From what I gather, there are two key points when it comes
to consensus decision-making. The first thing necessity is that everyone has
the same or very similar goals. It would be impossible to come to a decision if
people did not have the same ideals in mind. The point of consensus decision-making
is that everyone wants to achieve the same things; it is the path to get there
that needs to be decided upon. A second necessity is trust. When working in a
group and using consensus decision-making, you must trust that those around you
are trying to reach the same goals and you must trust that they know what they
are talking about.
I think that the concept of consensus decision-making is
great. But I think in order for it to fully work at its highest potential, you
would have to be in a situation where you had the two necessities I talked
about earlier. I don’t think I personally have been in many group decision-making
processes where we even had those two things. Trust is something that must
develop over time which I think is a weakness for this system because it seems
to me like you would already have to have relationships with the people in the
group before being able to use consensus decision-making. One thing from one of
the papers that I really liked was when she was talking about blocking. Estes
said that you should only block a decision when you have an instinctual
reaction that this is wrong and you wouldn’t want to lead your friends down
that path. Therefore, the decision making process isn’t about ego or showing
off or knowing the most, its about what is best for the entire group.
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