Group Decision-Making: How to Build Consensus & Ensure You Are Change-Ready

Wise leaders know there is a difference between being able to do something and then actually doing it. This difference often is about consensus: Do you have enough consensus to move forward with the decisions you made? Think of it this way: leaders are put in place to make changes. Changes often bring conflict because there is friction. When you have friction, you are going to have fire, and how much time are you going to spend putting out those fires once they have been created?

You can save yourself a lot of heartaches and a lot of headaches by building consensus before implementing decisions.

1. Understand How Your Organization Type Impacts Consensus.

The type of organization determines how you build consensus. There are many kinds of organizations, and some of the types cross over. Consider a church: they are faith-based, nonprofit, and volunteer-driven. But if you are the commander of a volunteer army at a church, that is a lot different than if you are a commander working for the government as an officer in the U.S. Army. Those in the Army have to comply a little differently than people who are in a volunteer organization.

2. Determine What Type of Consensus You Need.

Here are three different types of consensus. You need to determine ahead of time which one you will need to move forward with the decision and make the change.

Consensus

Having consensus means more than a majority of the people want the decision. The problem with this is that a group often doesn’t feel comfortable moving forward if they believe many people are not in favor. In this situation, they will often reverse the decision and go with the minority rather than the majority! This results in lost credibility. Why should people vote for and against something if the decision-makers are just going to go with the minority? By reversing the decision, they are saying that they actually want buy-in/a supermajority in order to implement the decision.

Buy-in

Buy-in is when you have a large majority, meaning most of the people want to move forward with this decision. Obviously, this increases comfort. The key is to stipulate in advance that you want a supermajority. For example, if an organization is hiring a new CEO, they might stipulate in advance that they need to have 80% approval from the board to hire the CEO. In this situation, you are not stuck with a simple majority consensus, and you actually have buy-in around the new CEO.

But one of the dangers with this model is that some people may reserve telling the truth or speaking out. Yet, even if the vast majority is against them, that voice is important, and you do not want to punish dissenters. You want to encourage that voice, but also you don’t want to give the idea that just because someone voted no that they can be a dissenter causing discord afterward. Once the group votes in a super majority, everyone is on board when they walk out of that room.

Unanimity

It is really nice when you can get unanimity, but it is rare in large groups and especially in volunteer groups because they do not have anything to lose (they are not there for a paycheck, they are there because they are committed to the mission). When you have the bar set so high at unanimity, you may be disappointed when two things happen. The first is groupthink: when everyone defers to the wishes of the leader or the main influencers in the group. In this situation, the voice of reason can be drowned out. The second, perhaps the larger issue with unanimity, is it is not actually the vote of everyone; it is the vote of one person. Any one person can veto the whole concept because unanimity is the standard.

3. Determine If You Are Change Ready.

So the real question is are you change-ready? You might have already approved a decision, but is it the right time to implement it? Based on the graphic below, first, there are innovators – a small percentage but a lot of creativity there. Then there are the early adopters – they are often your cheerleaders. But if you jump too early, you will have isolated lots of people who may not go with you. The key is to wait until you reach consensus, just after the early adopters have moved into that early majority. And when the early majority is sound, use them to be ambassadors to help build buy-in with the larger group, which is what we call the late majority. Now, you may never get the laggards, but if you do, we’ll call that unanimity.

4. Verify If You Have Consensus.

One technique to help you know whether or not you have good consensus, especially in a board or staff setting, is to use signaling. People use signaling all the time. They nod their head while you are talking, meaning, “Yes, I am in favor of that.” Or they are shaking their head or frowning, signaling they are not in favor. So why not give a real-time methodology to help measure consensus while you are in a discussion? For instance, there are hand signals: thumbs up while the discussion is going on means I’m in favor of what is being said. If it is thumbs down, I disagree and I don’t like the direction this is going. Or a moderate shake of the hand saying I’m not sure and could be persuaded either way but I have questions. Another trick we have often used is to pass out three cards to everyone to put on the table signaling yes, no, or unsure. We also remind people to test for consensus before you begin hours of discussion. Maybe you already have a strong consensus. If so, you may not need to go into all of the discussions.

Check out this video on the different types of meetings and how to make them more effective.

Contact us for more information on how our consultants can assist you in the decision-making and change process as you plan for the future.

Dave Marks is a Senior Consultant at The Center Consulting Group and has over 35 years of church ministry experience including 23 years as a senior pastor. His consulting experience includes ministry assessment, leadership coaching, and strategic planning. Dave’s degrees include a B.S. in Bible, an M.S. in Organizational Leadership and a D.Min. in Leadership.