MG-GY 6013

Individual Paper
Consensus Decision Making Analysis in Pancha-Bootha Team

Introduction
In the era of globalization, most organizations believe diversity is an asset that can bring
many benefits. A diverse workforce contains richness of backgrounds and brings perspective that
is important for any organization to improve and innovate. While creating diversity is a current
trend for many organisations, studies have shown that creating a diverse environment so that all
people feel respected and valued, and in the same time still facilitating their uniqueness is a rarity
(Bourke, Smith, Stockton, & Wakefield, 2014).
Decision-making is define as the act or process of making decisions especially within a
group of people (Merriam-Webster, 2015). Base on the definition decision-making has the
abilitiy to let an individual within a group of people to contribute to an outcome for the whole
group. Therefore, decision-making process should be considered as a way to reach an inclusive
environment, where every voices are heard and considered.
For the purpose of this study I will focus my analysis on Pancha-Boothas decision-making
process. Pancha-Boothas is team of 5 people that came from diverse background. Archana was
born and raised in India, she had worked in the Oil and Gas Industry before pursuing her second
masters degree at NYU. Chinwe came from Nigeria, she has bachelor degree in Computer
Science and had worked in financial industry before joining MoT program. I was born and raised
in Indonesia, I worked in IT industry before deciding to pursue my Masters degree at NYU.
Karthik came from India, he worked in Manufacturing Industry prior to NYU. Our final member
Rob was born and raised in United States, he is working in Marketing and Media Industry while
doing his Masters at NYU.

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After almost three months of interacting with my teammates, I realized that decision-making
contributed the most to our team learning experience . We regulary met 4 hours a week virtually
and 75% of our time was related with decision making process. In the decision-making process,
it is very natural for me to expect my opinions to be heard, but as member of diverse team, I
realized I also need recognisition and validation of my ideas.
ODT (Optimal Distinctiveness Theory) explains that human beings within a group have two
compeling needs; assimilation or inclusion and uniqueness or differentiation from other
individuals (Brewer, 1991). ODT consitutes that individuals seek to balance these two needs
through an optimal level of inclusion in the group to which they belong (Brewer, 1991). Defined
as process used by groups seeking to generate widespread levels of participation and agreement
(Hartnett, 2015), concensus decision-making can facilitate these two needs. Following this
reasoning, I came to my thesis: Consensus decision-making is a means to facilitate the need of
assimilation and distinctiveness in a small-diverse team.
Part I : How Pancha-Boothas Decided its Decision-Making Process
From my observation, the classs active and diverse population played important factor in
shaping our team decision-making process. Throughout the course, I observed different kind of
perspective that sometimes contradicted with each other. For example, when we discussing
Chens case, I could fully understand Chens decison to not express his feelings, but the same
decision seems unnaceptable for Kate Scott, she believed Chens really need to speak up.
Similarly when the class was polled about the desire to work with Zappos , only one-third of a
class raised their hands, which show fun culture of Zappos and the freedom to express
themselves, for some reason was not considered as right fit for most of the class members.
Shields case, on the other hand, brought us on the same level of understanding on how we

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should pay attention regarding the communication issue in a cross-cultural team, in this session
we forced to look from both side of perspective, US and India, and try to put ourselves in each of
their position. All of these made we realized that diversity is not always a visible elements, such
as sex, ethnicity, or country of origin, but it also about the not visible one such as diversity of
though. Diversity of thought always came out in every class meetings and Pancha Bhoothas
members recognized these different kind of persective and shared the same interest to facilitate
it.
Flat structure play another major part in deciding our decision making process. We didnt
select team leader ( we didnt even discuss about it) and only differentiate our task through roles
and responsibilities. We refer to Managing for the Future combined with Belbin team roles to
list type of roles to choose and then utilized MBTI and Killman-test result to select appropriate
role for each of us. Archana took a role as an boundary manager, Chinwe as an finisher, Karthik
took role as an project manager, Rob as an meeting coordinator, and I took role as an resource
manager. Based on our team structure, we compared three common types of decision-making
process:

