Comments on: Consensus or voting, which one do I use? http://grandviewcentral.com/wordpress/2009/04/09/consensus-or-voting-which-one-do-i-use/ Using Portfolio Management to Enable Decision-Making Throughout the Innovation Value Chain Sat, 25 Apr 2009 23:10:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: David Locke http://grandviewcentral.com/wordpress/2009/04/09/consensus-or-voting-which-one-do-i-use/comment-page-1/#comment-20 David Locke Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:27:29 +0000 http://grandviewcentral.com/wordpress/?p=146#comment-20 Read "Dialogue: The Art of Thinking Together." Consensus sounds great, but it doesn't work. Consensus is really a power mechanism. Voting sounds wonderful, but it doesn't work either. The people that vote no do not change their minds just because the group went with a yes. And, power controls the vote. Groups can do things that nobody in the group wanted to do, or would have done alone. Alignment works, but it requires a lot of effort. However a decision is made, it is made in a manner consistent with the culture of the organization. I've done change management in an organization where you couldn't communicate with the IT managers of other departments even if you worked for the CIO. Nuts! But, that was the way they did things. Read “Dialogue: The Art of Thinking Together.” Consensus sounds great, but it doesn’t work. Consensus is really a power mechanism. Voting sounds wonderful, but it doesn’t work either. The people that vote no do not change their minds just because the group went with a yes. And, power controls the vote. Groups can do things that nobody in the group wanted to do, or would have done alone.

Alignment works, but it requires a lot of effort.

However a decision is made, it is made in a manner consistent with the culture of the organization. I’ve done change management in an organization where you couldn’t communicate with the IT managers of other departments even if you worked for the CIO. Nuts! But, that was the way they did things.

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