Reflection Paper from Group Project - Define Consensus

Reflection Paper from Group Project

I. Decision Making Method

a. Primary decision making method

i. I feel that we used authority rule and consensus as our major decision making methods, but since I have to choose only one, I'll choose consensus as the primary method.

b. Define consensus

i. A consensus is a decision made by the group that they are all willing to support. The ideal consensus decision would be a unanimous, indisputable support where everyone really agrees with the decision. For example, the whole group may agree that the best way to study for the group test is to each make a detailed outline of a section of the reading material. Not everyone always agrees, and that is ok. Initial Unanimity isn't required for a consensus. Sometimes group members will have to agree to disagree. Reaching consensus takes time. It requires cooperation from group members, a willingness to have temporary disagreements, a commitment to listening carefully to other ideas, and a win win attitude, groups should limit consensus decisions to important issues when the need for agreement is high, and when the group can dedicate the time and effort necessary to reach agreement. (pg 256)

c. Examples

i. The first time that I think we used the decision making method consensus was on the very first day that our group met. We were trying to decide what our topic would be. We were all there that day, except for Jordan. Jennifer suggested that we investigate if there were any charities that raised money for Sickle Cell Anemia. She has this disease and was very interested in finding more information on research being done and if there were any charities that helped find a cure. I suggested a charity for a disease called Progeria. I had heard of the disease on a talk show once and was very interested in finding out more. It is a disease that affects children and ages them at 12 times that normal rate. Children that are diagnosed with this disease usually only live to about 13. We researched both of the topics as a group and we all decided together that Progeria was more attention grabbing than Sickle Cell Anemia.

ii. The second time that we used consensus was when we decided that Progeria was not common enough to get an emotional response. None of us could relate to this topic and there had not been enough research done so there just wasn't enough material to work with. Everyone at this meeting agreed to change the topic except one person. Jennifer was not at this meeting but she was indifferent to the topic choice. This consensus decision was a little different because not all of us initially agreed that we should change our topic. William wanted to stick with a Progeria charity. I told him about my friend Jimi who has Multiple Sclerosis and that