Consensus decision making

I was just tidying up room, moving things here and there and in an old shoe box I found an old paper script I had for long time. It's  around 25 pages,  a good friend of mine gave it to me time ago and told me to read it carefully. I did read it long ago, I was reading it again tonight and I thought that It would be interesting to just share some parts of it in the blog.
Is not related to software at all, but it describes in great detail the process of consensus decision making which I consider an extremely important thing to understand by every person in a self-directed team or organisation.

As you probably know, the "Agile Manifesto" in one of its clauses says that the best work its done by self directed teams. Unfortunately in many organisations today "Agile" is just a buzz word and doesn't go beyond the developers desk...

So without saying much more, I will just paste here some parts of that text, which I hope you find interesting and also help you get a grasp of what it means to decide in consensus.

CONSENSUS DECISION MAKING

Consensus decision making is a creative and dynamic way of reaching agreement between all members of a group. Instead of simply voting for an item and having the majority of the group getting their way, a consensus group is committed to finding solutions that everyone actively supports – or at least can live with. This makes sure that all opinions, ideas and concerns are taken into account. By listening closely to each other, the group aims to come up with proposals that work for everyone. Consensus is neither compromise nor unanimity – it aims to go further by weaving together everyone’s best ideas and most important concerns – a process that often results in surprising and creative solutions, inspiring both the individual and the group as whole.

At the heart of consensus is a respectful dialogue between equals. It’s about everyone working together to meet both the individual’s and the group’s needs – working with each other rather than for or against each other, something that requires openness and trust. Consensus is looking for ‘win-win’ solutions that are acceptable to all - no decision will be made against the will of an individual or a minority. Instead the group adapts to all its members’ needs. If everyone agrees to a decision they will all be much more committed to making it happen. Consensus decision making is based on the idea that people should have full control over their lives and that power should be shared by all, not just concentrated in the hands of a few. It’s about having the freedom to decide one’s own course in life and the right to play an equal role in creating a common future. This is why it is used widely in groups working towards a more just and equitable society such as small voluntary groups, co-operatives and campaign networks.

CONDITIONS FOR CONSENSUS

Common Goal: Everyone in the group needs to share a clear common goal and be willing to work together towards it. Work out together what your goals are and how you will get there. If differences arise later, revisit the common goal to help to focus and unite the group. 

Commitment to reaching consensus: Everyone needs to be willing to really give it a go. This means being deeply honest about what it is you want or don’t want, and properly listening to what others have to say. Everyone must be willing to shift their positions, to be open to alternative solutions and be able to reassess their needs. 

Trust and openness: We need to be able to trust that everyone shares our commitment to consensus and that everyone respects our opinions and equal rights. It would be a big breach of trust for people to manipulate the process of the meeting in order to get the decision they most want. Part of this is to openly express both our desires (what we’d like to see happening), and our needs (what we have to see happen in order to be able to support a decision). If everyone is able to talk openly then the group will have the information it requires to take everyone’s positions into account and to come up with a solution that everyone can support.

Sufficient time: for making decisions and for learning to work by consensus. Taking time to make a good decision now can save wasting time revisiting a bad one later. 

Clear Process: It’s essential to have a clear process for making decisions and to make sure that everyone has a shared understanding of how it works. 

Active participation: In consensus we all need to actively participate. We need to listen to what everyone has to say, voice our thoughts and feelings about the matter and pro-actively look for solutions that include everyone.

Good facilitation: When your group is larger than just a handful of people or you are trying to make difficult decisions, appoint facilitators to help your meeting run more smoothly. Good facilitation helps the group to work harmoniously, creatively and democratically. It also ensures that the tasks of the meeting get done, that decisions are made and implemented. If in a small group, you don't give one person the role of facilitator, then everyone can be responsible for facilitation. If you do appoint facilitators, they need active support from everyone present.

KEY SKILLS FOR CONSENSUS

Active Listening: When we actively listen we suspend our own thought processes and give the speaker our full attention. We make a deliberate effort to understand someone’s position and their needs, concerns and emotions. 