TABLE 1
Comparison of Common Types of Decision-Making Process (Bauman, 2015)

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Clearly only consensus decision-making and majority decision-making that match with our
flat team structure. As a diverse team of 5 people, we want to take advantage of our diversity
potential by encouraging participation in every stage of decision making, between these two
decision making type, only consensus decision making posses characteristics to do so.
Furthermore, we regard reaching consensus very highly, as stated in our contract, We agreed
that for any non-trivial decisions (Non-trivial decisions are any steps that will hinder the progress
of the project) , the team will attempt to reach a concensus. If we cannot reach a concensus, we
will specify an amount of time to collect our thoughts before attempting to reach a concensus
again. All in all, both of the external factor, richness of diversity performance in class, and
internal factor, flat group structure, brought us to decision to use consensus decision-making as
our decision-making process.
Part II: How Pancha-Bootha Followed Its Concensus Decision-Making Process
In every non-trivial decision we made we always follow the 6 process stages below:

TABLE 2
Consensus Decision-Making Process Stages (Hartnett, 2015)
We always started our discussion by brainstorming and expressing our ideas and concerns,
we identified good ideas arise and combine the ideas. We checked wether every team member
has any concern before collaboratively modify the proposal together. We again checked wether
proposal/idea we had so far is supported by every team member, if it is the case we could finalize
the decision, if it was not we back to disccus the concerns thoroughly. To follow this process is
very important because in consensus decision making how we arrive in one decision is equally

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important as the decision itself. I identified three important events where we shown our
commitment to the process and in the same time we shown cohesiveness within the team.
Event 1 : You need to get involve!
Rob as a meeting coordinator, scheduled weekly google hangout meeting every Sunday
evening. In our first meeting, we got a lot of things to cover such as team contract and team
profile. For me virtual meeting is always not my first option, not only in this group but for every
group I have been involved with. Moreover with the language issues, for me the barrier was
getting thicker, but because virtual meeting is the most convenient way for most of the team
members to discuss every week in the midst of our activity, I tried my best to participate and
contribute.
In the first meeting it is very important to set the positive environment that will encourage
participation in the decision making-process. Even though we have been invited to the meeting
and everyone know that he can communicate their ideas freely, it doesnt mean everyone will
actually participate. In my case, in addition to my concern with virtual meeting, Im not
confident enough to communicate my ideas, let alone defend them. I need someone to unfold the
process for me, so that I will feel comfortable enough to share my ideas. In this phase the role of
facilitator is really important, even though we dont exactly mentioned meeting facilitator role in
our contract, but Rob, as a meeting coordinator, quickly assumed this role as his responsibility.
His background as a engagement manager in a cross-functional team helped him a lot in this
case.
In our first meeting, I didnt talk as much as I suppose to do, as a facilitator Rob did his job
by asking me, Ginda, you seems very quiet today, has any thought?. Maybe he didnt realize it,
but that actually helped me to participate. Initially I just shared my opinion abruptly, but

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realizing that all of the team members really considered my opinion was motivated me to
contribute better.
Rob also encouraged other team members to contribute if he think they are not engage
enough in the process, knowing this boost my confidence since I realized Im not the only one
who having the difficulties. Briefly, all of us realize that in consensus we care about how we
make the decision, it was not only about how to get the decision as soon as we could, it is also
important that every team members communicate ideas and concerns. We do valued the process
in gathering every voices available and to established this environment and mentality as early as
possible.
Event 2 : I block your thesis!
Agreement-seeking is a core element of consensus decision making. In Pancha Bootha we
strive to reach as much as agreement level as possible. Every team member has the equal right to
express his/her ideas, to evaluate, to support, to validate and even to block an other members
idea that has been approved by majority of team members. During our time working together,
there was one important event when Chinwe block majority approved idea.
It started when we brainstorming for our team paper thesis. Developing team paper was the
most time consuming activity throughout semester. Not to mention our decision to analyze a
movie required us to watch the movie two times, alone and together as a team. After we watched
the movie together we decided to take two days to think about thesis that we will propose for the
team paper, the theses will be evaluated and modified on the virtual meeting. After two days
passed, before noon we put our proposed thesis in google docs so eveyone could read it before
the evening meeting. In the evening meeting, as scheduled we explained each of our ideas and
why we thought this idea is important for our team learning and also class learning experience.

