Choosing Appropriate Consensus Building Techniques and Strategies

Choosing Appropriate Consensus Building Techniques and Strategies

Consensus building can be used to solve problems and make decisions in a wide variety of circumstances and settings. A consensus process can be organized around virtually any substantive topic and can involve a handful of people or several hundred. It can take place among representatives of multiple organizations, or among individuals within a single organization. In the public policy arena, consensus building can be used at any level of government, from the local up to the international level. Consensus-based approaches can be applied, for example, by project team members at a high-tech firm who must devise a plan for the rollout of their next product; board members at a non-profit organization seeking to set strategic goals for the next five years; a diverse set of stakeholders in a community who want to jointly establish guidelines for the preservation of historic buildings; or federal officials working with a multiplicity of interested parties to develop a new regulation for protecting air quality.

Because consensus-based approaches can be applied in so many different contexts and can involve such a diversity of issues and people, these approaches must be tailored to fit the unique circumstances of each situation. There is no single consensus [Page 62]building strategy that will work in all cases. Every process should be guided by general principles, such as inclusive participation and decisions made without voting, but they will differ with regard to the ground rules used, the use of facilitators or technical experts, the procedures by which parties educate each other and work toward agreements, the length of time involved, and so forth.

The purpose of this chapter is to help readers determine whether a consensus-based process is appropriate in a given situation, and then to think through the many choices that must be made when designing a consensus building effort to fit particular circumstances. The chapter begins with a discussion of who undertakes these tasks—who typically initiates a process and who designs it. The second section describes the various factors that need to be considered in determining whether consensus building is an appropriate method for solving a particular problem or making a specific decision. The third section looks at key contextual issues that must be assessed before designing a process (e.g., political dynamics, legal issues). The fourth and final section describes the steps that must be taken to structure a specific consensus-based process. Because this chapter introduces many topics relating to consensus building, it touches on issues that are discussed in more depth in the chapters and cases that follow. Cross-references are thus provided where appropriate.