Summarising: A succinct and accurate summary of what’s been said so far can really help a group move towards a decision. Outline the emerging common ground as well as the unresolved differences: “It seems like we’ve almost reached agreement on that bit of the proposal, but we need to explore this part further to address everyone’s concerns.” Check with everyone that you’ve got it right.

Synthesis: Find the common ground and any connections between seemingly competing ideas and weave them together to form proposals. Focus on solutions that address the fundamental needs and key concerns that people within the group have. 

FACILITATION

In most meetings, there are one or more facilitators. Their role is to ensure that the tasks of the meeting get done: that decisions are made and implemented. They also help the group to work harmoniously, creatively and democratically. The facilitators might take steps to keep the meeting focused, or make sure a few people don’t dominate the discussion. They might suggest a break when people are getting tired; they might have prepared an agenda and process that will help the group achieve its goals. The facilitators shouldn’t have any more power than anyone else and should stay neutral on the issues under discussion. They’re not there to make all the proposals and decide things for a group. They can only do their job with everyone’s support and co-operation. If a small group doesn’t give anyone the role of facilitator, then everyone can be responsible for making the process of the meeting work.

GUIDELINES

• If you don’t understand something, don’t be afraid to say so.
  
•  Be willing to work towards the solution that’s best for everyone, not just what’s best for you. Be flexible and willing to give something up to reach an agreement.
  
• Help to create a respectful and trusting atmosphere. Nobody should be afraid to express their ideas and opinions. Remember that we all have different values, backgrounds and behaviour and we get upset by different things.
  
•  Explain your own position clearly. Be open and honest about the reasons for your view points. Express your concerns early on in the process so that they can be taken into account in any proposals.
  
• Listen actively to what people are trying to say. Make an effort to understand someone’s position and their underlying needs, concerns and emotions. Give everyone space to finish and take time to consider their point of view.
  
• Think before you speak, listen before you object. Listen to other members’ reactions and consider them carefully before pressing your point. Self restraint is essential in consensus – sometimes the biggest obstacle to progress is an individual’s attachment to one idea. If another proposal is good, don’t complicate matters by opposing it just because it isn’t your favourite idea! Ask yourself: “Does this idea work for the group, even if I don’t like it the best?” or “Does it matter which one we choose?”
  
• Don’t be afraid of disagreement. Consensus isn’t about us all thinking the same thing. Differences of opinion are natural and to be expected. Disagreements can help a group’s decision, because with a wide range of information and opinions, there is a greater chance the group will find good solutions. Easily reached consensus may cover up the fact that some people don’t feel safe or confident enough to express their disagreements.

AGREEMENT AN DISAGREEMENT

At the decision stage people have several options:

Agreement with the proposal. 

Reservations: You are willing to let the proposal go ahead but want to make the group aware you aren’t happy with it. You may even put energy into implementing it once your concerns have been acknowledged.

Standing aside: You want to object, but not block the proposal. This means you won’t help to implement the decision, but you are willing for the group to go ahead with it. You might stand aside because you disagree with the proposal, or you might like the decision but be unable to support it because you don’t have the time or energy. The group may be happy to accept the stand aside and go ahead, or they may work on a new proposal, especially if there are several stand asides. 

A block: always stops a proposal from going ahead. It expresses a fundamental objection. It isn’t “I don’t really like it,” or “I liked the other ide a better.” It means that you cannot live with the proposal. The group can either start work on a new proposal, or look for amendments to overcome the objection.

 In an ideal consensus process a block wouldn’t happen since any major concerns about a proposal should be addressed before the decision stage. However, sometimes people aren’t able to express their concerns clearly enough, or aren’t heard by the group. In such situations the block acts as a safeguard to ensure that decisions are supported by everyone.

 Being able to block is an integral part of consensus, but it comes with a big responsibility. A block stops other people from doing something that they would like to do, and it should therefore only be used if serious concerns are unresolved.

 Make sure everyone understands the different options for expressing disagreement. Often people are confused and block when they’d actually be happy to stand aside. Sometimes people are scared of blocking, even if they are deeply unhappy and use a milder form of disagreement instead. 

