Systemic Consensus

Posted by Sylvia Brenzel from Plenum

TARGET GROUP

Group size

1 – 500

MATERIALS

Material Description

sheets of paper and pens

REQUIREMENTS

Duration

10 minutes – 60 minutes

Experience level of the facilitator

self explanatory, no experience needed

Number of facilitators

0-1

CHARACTER OF THE METHOD

Level of activation

neutral

Woo-Woo Level – How touchy-feely is this method?

From 1.Rationalist-Materialist “No feelings here, folks.” to 5.Esoteric-Shamanic Bleeding Heart:

Innovation Phases:

• 5 Grounding the Idea

Method Category:

• Collective Intelligence
• Conflict resolution
• Group communication
• Problem Solving

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Systemic Consensus is a way of joint decision making. Its is a creative process for finding the greatest possible consensus among a group of people.

BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Systemic Consensus supports decisions as it leads towards constructive behaviour of all those involved, without being dependent on their good will.

Systemic Consensus is a participatory, solution-oriented, efficient, fast and sustainable tool/method that....
- disintegrates classic loser thinking
- looks for the path of least resistance
- focuses on the ideal balance of interests
- as an optimal approximation to group consensus it is thus widely accepted by the group
- dissolves existing disputes
- promotes the creativity of everyone involved
- is thus a very good problem solving method!

PURPOSE
- to meet group decisions
- to resolve group problems within the group itself
- to prioritize a number of alternatives according to their quality in the eyes of the group
- to solve any complex tasks by a group
- to replace the current majority decision
- to resolve group conflicts
- preparation for cooperative decision

ORIGINAL SOURCE

Erich Visotschnig and Siegfried Schrotta
Picture Source: @tlayh (http://agile.layh.com/systemisches-konsensieren/)

• http://www.sk-prinzip.eu/

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

PRE-EXERCISES

It is important that the participants understand the method. Therefore you should test the method with an easy-to-understand example beforehand.
See the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wR5YXYECOE&feature=youtu.be

1 Develop and gather as many proposals as possible

Once you have clearly defined your question, you can start to develop and gather as many proposals as possible.

Each proposal will be evaluated by all people involved: everybody has the opportunity to express their resistance to each of the solutions/proposals.
0 resistance points (R) = I have no objection to this proposal.
10 R = This proposal is unacceptable for me.
Intermediate values are assigned by feeling.

2 Calculation of group resistance

The group resistance is calculated. For each proposal, the R-votes coming from everybody involved are added up. The outcome is the overall group resistance to the particular proposal.

3 Consensus

The proposal with the lowest resistance points carries the least potential for conflict and is considered to be a consensus.

4 Solution focused

The method makes no assumptions on the good will of the parties. Since there is always a proposal with minimum resistance, consensus is not blocked, but always provides a solution. If several proposals receive the same minimum group resistance points, other criteria can be added to come to a clearer decision.

The method makes no assumptions on the good will of the parties. Since there is always a proposal with minimum resistance, consensus is not blocked, but always provides a solution. If several proposals receive the same minimum group resistance, other criteria can be added to come to a clearer decision.

FURTHER INFORMATION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wR5YXYECOE&feature=youtu.be
• http://www.sk-prinzip.eu/ ,

FAQ

Be aware that the proposals need to be comparable. If there is a bigger conflict, it is helpful to have proposals for each party of conflict.

Trainers for this method can be hired here:

http://www.plenum.at/ http://www.plenum.at/de/wer-wir-sind/team.html