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CHAPTER 1 What Is Consensus?

For the past fifteen years, most of my work as a consultant has been based on a single premise:

Real change does not come from decree, pressure, permission, or persuasion. It comes from people who are passionately and personally committed to a decision or direction they have helped to shape.

If you want to turn your organization’s bystanders or cynics into owners, give them a meaningful voice in decisions that impact their work. When people are invited to come together to share their ideas, concerns, and needs, they become engaged. They move from being passive recipients of instructions to committed champions of decisions. This is the power of deciding together.

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Consensus Defined

Consensus is a cooperative process ...

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