THE WORKFLOW OF CONSENSUS

There are many different ways of reaching consensus.

This model outlines the common stages and will work well with up to about 20 people. 

Step 1: Introduce and clarify the issue(s) to be decided Share relevant info. What are the key questions? 

Step 2: Explore the issue and look for ideas. 

• Gather initial thoughts and reactions. What are the issues and people's concerns? 
•  Collect ideas for solving the problem write them down. 
• Have a broad ranging discussion and debate the ideas. What are the pros and cons? Start thinking about solutions to people's concerns. Eliminate some ideas, shortlist others. 

Step 3: Look for emerging proposals Look for a proposal that weaves together the best elements of the ideas discussed. Look for solutions that address people’s key concerns. 

Step 4: Discuss, clarify and amend your proposal Ensure that any remaining concerns are heard and that everyone has a chance to contribute. Look for amendments that make the proposal even more acceptable to the group. 

Step 5: Test for agreement Do you have agreement? Check for the following: 

• Blocks: I have a fundamental disagreement with the core of the proposal that has not been resolved. We need to look for a new proposal. 
• Stand asides: I can't support this proposal because ... But I don't want to stop the group, so I'll let the decision happen without me. 
• Reservations: I have some reservations but am willing to let the proposal pass. 
• Agreement: I support the proposal and am willing to implement it. 
• Consensus: No blocks, not too many stand asides or reservations? Active agreement? Then we have a decision!

If test for agreement fails, go back to Step 3

Step 6: Implement the decision Who, when, how? Action point the tasks and set deadlines.

This text in my opinion is really good, I just pasted there some of the key important things but there are so much more to it such as: how to deal with disruptive behavoir, larger groups, quick tips for emergency decision making and much more... 

Being capable of consensus decision making is probably one of the greater skills a team or a company can have. If you are interested on the topic, I would suggest you to search online on the topic, because there are plenty of stuff. A true agile team is transparent, has an spirit of shared ownership and responsibility and is capable of self organising. 

Retrospectives – “Lets talk about it”(Part 2)

In the previous post, I briefly explained what retrospectives are, why they are important and also I explained what is often that happens before them and how the facilitator prepares for it.

The following posts will be more focussed on retrospective formats/styles that could help the self organized team in different scenarios.


The first format/style I would like to explain is what I call "The Diplomatic Open Retro".
This retrospective style is best suited for a team that its not very familiar with the concept of retrospectives and also has a necessity of improving mostly its internal team self organizational process(e.g internal communication, workload management, development practices, internal optimizations, etc...).

How it works
At the beggining every attendant receives some post-it notes and is asked to write down all the topics that would like to discuss. Ten minutes should be enough, but depending on many factors sometimes gathering topics is more difficult. In order to help people getting inspired, the facilitator can play some relaxing music, also could write some of the hot-topics from the previous analysis in a board or even encourage the people to talk to each other(as long as it is helping discover topics).

This period is a critical part of the retrospective and it should take as long as needed, nobody should feel rush and only when all are happy with the topics collected the retrospective will carry on. Also it is important to mention that in the post-it, the team members can write in whatever way they want, there is no predefined format, even a simple sentence could do. If a team member doesn't know what to write, it is perfectly fine(he/she doesn't have to).

The next step will be to go one round around the table in which each of the members will briefly with a couple of sentences, explain each of the cards they wrote. There will be no replica, this is just a pure diplomatic exercise in which the members will try to convince the others of voting on their topics to be discussed. The person talking will stand up and as he/she briefly explains the topic, will also start sticking them into the voting board. During this period it often happens that people are mentioning the same topic so, this will be also a great exercise to group the topics that are repeated together so the voting can after be more accurate.

Once the topics are on the board, it is the time for for voting. Each of the members will be asked to place 3 marks in those topics that considers more important to be discussed.

It is important to understand that the time for the retrospective is limited and not all the topics will be discussed so the team needs to have a mechanism of selecting those topics that are considered more important. No voted topics will be discarded(They will appear in future retrospectives if they are important).

