Ken Clark is the executive director of the North Bay and Coastal Consortium School Leadership Center (SLC), which several years ago began a project to build the leadership skills of principals, administrators, and teacher-leaders. Consensus-building has been an important part of this leadership training.
Clark worked with fellows at the NCRVE summer institute, Step by Step: Pathways to Connect Vocational and Academic Reform, teaching them the basics of consensus. Fellows encouraged the teams of educators at the institute to consider how they might use consensus to "surface" important discussions and help their own group interactions.
For example, one or two individuals in a team will sometimes dominate and make it difficult for other members to participate. In the absence of an agreement for equal opportunity for input, even a facilitator doesn't have the tools needed to suggest how people might change their behaviors. Usually those who are able to play a stronger role in the team see no need to create a new set of rules, and this can make it increasingly difficult for someone else to begin to influence or take part in the work of the team. The quieter individuals may end up removing themselves from the group, because they feel they have no opportunity to influence decisions. In volunteer groups, such individuals may simply leave. In a school, they can't leave, because their jobs are at stake, but they may not be fully committed to "group" decisions. Getting all members of a team to engage in discussions and decision-making is one of the most effective ways to increase team productivity, and advance the goals of building student skills and achievement.
The guidelines for consensus within teacher teams are:
Clearly, step one is the foundation for the rest of the process. It is essential that people have equal opportunity for input, engage in an interchange of ideas, and try to bring interests, rather than positions, to the surface. For example, the interest for a team of teachers may be to come up with a common lesson-planning time. Clark recommends focusing on that shared interest, rather than on a fixed position ("I refuse to go to meetings after work").
In consensus, just one person can "block" a group decisionÑunlike voting, where the majority rules. Conditions for blocking must be discussed up front, before discussions begin. The School Leadership Center recommends the following conditions:
This must either be something new, or something that was considered before, but which was not fully considered, or has a new aspect to be weighed.
When a decision is finally made, all team members must agree to fully support the decision. Says Clark, "The process of getting there allows people to build their commitment towards acting on the decision."