In Partnership with:

LEADING TALENT
AND DEVELOPING TEAMS
Session 2
Consensus Building
CONSENSUS BUILDING

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 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

CONSENSUS BUILDING TECHNIQUES AND

APPROACHES

PARTNERSHIP MINDSET AND TOOLS

REFLECTION ACTIVITY

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CONSENSUS BUILDING

Consensus building is a process involving a

good-faith effort to meet the interests of all
stakeholders and seek a unanimous agreement.
A consensus building approach allows groups to
reach an overwhelming agreement among
relevant stakeholders and maximize possible
gains to everyone.

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WHY CONSENSUS AND PARTNERSHIP

Compromise?
Convince?
OR
Consensus and alignment that brings to
partnerships?

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CONSENSUS BUILDING TECHNIQUES

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 CONSENSUS BUILDING TECHNIQUES

1. Focusing on big ideas

2. Risk Profiling - Pros & Cons
3. Clarify for those unsupportive
4. Encourage everyone to listen to one another
5. Ask everyone to take turns
6. Adopting a ‘Partnership’ mindset

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 FOCUSING ON METAVIEW

• Metaview (Big picture thinking that involves futures and systems thinking and
impact)

• When to use – when team members are focusing on specific details, and
therefore losing sight of common purpose
• Why it works – As there are common disagreements, or even fall outs, group
discussion can fall back on more general level

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 RISK PROFILING – PROS & CONS

• This encourages brainstorming about pros and cons of an alternative

• When to use – when a new idea is introduced, and you want team to focus on
positives before negatives
• Why it works – some people greet any idea with negativity first, which may
discourage others from bringing ideas

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 CLARIFYING ASSUMPTIONS

• Information improves buy in – clarifying assumptions increases latent information

that can be revealed to get more buy in from others

• When to use – when you sense that the team is approaching consensus, but
there’s still a resistance from a minority of people
• Why it works – information provided is used to modify a proposal

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 ENCOURAGING TO LISTEN

• Listening to understand – with respect, empathy and openness

• When to use – when team members seem to have difficulty understanding needs
or objections of others
• Why it works – For everyone to work well together, listening respectfully to
different ideas is necessary, and considering wide range of issues

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 TAKING TURNS FOR EQUAL ‘AIR TIME’

• Everyone will get opportunity to air their opinion on idea/proposal at hand

• When to use – when a proposal is already generated, and you want entire team
to listen to each other’s perspective
• Why it works – hearing views of each member can uncover common agreements
or potential areas of alignment

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ADOPTING A PARTNERSHIP MINDSET

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CONSENSUS BUILDING APPROACHES

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FACILITATION

Facilitation (a way of helping groups work together in meetings)

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MEDIATION

Mediation (a way of helping parties deal with strong disagreement)

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RECORDING

Recording (creating a visual record of what a group has discussed and decided)

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CONVENING

Convening (bringing parties together – for large groups especially)

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CONFLICT ASSESSMENT

Conflict Assessment (an essential convening step)

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CREATING AND CLAIMING VALUE

Creating and Claiming Value (a way to maximize joint gains)

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PARTNERSHIP MINDSET AND PARTNERSHIP
FRAMEWORKS

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PARTNERSHIP MINDSET

Partnership brokering is the process of

supporting and strengthening partnerships
through innovative and skilled management of
collaborative processes.

