Puh-leese: Save Me
from Consensus!
by Lorne Armstrong
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Consensus: A colossal waste of time and energy; a sell-out of what’s valid and fitting; concern with protecting an image. Consensus does not even deliver what it promises – everybody on the same page – let alone what would have real value – everybody on a page worth being on.
One popular working definition of consensus has to do with getting a group to the point where people can say, “I understand and I agree”.
Understand and agree with what? The validity; the appropriateness of the direction or decision is not at question – just the degree of acceptance among those participating in the conversation. Consensus is a lowest-common-denominator approach. What can we decide or what action can we take, that everyone can agree with. Or, is willing to say they agree with.
Gee, if the boss wants this it sounds like a consensus to me. What’s it worth for me to say I disagree? Is it worth my next bonus, or risking my acceptance within the group, or making a fuss? Well, I guess we have consensus then.
Think about it. The aim of consensus is agreement yet agreement is tragically over-sold. Of what value was the flat earth consensus? There was certainly a tremendous cost when bold, thinking people dared to question the consensus and lost their life as a result. What was the value of the consensus that the sun revolved around the earth… or that some particular food is bad for you… oops now it’s OK… oops, sorry it is bad for you. There was a consensus among some at Enron, World Com and Tyco about what decisions or actions were appropriate. But those actions were judged as illegal and cost thousands of people hundreds of millions of dollars, including both their livelihood and their life savings.
Arriving at consensus view does not require you to engage in a conversation that reveals some fundamental validity – something more valid than an opinion that we can all agree to agree with; or to support. Consensus is concerned with personal opinions and points of view. It seeks a position that is a balance between “most acceptable” and “least objected to”. It is a question of what people can “live with and support”; not what’s best for the company as a whole.
Consensus does not require an integrative solution or decision that serves what is best for the whole company. It is designed to minimize upsets and disagreements without requiring a resolution of them. Consensus helps people find a way through issues, that they can live with; that they don’t find too objectionable.
As children we’re taught to share, to compromise, to play nice. That often translates into “go along with”. Consensus requires people to give something up. They give up having a conversation that reveals a fundamental issue in favor of agreeing to reduce the effect of a symptom. They give up conversations that discern what’s appropriate in favor of what’s agreeable. They give up what they can see as having some validity, or engaging in conversation listening for what resonates for everyone.
They stick to their opinions and points-of-view until a particular view begins to emerge as the dominant view, then they go along with that. They capitulate. They agree that they have had a say and that they can “support” what others have found agreeable, for whatever reason. But what does “support” mean? Does it mean, “I will mobilize all my resources behind making it happen”? Or does it mean, “I will not actively work against you, for now, if you go ahead with that”? (I, on the other hand, am clear about the best course of action for me or my part of the organization.)
The experience of giving up something is what allows people to say, after the meeting, “Well, I didn’t really agree”, “that didn’t apply to me or my department”. Or when the agreed action or decision turns out to be a poor one, “I didn’t agree with that in the first place.” Expediency trumps alignment. Agreement out-votes what’s fitting, appropriate and feasible.
Of course, one dreaded alternative is that people appear to give up nothing. They don’t listen for what’s fitting and feasible; they stick to their point of view, by turns righteously bludgeoning and cajoling others to agree with them until “consensus” emerges. But it only appears that they give up nothing. What they really give up is communication that would produce increasingly powerful results.
Consensus is well-meaning yet appallingly misguided. The willingness to settle for consensus avoids the real conversation. It provides the illusion that people are on the same page while getting there in a way that encourages harboring resentment; holding out, and settling for what they can agree on; not necessarily what’s best for the organization. It exalts appearing to agree, to avoid the messiness of a real conversation. It is as if people are saying, “This is the best we can do – at least we’ve agreed on something and we’re not arguing,” and believing that this has tremendous value.
Puh-leese! Abandon consensus and start listening for what really needs to be addressed, resolved or accomplished for the whole organization. Then serve that. Develop yourself, and others around you, to become or to do whatever fulfills what you are up to together. Forsake merely getting by the current circumstances or getting through the issues in favor of generating a conversation in which you can hear together what would resolve something fundamental while developing the organization to the next level.