The voted topics will be discussed in order of(most voted ones first). The facilitator will make sure that takes notes of possible actions and key points as the conversations goes. Each topic will be time boxed within 10 to 15 minutes, after that time the facilitator will ask every body to start proposing and deciding on actions and owners for those actions. Actions will need to be decided before moving on to the next topic. It is very common in retrospectives that there is a lot of debate but little actions, this retrospective style attempts to gather actions while topics are closed. For the team to decide that an action is not needed its ok but this is rare to occur and if it occurs it will have to be decided by all that no action is to be taken. See an example of how gathered actions look like:

ACTIONS

Low Team Capacity(4 votes)

• Team unsure if should talk to HR, Management or other Dev team.(Owner: No action to be taken until we find out) 

Coolaboration between teams(3 votes)

• Devs to assist testers before moving into next dev task(Owner: All devs)
• Setup the machine of the new joiner(Owner: Team Leader)
•  Review handover checklist before going on holidays(Owner: All devs)

Failing builds(3 votes)

• Determine why the build is red for more than a month(Owner: Senior dev)

Cakes all over the office(2 votes)

• -Stop eating unhealthy cakes and organize a team dinner to celebrate xmas(Owner: Team Leader)

Tech debt catch up(2 votes)

• -Not enough time to discuss in this retro, add as a hot-topic for next retro(Owner: Facilitator)

Sometimes the team is unable to decide an action, because their dependency/blocker is outside of their team. In this case, they will need to identify who are those individuals that need to be influenced. But that is a topic that I will cover in another post.

Meditating about the self directed I.T company

It is probably this times that we are living now that the "Agile method" to develop software has become in my "modest" opinion, one of the most important topics that all the I.T professionals without exception, need to understand if we want to build a successful, prosperous, rational, healthy, ethic, diverse... software development industry.

The eleventh principle of the "Agile manifesto" says:

"The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams"

Self organization is such a broad topic, that covering it in a blog post, or even on a book would probably not be enough.

What I want to do in this brief post, is just share some thoughts that hopefully will transmit to the readers some curiosity about the huge potential i believe self-organized teams have, for not just building great software, but also for building great self-directed companies.

                                                                       

Given an stimulus of some sort(e.g. challenge,threat,desire,problem,need...), either from within or from the outside, a self-organized team will increase its awareness and will react to it:

• Feelings for gathering information related to the stimulus will arise.
• Need for requirements will start to exist.
• Interesting doubts and questions both technical and non-technical will bloom.
• Debate will take place.
• Priorities will be decided in consensus.
• Interaction with other teams will occur if necessary(more stimulus will be created).
• Actions will be suggested by team/s.
• Team/s decisions will be made.
• Slowly but unstoppable, a self directed organization will start moving in as many directions as its collective mind considers and software will start emerging.
• Feedback will arrive, the self-directed organization will use it and will keep moving.

                                                                       

The company that is composed of self-organized teams is capable of moving in multiple directions at the same time, without the need of central management or a central financing bodies. We say that the company is self-directed.

Self-organized teams are also self-created, the individuals can choose to join or leave a team whenever they want, and even hiring  is their responsibility. In fact the teams keep changing shape continuously. Exactly the same principle applies to every single aspect, even vacations. Imagine having as much vacation as you would like... We work for living we don't live for work!

In this type of company every individual has a salary and also an additional reward upon completion of team goals which is determined by the teams gentlemen agreements. This reward is not necessarily cash, it will also be equity ownership. The company will end up being owned by their employees.

If a team fails for whatever reasons its goals, the overall impact for the company would be minimal and for the individual it would not be harmful at all and even in the worse case scenario, the team members can either decide to build something else, or incorporate themselves to other teams.

This is for me a self-directed company and in my opinion, the company of the future.
Just for finishing, one beautiful quote that I think describes very well the spirit of teamwork, and also is useful to lower big individualistic egos ;)

"None of us would be something without the rest and the rest would not be something without each of us"