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After discussing, we decided to move forward with two ideas, my idea and Archanas idea. The
team agreed to give two hours to think again about the two ideas and before stating their support
to one of the two ideas. When we meet again after two hours, majority of the team members
decided to support my thesis, even Archana, but Chinwe didnt agree with the majority. She
stated her reason and became very strict about it, this event forced us to go back to stage 1
(discussion state) where we need to discuss the whole idea again.
I personally and I believe other team member felt little bit frustrated, since we had spent a lot
of time of discussing and we thought everyone was one the same page. But the good thing is we
was very commited to follow our decision making process and we put very positive mentality,
we calmly re-do the process and re-explain our decision why we need to support the idea. In the
end, Chinwe accepted the groups reasons and guaranteed she will support the group decision
even though she didnt 100% agree with the idea. In my opinion, we were more relax in reaching
consensus, we didnt force unanimity, where everyone must has 100% consent with the decision,
maybe because we also aware with the limited time window. Chinwes good enough was
enough to let the group to finalize the decision and thus reach the consensus.
Event 3 : We really need to meet in person
After the first three-days class meeting, for about month we never meet in person anymore,
all of our interaction was done by whatsapp chat and google hangouts meeting. When we did
google hangouts meeting where we brainstormed our idea together, there were some moments
that Im really having difficulties to articulate my ideas or following other teammates ideas. I felt
it will be a lot more easier for me to contribute if I could meet the group in person, so when we
reached the schedule to proposing feedback, I frankly stated my concern that I have difficulties
to contribute in virtual meeting setting.

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I proposed to meet in person to work on our team paper, since I thought that phase will be
the most crucial part in our groups agenda. The team received my input with open arms and
agreed that we really should do that in our next meeting and also once more when we will
preparing for our presentation. Briefly, the group showed cooperation element that is one of the
key parts of consensus decision making. By facilitating individuals needs, the group not only
helping team members to be more effecttive in contributing their ideas but also maintaining the
relationship within the group that providing sense of belong and inclusion
Part III: the Unstated Roles
After participating and observing a lot of brainstorming process in our team, I realized a very
interesting fact. That in the brainstorming and collaborating process most of us picked a
particular role, role that wasnt stated in our team contract, unique role which I called the
unstated role.
For me I didnt have any unstated role, I assumed the same role with what stated in the team
contract. I provided relevant references and resources that helped us to achieve our meeting
objectives. Rob as I mentioned in part II, has an unstated role as a facilitator who helped the team
to communicate their ideas. Archana most of the time put herself in the devils advocate position,
she really likes to challenge ideas or put her mind in alternative perspective. Chinwe unstated
role is very unique, she oftenly took the instructor/faculty point of view. Good example for this is
when she refused my thesis because she thought my thesis is very close to Prof. Fayard domain
of expertise. In Chinwes opinion it will put us in difficult position to get excellent grade.
Karthiks unstated role is similar with my role, he oftenly provided relevant resources and added
new information to the group.

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In my opinion, Robs and Archanas unstated role are the most important, since they were the
one who encouraged discussion and broadened our perspective. In most of the meetings, they
were also the one who drive the meeting so we could avoid deadlocks and achieving our meeting
objectives.
Overall, from my perspective consensus decision-making provided the platform for us to
demonstrate our distinctiveness. In every stage of consensus decision making process we have
the equal opportunity to express our ideas and concerns. Knowing that we have such opportunity,
gave us a reason to promote our difference, for example in this case assuming unstated role.
Recommendations
To produce better decision in a team through consensus decision-making, I think every
individual not only need the skill to produce ideas and but also need the skill to evaluate them.
But from my experience the ability to deliver these skills is equally important. Many times in the
discussion stage, I have good ideas or relevant concerns but I failed to articulate them in a better
way, so the team couldnt understand my point. In the future, if I could do differently I will
prepare my argument and justification better and if possible provide references early before the
meetings so that the team could understand the big idea first before listening to my reasoning.
Since consensus decision-making really depends on its process to produce a better decision,
there are three suggestions that I would like to propose for the team :
1. Spent more hours in non-virtual meeting.
For me consensus decision-making is all about gathering the best ideas and collaborate
to produce best decision for every team members. A lot of non-verbal communication are
missing during non-virtual meeting which is very uneffective in brainstorming process. If

