It was like popcorn. One kernel, then the next, then more. After the first person spoke up, it seemed to encourage honesty on the part of others. It obviously had not been a good day for the members of the group. I finally stopped the flow of the group to talk about anger and how to handle it. Anger is not wrong. When in a good place, anger is a fire within that motivates a person to do something or say something. When done right, it transfers positive values to a perso

“We don’t do things by a majority vote. We operate by consensus!” That seems like a simple statement, but it set off a number of thoughts. What does it mean to operate by consensus? And when is a consensus a consensus? A consensus is not 100%, so what percent is enough? Most of the time, people build consensus around compromise. It is about meeting in the middle where everybody gets a little bit of what they want and so they eventually buy in. That may be how it works i