Talk:Lesson Plan for Teaching the Consensus Process
Some tools that are commonly or seldomly used for building consensus:
- go around
- queue (or stack)
- fishbowl
- straw poll
- weighted voting
These could be explained, or we could develop a handout. RfS
Comparison between consensus and majority rule
Many folks are familiar with terms and concepts from majority rule. Sometimes a side by side comparison goes a long way towards explaining what consensus is. Maybe something like:
- Ownership
- Majority Rule
- The author of a proposal owns it. The group can't change it without the author's approval.
- Consensus
- The author of a proposal gives it the group and the group can change it.
- Abstentions
- Majority Rule
- An abstention is when someone doesn't want to vote against something but doesn't want to get in the way.
- Consensus
- In consensus the closest things is to stand aside
Different forms of Consensus
- Consensus Minus One (you must have at least 2 to block)
- Try for Consensus, settle for 2/3 or 3/4
- Notas:
- These alternative forms of consensus can be used all the time, used for only specific, defined decisions, or as a consistent fallback plan.
- These alternatives are often used for groups of 20 and larger (on tougher decisions, consensus can be hard for this many to reach). Working hard on including everyone can be difficult but rewarding.
- In some groups this affects the dynamics of decision making such that the "modified" consensus is not much different than a majority vote.
Review Kathey Sutter's brochure, “13 Steps to Consensus and Solidarity”
10 minutes
- Keep in mind that the complete process is for complex, involved, important decisions.