Consensus decision-making is surprisingly effective in both communities and workplaces
Mel Rutherford, McMaster University
If you’re in a leadership position — at work or in the community — you make decisions and oversee decision-making processes. Often it’s best to consult the people you are leading to reach a group decision.
Voting may seem the quickest route to a resolution, but it isn’t the best way to enrol everyone. Worse, voting can silence voices and thwart creativity.
Formal consensus decision-making leads to broader engagement. I have been training leaders in formal consensus decision-making for more than 25 years, and here’s why I recommend it.
Circle of moral concern
Slowing down your decision-making process and listening deeply to the people in your group also increases how much you care for them and how much you view them as people.
As a professor of psychology, neuroscience and behaviour, in the Rutherford lab at McMaster University, my students and I study the perception of social categories.
My students and I are interested in learning how people can increase their circle of moral concern. When people behave in ways that harm others, they may not be including those others in the circle of people they care about. The deep listening involved in formal consensus decision-making draws people into that circle.
Expertise in the group
If a problem is difficult, if there is expertise in your group that can inform and improve the decision at issue, or if a solution is going to be expensive, it’s a good time to consider a broad, robust decision-making process.
Perhaps the most critical times to use a durable consensus decision-making process are when a decision is going to be controversial, or if the success of the decision relies on enthusiastic acceptance.
I suggest a specific model called formal consensus decision-making, in which no proposal is adopted until every concern is heard, understood and addressed. This model, complete with charts, roles and procedures, was developed by Food Not Bombs, a volunteer organization dedicated to non-violent social change.
Political science researcher Sean Michael Parsons discusses the formation of Food Not Bombs in his 2010 dissertation. He points to how historian Barbara Epstein discusses the relationship between 1960s movements (which shaped the politics and habits of Food Not Bombs) and Quakers.
In the Quaker religion, Quakers do not vote, but rely on “communal discernment” — listening for a truth that emerges when people listen to one another and together “in the Spirit.”
Building consensus in a university
More than a year ago, I became chair of McMaster University’s department of psychology, neuroscience and behaviour. Since then, the department has not voted once.
My department uses formal consensus decision-making, and instead of policies, we have standard operating procedures. Where other departments have policies, bylaws and governance documents, we wanted something different, because creating bylaws can be contentious, enforcing bylaws can be worse and bylaws can’t anticipate unanticipated situations.
Instead, we now use a living document simply called, “This is how we do it.” This document was not ratified by vote. It was reviewed by the entire department in a process where we analyzed how we currently did things and how we hoped to change — a “gap analysis” process.
If you’re wondering how to get a group to agree to any kind of governance document without voting, let me tell you the story of how we ratified our “This is how we do it” document without taking a single vote.
Identifying values
First, we created a core values statement, and today we measure all our practices and procedures against it. We started our core-values exercise in January with four large group meetings: faculty, staff, post-doctoral research fellows, graduate students and undergraduate students.
Representatives from each group met with our facilitator, who distilled the data she collected during those sessions, specifically the values that had been nominated in each meeting for every domain we discussed.
Finally, a small working group including representation from each of the large groups met to draft our core values statement. This draft went to the entire department with a request for feedback. After a final meeting of representatives, the core values were finalized.
Next, we had a faculty retreat to develop our “This is how we do it” document. In small groups and all together, we examined and discussed the fit between our department’s core values and this document.
We used notes from all discussions at the retreat to update the document and circulated it to the department for further comment. Now we have our way forward.
Major bodies using consensus
In Canada, some major organizations are taking more inclusive and deliberative decision-making seriously. There are even two governmental bodies in Canada that have a consensus style of government, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories.
The Canadian Unitarian Council, which until now has used voting and Robert’s Rules of Order as their decision-making process, has created a decision-making exploration team which hopes to find a decision-making process that is “inclusive, collaborative and models informed group decision-making.”
Listen to dissent
Voting can silence voices. You may have been in a meeting at some point when a disagreement broke out and someone angrily suggested, “Let’s take a vote!”
All too often, that can be a way to silence dissent.
Why not try consensus at home, in your workplace, your church or faith community or your running club?
Mel Rutherford, Professor and Department Chair, Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Jobs Just For You, The HR Professional
Our weekly or daily email bulletins are guaranteed to contain only fresh employment opportunities
Latest Jobs
Senior HR Business Partner - 12 mth Contract
New South Wales
L&D Consultant - Contract
New South Wales
Human Resources Business Partner
South Australia
HR & Recruitment Officer - Contract
Queensland
People and Performance Consultant
Queensland
HR Business Partner - Contract
Western Australia
Executive Manager People and Culture
Tasmania
HR Business Partner
Queensland
HR Business Partner
Western Australia
HR Coordinator - Contract
Queensland
Safety and Systems Advisor - Contract
Queensland
HR Advisor
New South Wales
HR Advisor - Compensation & Benefits
Victoria
LMS Administrator - Contract
Western Australia
A06 Senior HR Consultant - Contract
Queensland
Human Resources Consultant - Contract
Queensland
Senior HR Coordinator - Retail - Contract
New South Wales
Human Resource Business Partner
Tasmania
HSE Supervisor
Tasmania
HR Advisor
Victoria
Senior HR Advisor - Contract
Western Australia
Safety Advisor - Contract
Queensland
HR Business Partner
Western Australia
HR Coordinator - Contract
Queensland
ER Specialist
Western Australia
Talent Acquisition Partner - Contract
New South Wales
Injury Management and Wellbeing Advisor - Contract
Western Australia
Diversity & Inclusion Senior Manager
New South Wales
Talent Acquisition Partner
Queensland
Learning and Development Coordinator - Contract
Queensland
Principal People and Culture Advisor - Contract
Queensland
HR Advisor
Victoria
HR Business Partner
New South Wales
L & D Coordinator - Contract - Part Time
Western Australia
Workers Compensation Officer
Queensland
HR Business Partner - Contract
New South Wales
Legal Practice Capability - Recruitment - Contract
Queensland
Senior HR Advisor
Queensland
Health, Safety, and Environmental Advisor
Queensland
Wellbeing, Health & Safety Officer - Temp, Part Time
New South Wales
Senior Safety Manager - Contract
Queensland
Safety Administrator - Contract
Queensland
HR Advisor - Contract
New South Wales
APS6 ICT Workforce Coordinator - Contract
Victoria
HR Advisor - Contract
New South Wales
Industrial Relations Specialist - Contract
Western Australia
Senior People and Culture Business Partner - Contract
Queensland
WHS Manager
New South Wales
People and Culture Business Partner
Queensland
HR Manager
New South Wales
HR & Payroll Officer
New South Wales
HR Business Partner
New South Wales
Performance Management Specialist
Queensland
HR / IR Business Partner - Contract
Queensland
HR Business Partner
Western Australia
Senior Reward Analyst - Contract
Western Australia
HR Business Partner
Western Australia
Industrial / Employee Business Partner
South Australia
Industrial Relations Manager
Queensland
People and Culture Officer
South Australia
Senior HR Advisor - Contract
New South Wales
HR & Payroll Officer
New South Wales
APS6 HR Generalist
Australian Capital Territory
People & Culture Officer - Contract
Victoria
General Manager of People & Quality
Tasmania
Principal Information Advisor - Contract
Queensland
EL1 Assistant Director/APS 6 Senior Advisor
Queensland
HR Business Partner
Western Australia
People Partner - Contract
Victoria
HR Business Partner
Victoria
Workforce Recruiter
Queensland
HR Advisor - Contract
New South Wales