Scenario: Consensus
As an action learning coach, how would you handle the following situation:
The team is having trouble coming to consensus.
Tags: Action Leaning, Action Learning Coach, WIAL Action Learning, WIAL Talk
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Emmanuel Ossom
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As a coach, i would ask the team: “What would help us get to consensus”? This would be followed by asking them who has the nest question? This will lead to the team members asking themselves series of further questions or asking questions they might have asked already in refined ways. This would mean the coach repeating the coaching session with the team until such a time that consensus is reached. The team couldn’t reach a consensus because they probably asked the wrong questions , or some of them actually got the real problem at hand while others didn’t. The first question as to how the team can reach consensus is very important. The team in response to this questions would even ask themselves more right questions that would lead to more insight into the real problem and better understanding of it through refinement of what they already saw the real problem to be in order to create harmony but also synergy among their initial varying views of what the real problem is. Without reaching consensus the real problem wouldn’t be identified let alone to be solved. Reaching consensus requires patience and although it could be time-consuming, it is the surest way to generate the best ingredients that must define the real problem from any problem statement presented. Moreover, reaching consensus requires that team members give equal respect to the views of everyone, everyone must be allowed to speak his/her mind, and no team member should be domineering so that the real problem shouldn’t be seen as an imposition be one or few people even if it is actually the real problem. Once there is consensus, the team would be motivated to take action on the solution and there could be assurance that the right action will be taken for the right solution. Consensus on the real problem mean an individual sense of ownership of the real problem and this will invariably stir up great commitment towards taking action on it.
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Pascale Brady
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I assume this means having trouble coming to consensus on the problem – either way, I believe that the best way to handle this is to keep stopping the conversation and asking:
“How do we feel we are doing on agreeing on the problem on a scale of 0-10?”
Then go around the table and ask each person to give a number.
Then ask them to write down the problem. Then ask each person to read the problem. Then going around the room again and ask
“do we agree on the problem? Yes or no?”
Depending on which round of this we are on of doing this, we can follow this up with
“what are we doing well as a group?”
“what could we do better?”
Then “who has the next question?”
If there have been many rounds of this same iteration and the team still is not getting to consensus, one could start asking more specific questions about that:
“what could the team do to reach consensus on the problem?
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Michal Weyna
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If this scenario happens during a check-in, after the problem statements are read out loud, I would ask the team: what would help us reach a consensus?
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Simone Gutwilen
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At the time of the intervention I would ask: do we have consensus about the problem, yes or no? And ask to each participant to write with their own words what they believe is the real problem that we are helping to resolve today. Then I would ask to each participant: Do we have consensus, yes, no or enough? If the answer is no and we have time, I would ask: What would help us get consensus? Who has the next question?. If we have no time, I would ask: Which part of the problem do we have consensus?
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Ana Motta
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In the stage where the action learning coach makes the intervention and asks if everyone has a consensus on the problem, then he asks each one to write in his own words what he believes is the real problem we are helping the narrator solve today, and after everyone says “We have a consensus, yes, no or enough” and have at least one participant who says he does not have a consensus, if he has the time it is important to ask the participants: “What would help us to get “The Action Learning Coach then repeats the questioning process:” We have a consensus on what we are going to do with the Action Learning Coach. problem ?, yes or no? “And then ask to write in their own words what is believed to be the real problem we are helping the narrator to solve today, repeat the process everyone talks about “We have consensus, yes, no or enough.”
If there is still no consensus ask the participants what part of the problem they have consensus and write on the flipchart. We believe that by working with action learning in a part of the problem that there is consensus, the group will already put it into motion.
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fatima dias
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-As a AL Coach, if we have time, I would ask :
– What would help us to get consensus?
If we don’t have time enougth, I would ask:
– Which part of the problem do we have consensus?
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Renata Gripp
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If we have already explored the consensus phases and they have difficulty finding even a common part of the problem, I would use a technique that I really like that is the writing of an “aquarium” phrase in which a participant writes his phrase in the board and the other participants create over the written phrase (complementing or replacing words) until everyone has contributed the message of that text. It is a collaborative and consensual way of arriving at a concept result.
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Ana Carolina Ferreira
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After around 10 minutes I would proceed the standard questions about the team and would announce that we reached the “Consensus fase”. I would do the regular intervention asking if we have consensus or not? Participants should write down “What do you think is the real problem we can help ____ to solve ?” after standard procedure, If there is no consensus, and we have time to more exploration, I would ask “What shall you do to help to get a consensus ?” After, “Who has the next question?” After some more minutes of exploration, we ask participants to write down the problem again. If there’s no consensus again, I would ask “In which part of the problem we can get to a Consensus? If there’s no consensus yet, the problem giver has the final decision, about the part os the problem they get consensus.
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Kanokwan Srisunthorn
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I will intervene and ask them “What are we doing well as a team?”, “How could we do better?” Who will be the next question? ((if we have a time, I will ask them to continue a few questions. ) Then, ” Which part of the problem we can get to a concensus”?. Then, ask everyone to state the “real problem again”
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Weranuch Wongwatanakul
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The team is having trouble coming to consensus.
First, my intervention should be made to let them aware of how close they are for having a consensus. For example, i’ll ask “From a scale 1 to 10, how important it is for you to have a consensus on this problem?”. Second, no matter how score they give, I’ll ask “From scale 1 to 10, do we close to getting a consensus?. Third, i’ll then ask them to write down, in a flip chart, what they think it should be the real problem. Then, I’ll ask them what they are going to do in a step-by-step action as to getting to a consensus.
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Marcelo Conte
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In this case, I could intervene with the question “What are we doing the best? What can we improve? “, Trying to get the group to reflect on the procedures and find a way to reach this consensus.
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Marcelo Conte
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In that case, I could intervene with the question “What are we doing best? What can we improve? “Trying to get the group to reflect on the procedures and find a way to reach that consensus. And he would ask, “What part of the problem do we have a consensus on?”
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Angela Simone Nicoleti Donadel
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As an action learning coach I would done the intervention, asking if do we have consensus about the problem, yes or no? Asking to each one to write with their own words what they believe is the real problem that we are helping to solve. Then I would ask to each participant: do we have consensus, yes, no or enough? If an answer is not I would ask: what would help us to get consensus? Who has the next question? Applying the second round to reach the consensus. At the end os this round if the group didn´t reach the consensus I would ask: which part of the problem do we have consensus?
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Monica Teófilo
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I ask to team what can they do to get the consensus and if it doesn’t work I ask about what part of the problem do they have a consensus.
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Christine Fischer
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As the action learning coach, I would state how much time is left, ask what would help the group get to consensus on the real problem, followed by asking who has the next question.
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Christophe GARS
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As a coach, I would take the opportunity to ask” What do we need to reach a consensus on the problem ? / What could we do better ? “” Then ask everybody to write what the real problem is. After everybody participation, I would try to find common ideas between the participants and ask them to think and focus on it.
After a new round, if the team is still struggling, I would ask them again to write the real problem but this time I will ask them to write only three words with a limited time.
With this method, we should be closer and closer the consensus.
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Roberta Gamboa
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I would ask someone to help writing on the board and would ask:
– Which part of the problem do we have consensus?
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Erica Venema
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I would ask the group what elements of the problem we do have a consensus. I would ask the person that introduced the problem to write these elements down. When elements are mentioned where there are just 1 or 2 members that do not agree yet, I stimulate them to ask questions to come to an agreement. When that does not lead to consensus in about 2 or 3 questions, we’ll skill the element. Then I ask the introducer of the problem to formulate the problem, based on the elements that the group agrees on.
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