Team Management Concept

[Guest Susan]

Robert's Rules of Order are used in the Board of Directors situation. How can they - or should they - be applied to the Team Management concept which uses consensus,etc.?

[jstackpo]

If by "consensus" you mean, as in a Quaker meeting, "everybody agrees" (or at least doesn't disagree strongly enough to express the disagreement openly) is a requirement to adopt something, then you won't find that in RONR.

In RONR, like the Supremes, a one vote majority is quite enough, thank you.

The way RONR "applies" to your TM concept, is by saying "Your rules supersede mine".

[Tim Wynn]

Robert's Rules of Order are used in the Board of Directors situation. How can they - or should they - be applied to the Team Management concept which uses consensus,etc.?

Robert's Rules of Order applies to deliberative assemblies, where individuals meet to make decisions as a group.

[Gary Novosielski]

To quote from the Introduction to RONR, 11th ed.:

[Gen. Henry M.] Robert was surely aware of the early evolutionary development of parliamentary procedure in the English House of Lords resulting in a movement from “consensus,” in its original sense of unanimous agreement, toward a decision by majority vote as we know it today. This evolution came about from a recognition that a requirement of unanimity or near unanimity can become a form of tyranny in itself. In an assembly that tries to make such a requirement the norm, a variety of misguided feelings—reluctance to be seen as opposing the leadership, a notion that causing controversy will be frowned upon, fear of seeming an obstacle to unity—can easily lead to decisions being taken with a pseudoconsensus which in reality implies elements of default, which satisfies no one, and for which no one really assumes responsibility. Furthermore, what is apparently taken to be the sense of the meeting may well be little more than a “least common denominator” of such generality as to contribute little to the solution of the practical problem involved, thereby leaving such matters to officers or staff or the meeting’s organizers to work out according to their own intentions. Robert saw, on the other hand, that the evolution of majority vote in tandem with lucid and clarifying debate—resulting in a decision representing the view of the deliberate majority—far more clearly ferrets out and demonstrates the will of an assembly. It is through the application of genuine persuasion and parliamentary technique that General Robert was able to achieve decisions in meetings he led which were so free of divisiveness within the group.

So if you're looking for "least common denominator" ideas, you will probably love consensus decision making. Speaking for myself, and having seen it in action, I long ago resolved never to join a(nother) group or to work or consult for a company that uses it.