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Consensus Agreement Building

Based and built upon the advice of Paul DeLapa

Underlying Values and Principles

We strive to embody the following values and principles in our practice of consensus agreement building.

Equality

Everyone has a piece of the truth. There is a piece of God in everyone. Consensus process holds a systems perspective where each person plays an equally valuable and influential role in determining what’s best for the whole.

Cooperation

A competitive atmosphere is not conducive to building unity and well-informed agreements. Consensus is firmly rooted in a field of cooperation, and the process itself can help build trust between people.

Inclusivity

Everyone present is encouraged to offer their feelings, ideas, and views.

Holism

Consensus embraces input from the rational, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of our being. Emotions, feelings, and intuition are all equally honored.

Diversity

The consensus process encourages and strives for a broad range of views and ideas. Different people approach meetings in different ways. Learn to recognize and accept the ways in which each member participates. The three ways of approaching a meeting are:

• Relations
• Content
• Process

Power Balance

The power of the individual equals that of the whole group since any one person can “stand in the way of” a pending agreement based on their insight into what is best for the group.

Non-hierarchy

Our process embodies the spirit of no minister, no leader. There are no privileged ranks, viewpoints, or emotional states within the consensus process. No one is above or below anyone else in terms of importance, power, or weight of their contribution. Diligence needs to be held to not allow strong voices, participation styles, or emotional states to dictate the collective will.

Goodwill

Come to the process with the understanding that it is a practice with the intention of learning about yourself and your impact on the community. The practice assumes that all individuals are doing their best and are attempting to listen to divergent points of view. Goodwill can grow as participants learn that everyone’s ideas deserve equal consideration, and that their own views are honored. When you build understanding, agreements flow more easily.

Common Ownership of Ideas

Individual ideas are gifts to the group and become building blocks for informed agreements. Once a person makes a contribution, they are encouraged to “detach” from the idea and allow for additions, modifications, or superseding by something more aligned with the group’s will.

Shifting Perspectives

Emphasizes the need to shift perspectives and to hold the other’s viewpoints in the interest of building genuine understanding, and discovery.

Strategic or Long View on Time

The time spent making an agreement is considered a part of the time it will take to implement it. Consensus considers the consequences or hidden costs of making incomplete or hasty agreements, which can negatively impact implementation, and/or have long-term effects on the organizational/community well-being.

Essentials For Consensus Agreement Building To Work

Common Purpose and Objectives

Effective use of the consensus agreement building process requires that group members have a common sense of purpose/objectives. You need a shared understanding of why you are together—a place on which to stand and return to as common ground when differences and details begin to cloud the view.

Willingness to learn

Consensus agreement building is a practice of continuous learning, individually and collectively. Without a collective agreement and openness to learn to use the consensus process, agreements in unity will likely be difficult.

Adequate Preparation

What happens before a meeting is as (or sometimes even more) important than what happens in the meeting. Setting realistic objectives, considering appropriate processes, sequencing agenda items, and completing advance work including clearing interpersonal issues and working with known differences, all lay the groundwork for success in meetings.

Presence and Participation

In the consensus process there is no proxy position (representing others). Participation requires presence because agreements are built in dynamic dialogue. Participation means staying present through each topic and contributing constructively.

Valuing of the Process

The experience using a consensus approach will be frustrating at best and result in pressured or un-thoughtful agreements without a willingness to attend to the process of building agreement. If my main concern is a particular outcome, it’s unlikely I'll be practicing deep listening, holistic thinking, and letting go of my preconceived ideas.

Appropriate Work

Not all issues and choices a group faces warrant engaging the full group’s heart and mind. It’s important that the issues brought to the meeting are appropriate to this level of the organization's attention. Only people who are impacted by the subject being discussed really need to be there. Allow domains to be permeable. Be willing to receive feedback from those outside your domain as well as sharing your own feedback with others.

Neutral and Skilled Facilitation

The facilitator provides content objectivity with a dedicated focus on the meeting process. Without these (and other) abilities, the task of managing this creative and sometimes chaotic collective process is likely to be ineffective.

