Post in Building consensus online/definitions?

Feb 07 16:26 UTC

Peter is correct.
Participants in this thread have slid around in their definitions of
"consensus" (like me on the highway yesterday).
Start a new thread. Defining terms is helpful.

Opinion: Even talking about consensus obliges us to step outside notions of
dis/agreement, win/lose, vote for/against. It requires an underlying
"paradigm shift" or else the speaker is probably using the term as a synonym
for something else. For example, have you ever heard olde school politicians
talk about consensus? To them it seems to mean beat the crap out of
opponents until the only people left standing are compliant.

Practically speaking, when I'm asked to define consensus (eg while teaching
group facilitation) my "easy" answer is: "Enough agreement that the whole
group can move forward together."
It's like Pareto's principle. There probably should be 20% of the decision
that one doesn't necessarily agree with but one needs to...
- understand where it came from / why it was reached,
- be implicated; actually had an influence; was heard during the
proceedings,
- be able to live with it; not oppose.

...john miller