ConsensusPolling/Printable
Contents
Introduction
Consensus Polling is an online decision-making process that allows groups to make creative decisions that just about everyone feels good about, resulting in decisions that last. Consensus polling allows everyone to work together to craft a collaborative solution, instead of merely advising the decision-making body. Consensus polling leaves communities feeling "whole," and avoids the conflict so common in other methods.
Participants have the power to "tweak" the group’s agenda or objectives to their liking. The high degree of transparency and ability of participants to act encourages new members to join the group. Consensus Polling is a big improvement over static terms of engagement and a voting process that too often leaves members feeling powerless, disinterested, and unengaged in a solution.
Consensus polling is not voting. Instead of casting votes ConsensusPollParticipants ask themselves, "Is this document done?" and set their status to either YES or NotYet . The document and people's statuses both change over time until an agreement is reached (generally 90% YES ).
Why does consensus polling work?
- Consensus polling gives people a chance to efficiently express their views.
- The decisions made through consensus polling are almost unanimous.
- The process takes place in the open, where everyone can see what's happening and how it is progressing.
- Participants are the decision-makers.
There are many ways to make decisions, each with its own advantages and disadvantages:
Voting
- Voting silences opposing opinions rather than creating collaboration between the conflicting parties -- instead of uniting people, it can promote division.
- Voters have limited and fixed options to choose from.
- Voting creates a large group of "losers." For instance, if there are three opposing groups, one of them secures 34% votes while both of the other groups receive 33%. The one with the most votes wins but it is far from a consensus as the majority, i.e. 66%, have been excluded from the decision. Even when there are only two camps, nearly half the folks participating can leave unhappy.
- Voting can result in a tyranny of the majority.
- Vote casters do not have a medium or channel for discussions whereby they can effectively express their opinions.
Top-Down Decision-Making
- When the "boss" makes a decision for everyone, others affected by the decision often feel powerless and disenfranchised.
- Decisions can feel like impositions.
- Even when a politician or government agency holds hearings, they are still free to ignore any opinions that they don't agree with, leaving people feeling powerless.
- Lots of potential creative solutions are never discovered.
- People feel alienated from their work
Face to Face Consensus
- The process is too slow.
- The solution does not scale to large groups since each person has to listen to the concerns of each of the other people.
Discussion
Maybe we ought to list some advantages for these as well? Ted Ernst | talk 22:11, 21 August 2007 (PDT)
The Document is Alive
In the consensus polling process participants create a document that can be seen and changed by anyone. Rather than have competing proposals, we're all working on the same editable document. The best way for ConsensusPollParticipants to express their opinion and "be heard" is to actually change or edit this document (see EfficientlyExpressedSuggestions). Anyone can edit or change this document to reflect their opinion or concerns at anytime, as shown in the example below:
Examples:
Arrange a 10 km walk, which starts from our headquarters and ends at the central park, where we plant 25 trees. 
Start the program with a couple of motivating speeches followed by a formal tea party. Arrange a 10 km walk, which starts from our headquarters and ends at the central park, where we plant 25 trees. End the ceremony with a tea party. Burn all organizations responsible for polluting the environment. Arrange a 5 km walk, which starts from our headquarters and ends at the central park, where we plant 50 trees. End the ceremony with a tea party. Arrange a 5 km walk, which starts from our headquarters and ends at the central park, where we plant 50 trees. Afterwards, invite the chief guest for a speech to motivate the participants to raise more funds for this noble cause. End the ceremony with a tea party.
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Buy 273 acres of land for the expansion of southern fertilizer plants and invest 2.7 million dollars in genetic engineering or pharmaceuticals sector. Invest in the cutting-edge research going on at Jacob's Medical Labs. Buy 273 acres of land to add five new plants to the southern fertilizer facility and invest 2.7 million dollars in the pharmaceuticals sector. Invest the remaining capital in cutting-edge research going on at Jacob's Medical Labs.
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This continues until a general agreement is reached. The document takes life and grows stronger as we learn to work in a collaborative manner. Of course, this brings up the question, How do we know we're making progress? |
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ConsensusPolling:How do I participate?
How do we know when we're done?
With the document alive, and with our progress being measured, how do we know when we're done? Before we start a consensus poll, we clearly define the finish line, by stating the minimum number people we need to have an agreement (sometimes categorized), and the minimum level of agreement we will accept as "done".
GoThresholds
A GoThreshold is a minimum level of agreement (preferably 90%) and participation (number of people, sometimes categorized).
Examples
Participation GoThresholds:
- We need at least 11 ActiveMembers.
- We need at least 10 ActiveMembers who are not AboutUsStaff to participate.
- We need at least 10,000 residents of Cook County, Illinois, USA.
Agreement GoThresholds:
- We need at least 91% of those who do participate to be at YES on this document to "go".
- We need at least 90% of AboutUsStaff that participate to be at YES on this document to "go".
Why 90%
Are you crazy? How are we going to get 90% agreement?
Many communities are so divided that 90% seems like an unattainable number. When a group has a hard time getting to 51% using voting, 90% is unbelievable. And yet it works. In a consensus poll you can still reach a 90% consensus because of the other aspects of consensus polling, including the dynamic document and the active listening. There are not merely two options ("Yes" or "No") as in voting. People can actually change the document to work for them. This means that a sharply polarized community of people has a good chance of ending up together.
Consensus means 100%! How can you use only 90%?
We seek full agreement of everyone. And, we recognize that sometimes we just can't get there. It's really important that we not simply get to 90% and stop, because that's "good enough." We need to make a good faith effort to get to 100%. And if there are still hold-outs after that, we can still let the group move forward with a strong, but not unanimous agreement.
What do we do if we cannot agree?
In situations were we cannot agree and it seems difficult to reach a decision, discussions and listening can be very useful.
Consensus Poll Listener
Anyone can be a Consensus Poll Listener (more than one per consensus poll is fine, and even encouraged).
A consensus poll listener helps participants come to agreement by helping them articulate their concerns more clearly, either by directly editing the document, or in a discussion section. Specifically ...
What does a listener do with the NotYets?
- Actively listens to the concerns of the participant.
- Articulates the issues of the participants in a clear way.
- Helps participants in changing the document, so that it coincides with their viewpoints (see EfficientlyExpressedSuggestions ).
- If needed, the listener edits the document in a way that takes into account multiple people's concerns and then contacts those people to ask them if the document now satisfies their issues.
What does a listener do with the Yesses?
- If we're having problems coming to an agreement, encourage the YES status folks to say more about their reasoning and their process of coming to YES .
- Encourages participants to become listener.
- Guides and helps the participants who are willing to listener.
Discussion
We need examples of these points.
The Role of the Done Timer
Once a ConsensusPoll is above all of the GoThresholds, the DoneTimer begins counting up to a time specified in advance (48 hours or 7 days, for example). This means everyone has time to consider the document again, and either edit it or change their status, if necessary. If we fall below the GoThresholds, the DoneTimer is turned off. Also, each time the document is edited the DoneTimer starts over. The consensus poll isn't actually done until the DoneTimer expires.
Speak now or forever hold your peace
When the DoneTimer begins, your responsibility as a participant is to take one last look. If you identify a critical flaw, it is your further responsibility to edit the document. This resets the DoneTimer and more importantly, fixes the flaw in the document.
What about last-minute changes?
Don't worry. The DoneTimer gives everyone an opportunity to review and weigh in. And if you change the document, the timer starts over, giving everyone else the same opportunity, so there's no such thing as a last-minute change.
What can I do, as a participant, while the DoneTimer is running?
- Review the document and my thoughts.
- Change my status if necessary.
- Edit the document to make it better.