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we could spend at least 2 hours a week to meet in person, Im sure we could produce
better decisions faster.
2. Follow the project timeline more closely
Most of the time we didnt follow on our project timeline, we tend to be more reactive
with upcoming deadline. Since reaching for consensus could be very time consuming,
sometimes we need to scheduled additional meeting so that we could address every
concerns emerge during the processes. By following project timeline, we could plan our
time better, meet our weekly objective,and avoid making hasty decisions.
3. Implementing Feedbacks Better
We reviewing our processes in most of the meetings, even we had one special meeting to
review our processes and gathering feedbacks. Unfortunately sometimes we just
recognised those feedbacks and never actually addressing them. For example, we knew
that we didnt follow our project timeline closely, but we never made any action to fix
that. Recognising concerns and getting feedbacks are very important, but if we dont
make something out of them, the efforts will be worthless.
Conclusion
Pancha-Bootha is a small team of five with a diverse population. Based on my observation on
Pancha-Boothas decision-making process, there are five elements that make consensus decisionmaking suitable as a way to reach assimilation, these elements are inclusive, participatory,
collaborative, agreement seeking and cooperative. All of these elements are essential to develop
relationship within our team members and fulfilled our need to belong. Furthermore, by
providing equal opportunity for every team members to involve in the decision process and

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encouraging them to speak their mind freely, we actually let each team members to be distinct
and unique, which in small group like Pancha-Bootha are easier to spotted.
Balancing the two needs, the need of assimilation and the need of distinctiveness, is a
challenge that need to be address by organization in order to tap into the biggest potential of a
diverse workforce. Involving individuals in the decision-making process to reach consensus is a
way that can be taken by organization to addressing this challenge. By establishing a good
decision-making process that aim for consensus, an organizations not only will create inclusive
environment but also let the employees demonstrate their uniqueness, a condition which is very
important to drive the real value of diversity.

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References
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Framework for Social Identity, Social Cognition, and Intergroup Relations. Advances in
Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 43: 65-66. San Dieego, CA: Elsevier.
2. Tim H. Consensus Decision-Making. Basics of Consensus Decision-making. Available at:
http://consensusdecisionmaking.org/articles/basics of consensus decision making.html
.Accessed November 2015.
3. Bourke, J., Smith, C., Stockton, H., & Wakefield, N. 2014. From Diversity to Inclusion.
Global Human Capital Trends: Engaging the 21st-Century Workforce: 87-94. Delloite
University Press.
4. Moss, Simon. Optimal Distinctiveness Theory. Differentiation of roles within groups.
Available at: http://www.psych-it.com.au/Psychlopedia/article.asp?id=239. Accessed
November 2015.
5. Definition of Decision-Making. Merriam-Webster. Available at: http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/decision-making . Accessed November 2015
6. Brewer, M. 1991. The Social Self: On Being the Same and Different at the Same Time.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17: 475-482. Sage Publicatons.
7. Ancona, D.G., Kochan, T.A, Scully, M., Van Maanen, John., & Westney, D.E. 1996.
Managing for the Future: Organizational Behavior and Processes Handbook. SouthWestern College Publisher.
8. Bauman, T. Understanding and Managing Native Title for PBCs : A Pilot Programs for PBCs
and NTRB Staff. Common Types of Decision-Making Process. Available at:
http://www.auroraproject.com.au/node/1136. Accessed November 2015.

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