Beyond Intractability: A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict
Introduction:
How much consensus is enough? According to Frank Blechman, "somewhere between a super majority and exhaustion is sometimes the best you can do." Searching for expansive consensus is not always an efficient use of people's time.
This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).
Consensus
Frank Blechman
Private Consultant. Formerly at the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University
That fifty percent plus one is not
enough consensus to move forward, you need more. Sixty percent, seventy percent,
eighty percent, ninety percent, maybe even a hundred percent. But I think it is
rare that you really need a hundred percent. My experience is that in most cases
if you got fifteen groups in the room and you are trying to see how to move
forward, there will be some issues that three of them can move forward on and
that's fine. And there will be some that five can move forward on and that's
fine. There may be one or two issues that everyone can move forward on, but if
there are none that they can all move forward on, that's still fine.
So I don't think you always need consensus. I don't think that searching for consensus is
always an efficient use of people's time. And I think in very large processes
nobody knows how to actually generate consensus and so something that is
somewhere between a super majority and exhaustion is sometimes the best you can
do.
Aye, fight! But not your neighbor. Fight rather all the things that cause you and your neighbor to fight. -- Mikhail Naim
The Beyond Intractability Knowledge Base Project Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess, Co-Directors and Editors c/o Conflict Information Consortium(Formerly Conflict Research Consortium), University of Colorado Campus Box 580, Boulder, CO 80309 Phone: (303) 492-1635; Fax: (303) 492-2154; Contact
