[Dialogue] Consensus Pull-together

[Jeanette Stanfield]

Thanks John!  I can see I put my foot in it.  I will have a go as they say
here in Australia, but it would
be great if some others like maybe Paul from UK and one or two from the USA
would work on consensus
pull together as well !

Meanwhile lets keep all the great reflections going.  Who knows there might
be
a community book in the offing.   Perhaps someone would like to work on a
table of contents. 

Cheers,
Jeanette


John Cock

> Since I'm the youngest, I'll go first.
>  
> I think the consensus is that Jeanette of Australia pulls it together, with a
> context at the beginning.
>  
> John
> 
> 
> From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net]
> On Behalf Of PSchrijnen at aol.com
> Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 8:26 AM
> To: dialogue at wedgeblade.net
> Subject: [Dialogue] Decision making, consensus
> 
> Colleagues,
>  
> here are a few observations:
>  
> 1. Christine and I have reflected at times about our decision making as a
> couple. It seems that the times have been rare that we actually have come
> jointly to a decision. The big decisions about things like children, their
> schools, where to live, what we do, have mostly been a decision by one of us.
> The other was then invited to support that decision. The decisions worked if
> they were based on our con-sensus, our shared mind and heart.
>  
> 2. The first step in consensus building seems to be the building of a shared
> understanding of relevant information. That is hard given the complexity of
> sharing information fully and the difficulty of truly 'getting' what another
> person says or means. So often decision making or consensus building is
> categorised as a political rather than a cognitive process
>  
> 3. Effective decision making requires clarity about the roles and
> responsibilities of the people involved in the decision making process. In the
> Order we left this to implicit understanding of gifts, talents and
> commitments. The implicitness avoided awkward feedback, but didn't prevent a
> lot of people feeling dis-enfranchised.
>  
> 4. I have found it useful to separate three phases in the decision making
> process: 1. the divergent phase,  2. the convergent phases, 3. the naming the
> decision phase. In the first phase one listens to the widest possible group,
> the democratic dynamic. In the second phase a recommendation is then developed
> by the experts, the oligopoly dynamic. The leader then has the job to make the
> decision which reflects the broadest set of perspective, the expert view and
> the bigger picture, which is represented or 'defended' by the (symbolic)
> leader. The Bay of Pigs White House decision making seems to have followed
> this process. 
>  
> 5. Written in the constitution of a few (Catholic) European countries is the
> procedure that when a bench of judges sits, the first one to speak is the
> youngest, or the one with the least experience. Then the others chip in, and
> finally the President of the bench. This idea was first introduced in the Rule
> of Benedict in the 6th century. It seems to reflect the 3 phases mentioned in
> point 4. The Dutch took this notion out of their constitution. A sad mistake.
> The Spanish still have it, as was pointed out to me by a Spanish judge who
> stayed with our family to learn English a few years ago. Does anyone know if
> the American Supreme Court uses this process in their decision making?
>  
> So three keys
> 1. Structure the process as three steps
> 2. See the first step as primarily a cognitive process, a process of shared
> learning, data gathering. The second and third phase are primarily political
> in the best sense of that word.
> 3.  Decision making and consensus building require role clarity of those
> involved in any part of the 3 steps.
>  
> As Jeanette suggested, who is going to pull all of this together?
>  
> Paul 
> 
> 
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