Adequate Time

Consensus process takes time, especially at first. Be sure to allocate appropriate time, being realistic about what it takes to gather full/diverse input from all participants. As the group builds trust and experience together, the time needed will shorten.

Personal Reflection

It’s hard to hide in a consensus process. Individuals need to have a willingness to identify, question, and reconsider their personal attitudes, assumptions, and participation styles. Feedback, generally outside of meetings, needs to be welcomed.

Appropriate People Present

Informed agreements require informed participants. Those who hold key implementation roles, information, or perspectives need to be present in the process.

Process Guidelines

Clear, agreed upon process guidelines are essential to help level the field so everyone knows how to engage (what’s acceptable, what isn’t). It’s especially important to have agreements in place in advance for how the group will work with conflict.

What Consensus Agreement Building is Not

• A unanimous voting process—in fact there is no voting at all.
• Related to Parliamentary Procedure or Robert's Rules of Order meeting processes.
• A process that necessarily results in an agreement everyone agrees with in every detail.
• A rigid set of rules to follow along a direct or clearly mapped-out path.

What Consensus Agreement Building Is

• An inclusive, participatory process/practice for creatively building cooperative agreements. All members of a group, who are present, actively participate in building agreements.
• A vote-less technique resulting in agreements everyone can live with. An agreement (the “sense of the meeting”) is built by creatively integrating concerns and ideas, until a summary/ synthesis emerges that most everyone can go along with. This does not mean that everyone agrees with every detail, simply that it is something they recognize as the “will of the group”.
• A trust-building process. Because consensus process encourages active listening, cooperation, and creative thinking, it helps build trust, openness, and a spirit of community.
• A win/win process. As the process builds there are no losers, no sides, and no factions. Over time the group learns to work collectively for the common good.
• A dynamic process. “Dynamic” means vigorously active or energetic, producing change or progress. Consensus is often a highly spirited process infused with emotions and sometimes sudden changes in direction.
• A creative practice of discovery. There is no step-by-step formula for reaching agreement. Instead, the opportunity in consensus agreement building process is to bring the group’s energy for action together using whatever techniques or tools are appropriate in the moment.

Overview of Basic Elements

Dialogue

Although there is no step-by-step set of procedures, dialogue does follow a general course.

It begins with an introduction to the issue or item on the agenda, what’s needed from the dialogue, and followed by clarifying questions about the opportunity/issue.

Next, the item is opened for general comments, dialogue, and concerns.

After working with concerns and verifying they have been met, an agreement begins to emerge or take shape in the form of the “sense of the meeting”.

The Sense of the Meeting, or Agreement

The facilitator draws all ideas, concerns, and responses together into a “sense of the meeting”, a “collective will”. This is the trial agreement, which is reflected back to the group by the facilitator and tested for agreement.

Participants have three options for responding to the trial agreement:

• agreeing
• standing aside
• standing in the way.

Ways of Standing

Standing With

Standing-with means that I am willing to go along with the agreement as stated and to support its implementation.

Standing Aside

Standing-aside is the position that allows me as an individual to register my personal reservation. While I recognize that this agreement is best for the group, for some serious reason (which I have already disclosed during the dialogue) I feel I need to be noted (in the minutes) as standing aside. I can even request that I not be asked to be involved with the implementation.

Generally, in a group of fifteen people, more than two or three “stand asides” would indicate that the group is not ready to proceed in this direction.

Standing In the Way

Standing-in-the-way is the position I must take when I am clear that this agreement is a dangerous and seriously unwise choice for the group to be making. Generally it reflects a sense of violation with the group’s mission and/or core values.

Standing in the way is not a personal position. When standing in the way, I exercise my power and responsibility to override the group’s wisdom. It’s important to note that it is rare when I as an individual have insight greater than that of the group. A rule of thumb says that if you “stand in the way” two or three times in your lifetime you've probably “used up” all your blocks.

Restating and Noting the Agreement

The facilitator restates the agreement, and/or the note taker reads back what has been written in the meeting minutes, including any stand-asides.