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CHAPTER 5 Six Traps That Undermine Consensus

Group facilitation is an art, and facilitating consensus-based decisions is the pinnacle of that art form. It can be one of the most challenging types of decision processes to facilitate—and one of the most rewarding.

The more you facilitate consensus-based processes, the more likely you are to encounter “traps” that have the potential to cause an unnecessary breakdown in the process. Not every consensus process leads to a consensus decision. As described in Chapter 4, there are legitimate reasons consensus is not reached. That said, you must learn to recognize and constructively address disruptive behaviors that undermine the spirit and practice of consensus.

Let’s examine some of the most common ...

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