Examples of Consensus decision-making in the following topics:
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- Consensus decision making aims to reach agreement through collaboration, cooperation, inclusivity, and participation.
- Consensus decision making is not adversarial or competitive, but rather seeks to do what is best for the group.
- Making decisions by consensus is not necessarily ideal or even desirable.
- Another formal technique for consensus building comes from the consensus-oriented decision-making (CODM) model.
- This model lets groups be flexible enough to make decisions when they need to, while still following a format based on the primary values of consensus decision making.
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- Every decision-making process produces a final choice.
- Consensus decision-making tries to avoid "winners" and "losers".
- Decision making in groups is sometimes examined separately as process and outcome.
- Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints.
- This diagram shows how decisions are made by consensus.
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- Group decision making (also known as collaborative decision making) is when individuals collectively make a choice from the alternatives before them.
- A group can make decisions by consensus, in which all members come to agreement, or it may take a majority-rules approach and select the alternative favored by most members.
- Group decision making provides two advantages over decisions made by individuals: synergy and sharing of information.
- Moreover, group decisions can make it easier for members to deny personal responsibility and blame others for bad decisions.
- One of the greatest inhibitors of effective group decision making is groupthink.
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- There are countless perspectives and tactics to effective decision-making.
- Decision-making styles can be divided into three broad categories:
- Psychological: Decisions derived from the needs, desires, preferences, and/or values of the individual making the decision.
- This type of decision-making is centered on the individual deciding.
- Regardless of perspective or style, all leaders must make decisions that create consensus.
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- Ethical decision making is the process of assessing the moral implications of a course of action.
- Ethical decision making is the process of assessing the moral implications of a course of action.
- Making ethical decisions also involves choice about who should be involved in the process and how the decision should be made.
- Similarly, decisions with a significant ethical dimension may benefit from being made by consensus rather than by fiat—to demonstrate that the choice is consistent with an organization's espoused values.
- Identify the elements of decision making that are directly affected by ethical considerations and social expectations
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- In groupthink, each member of the group attempts to conform his or her opinions to what he or she believes is the consensus of the group.
- "Groupthink" is a term coined by Yale research psychologist Irving Janis to describe a process by which a group can make poor or irrational decisions.
- In a groupthink situation, each member of the group attempts to conform his or her opinions to what they believe to be the consensus of the group.
- While this may seem like a rational approach to decision making, it can result in the group ultimately agreeing upon an action that each member individually might consider to be unwise.
- One common method is to place responsibility and authority for a decision in the hands of a single person who can turn to others for advice.
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- Whenever a benevolent dictator steps down, or attempts to spread decision-making responsibility more evenly, it is an opportunity for the group to settle on a new, non-dictatorial system—establish a constitution, as it were.
- The group may not take this opportunity the first time, or the second, but eventually they will; once they do, the decision is unlikely ever to be reversed.
- It is not an ambiguous state: a group has reached consensus on a given question when someone proposes that consensus has been reached and no one contradicts the assertion.
- Someone will usually make a concluding post, which is simultaneously a summary of what has been decided and an implicit proposal of consensus.
- For small, uncontroversial decisions, the proposal of consensus is implicit.
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- Delegating key decision making to groups, teams, or committees occurs often within organizations.
- Group cohesion, or positive feelings between individuals and productive working relationships, contributes to effective group decision making.
- One of the greatest inhibitors of effective group decision making is groupthink.
- By isolating themselves from outside influences and actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints in the interest of minimizing conflict, group members reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints.
- Recognize the value and potential drawbacks of group dynamics in making decisions
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- A cognitive bias is the human tendency to make systematic decisions in certain circumstances based on cognitive factors rather than evidence.
- Examples include the false-consensus bias, status quo bias, in-group favoritism, and stereotyping.
- A large body of evidence, however, shows that an irrational preference for the status quo—a status quo bias—frequently has a negative affect on decision-making.
- Women consistently make less than men in the workplace.
- Apply the four false consensus biases commonly identified to the value of avoiding diversity risks in business.
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- Replicability implies forkability; forkability implies consensus.
- If the dictator were to suddenly start making bad decisions, there would be restlessness, followed eventually by revolt and a fork.
- The benevolent dictator model is exactly what it sounds like: final decision-making authority rests with one person, who, by virtue of personality and experience, is expected to use it wisely.
- Generally, benevolent dictators do not actually make all the decisions, or even most of the decisions.
- Only when it is clear that no consensus can be reached, and that most of the group wants someone to guide the decision so that development can move on, does she put her foot down and say "This is the way it's going to be. " Reluctance to make decisions by fiat is a trait shared by almost all successful benevolent dictators; it is one of the reasons they manage to keep the role.