The key to any successful plan is buy-in from participants, and what this process has proven is the importance of including people’s insights in formulating a consensus guide that preserves the best ideas. Not that consensus precludes change. Just the opposite. Areas of consensus can shift unbelievably fast in the best projects.
Without consensus you can rarely have a breakthrough, so there is an urgent need to communicate with people, and to report back where consensus is evident. Similarly, it may also be critical to point to areas where doubt still exists about the issues being considered.
Consensus tends to begin with a degree of personal abandoning of beliefs, principals, values or policies connected to the topic considered. It is the open space where no one yet believes and no one objects. It takes rigor to achieve consensus that leads to results.
To achieve consensus through smart skills - here are 5 tips:
1. Build trust, openness, and supportiveness in a fun way. Start by moving against common muscle memory together as a gesture toward new directions. Ask the group….”While sitting where you are, make clockwise circles with your right foot. At the same time, draw the number 6 in the air with your right hand.”
Then ask… “What direction is your foot moving now?” Show how consensus across the right and left brain takes practice to get it rolling… as does group consensus.
2. Break into sessions where people freely express their ideas on the target you share. Ask for personal experiences, barriers noticed, suggested solutions to break the barriers, any success stories, and suggestions for a way forward for the group.
3. Go for a common thread that all can buy into. Have each group submit a key suggestion from their consensus – which will combine into a flow chart of directions for the whole group to best reach the original target.
4. Brainstorm for the roles required, the offerings needed and the time for each contribution due. Set benchmarks and record them on a visible chart. Invite people to sign up for the parts and to commit to the time schedule set.
5. Appoint a smaller team to track the progress, ensure benchmarks are kept and bring coherence to the parts as well as report regular progress to the group.
What plan will you use to reach consensus that can guide a team to successful results your next target?
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