of reduced support for the group in the future. It is especially important for groups like these that the discussion take place among the group and the decisions arise from it, and that its members not appear to have been manipulated and used to lend their names and support to something they really don’t understand or approve of.

A non-profit or charitable group meeting held for virtually any purpose will successfully achieve not only consensus, but increased support, motivation, and energy for the group from its members. So, you should note, will many groups and projects with similar characteristics organized in commercial and other types of organizations.

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