- Partnership Brokers Association -

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BUILDING A RESOURCE MAP

Other Knowledge
• Be imaginative
• Different types
• Specialist knowledge
• Unknown to others

Contacts Physical Resources

• Credibility • Buildings
• Spheres of influence • Transport
• Infrastructure
WHAT CAN
EACH PARTNER
BRING? Products
People
• Medicine
• Expertise
• Food
• Champions
• Computers
• Labour/volunteers

Information Networks
• Ways to distribute • Sector specific
• Technical methods • Types of contracts
• Non-technical methods

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 THE BENEFITS OF PARTNERING

Combined resources from all Innovation

the partners minus Quality
Legitimacy and buy-in
transaction costs INPUTS Integrated solutions
Sustainability
Appropriateness
VALUE ADD Likelihood of implementation

Achievement of project and individual

partners' objectives
ANCILLARY BENEFITS
Technical change OUTPUTS
Networking
Technical transfer
Increased social capital
Spin-off activities
Wider influence on policy and practice
towards systems change
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 COLLABORATION AGREEMENT CHECKLIST

WHO WILL BE INVOLVED? HOW WILL IT WORK?

• Description of partner organizations (including their values/mission etc) • Relationship management / behaviour protocols/partnership's ground rules
and/or stakeholders • Decision-making procedures
• Identification of representatives • Governance arrangements
• Funding arrangements (outline or in principle)
• Measures to mitigate risks
• Measures to strengthen partnering capacity
• Metrics for monitoring & measuring partnership performance against each
partners' objectives & shared objectives

WHY COLLABORATE? COMMUNICATIONS ISSUES TO BE CONSIDERED

• Vision statement • Procedures for on-going communications between partners
• Shared objectives • Rules for the public profile of the partnership
• Individual partner objectives • Intellectual property and confidentiality issues
• Protocols for communicating with other stakeholders
WHAT WILL THE COLLABORATION INVOLVE? WHAT IF?
• Proposed project/activity areas • Grievance mechanism to resolve differences
• Types of resource contribution from each partner • Procedures for individual partners to leave or join
• Likely areas of responsibility for each partner • Exit ('moving on') strategy for partnership as a whole
• Types of performance indicators/success factors that will satisfy each
partner
• Ideas on/commitment to a sustainability strategy
WHEN WILL THINGS HAPPEN? FURTHER ELEMENTS:
• Timeframes
• Milestones

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 MATCHING INDIVIDUAL LEARNING STYLES TO
LEARNING OPTIONS
LEARNING \ COMPREHENSION STYLE
Analysts
Those who like intellectual challenge alongside
clear structures and procedures
Problem solvers
Those who enjoy being confronted with
challenges and provided with opportunities for
brainstorming new ideas
Pragmatists
Those who respond to active participation and
practical engagement
Reviewers
Those who learn by listening and observing with
ample opportunities for quiet reflection
LEARNING OPTIONS
• Written records of the partnership
• Acquiring knowledge from a range of other
sources (including statistics and historical
facts)
• Participating in a debate on key issues
• Participating in scenario-planning activities
• Action research
• Role playing
• Skills enhancement or development
• Practice-based mentoring
• Job-swaps
• Observational sessions
• Opportunities for participant observation
• Keeping a journal of thoughts and ideas to be
shared at a future time
LEADER AS A PARTNER APPROACH
"You might be interested in reading a paper I
have come across that explores why this kind of
partnership might benefit from a different
strategy..."
"Would you like to participate in a consultation
exercise where we will be meeting with project
participants to explore how the activities can be
taken to scale?"
"Do you think you could have a go at running the
project for a week while the project manager is
away? She/he would be really interested to see
how differently you approach the role?"
"Let me know when you would like to visit the
project again. In due course, we would be very
interested in hearing your views on whether you
feel we are maximising the opportunities we
have..."
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 CO-TRAINING/CO-WORKING

COMPLIANCE
PRODUCTIVE
CO-WORKING

01

06 02
DEBATE
BUILDING STEPPING STONES
GENUINE
CONSENSUS

ALIGNMEN
T
05 03
AGREEMEN
T
04
REFLECTIO
N

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PEOPLE | TASK | ENVIRONMENT

PEOPLE

TASKS ENVIRONMENT

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 Journal
Reflections
YOUR ABILITY FOR CONSENSUS BUILDING
IMPACTS VISION 2030!

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The Academy for Developing Administrative Leaders

Thank You