RE: A consensus question.
From: Rob Sandelin (Exchange) (RobsanExchange.MICROSOFT.com)
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 16:21:33 -0600
Stuart brought up the issue of decision legacy, where changing an
established decision is difficult if not impossible to do within
consensus process because everyone then has to agree with the changes or
the old decision stands.

Yep. That's a reality. One idea to avoid this to set a sunset clause on
some decisions. This decision stands for 3 years and then with three
years of experience, we have to reaffirm it or change it, or junk it. 
Often a good solution to situations which become trapped in either/ or
scenarios is to "try out" an idea.  Lets try this for a week, year
whatever and see how it works.

One of the more ominous sides of legacy decisions is that things don't
get brought up that should.  If you know  that cats have never been
allowed, says so right in the agreements document, then you may never
bring the issue up for discussion because it's pointless. This can then
spill over into general apathy - Why bring up issues if you know one or
more individuals feel strongly about it? Hot issues get avoided because
it takes more energy to deal with them than the issue is worth. Yikes!
False consensus!

In my opinion, many groups that are using consensus, should not be. They
lack the committment, communication and group mission that consensus
requires.  You can have a very cooperative process, where all ideas are
equally and fairly considered on their honest merits, an honest
evaluation given by all, and then a vote held to make the final choice. 
Consensus can also be misapplied to decisions that really are matters of
preference, where there is no best solution, such as color choices.  In
my opinion, spending three group meetings to try and pick a color of
tile by consensus is an absurd waste of time. A tiered voting system in
that situation works really well and is also very quick.

I think it is a good idea to regularly air out your old community
agreements and try them on and see if they still fit.  This is a very
good excuse to have an annual meeting, where you focus on just those
sorts of things.  Sharingwood's agreements are long overdue for just
such a treatment.......We are in the process of revisioning our
community goals right now. Once that has run its course, I think we will
be ready to examine our agreements and remove the deadwood.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood
Where tommorrow we will spend the morning consolidating our visions.

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