Building Consensus

re: Building Consensus

Drew — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 03:59:06 GMT

Thanks, awesome article. I see very few articles about politics and this one was very well done. Added to favorites.

re: Building Consensus

sburke — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 01:45:50 GMT

Good stuff Brad -

One more: Build ownership and investment

If you're trying to get something really important done, the more the stakeholders feel like they own the solution/outcome the better. Make sure they feel like they will share the success, and they'll be more willing to share the work.

re: Building Consensus

Michael — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 13:48:19 GMT

i consider it very importat to develop a elephant's skin. What i mean with this?

Getting the buy-in of others and pushing one's own ideas through alone can be VERY frustrating or is frustrating if you "lose" often (given the idea was indeed good).

Even worse it can happen, that one of the "stubborn" co-workers escalates to your own boss.

Depended on the reaction of your boss all the hard time-consuming consensus building can be useless.

Then an elephant's skin and great patience help much.

re: Building Consensus

Robert — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:45:30 GMT

Compromise is a good thing - in moderation. I think it's important to distinguish the difference between having a consensus and making compromises and you blur things there to some extent. I think it was Dale Carnegie who urged that one can sacrafice a point of view, but one should never sacrafice your principles - or in this case, your project's vision. If a consensus can be reached without loss of vision or direction - this is always good. But if we expend resources acquiring consensus and in the process divert from our directives and plotted course, what have we really gained aside from a feeling of warmth and political points that may or may not be reciprocated down the road.

One does not have to be a jerk or lose respect to stand ones ground. In fact, if you're sure you're right - being the only one in the group that does not agree - provided it's in a respectful and non-detrimental way to the team, can often be something others will respect in you. Just make sure you're right. ;-)

re: Building Consensus

Shani Raba — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 17:59:07 GMT

Great great great article.

I think that everyone know or think about some of these points, but the whole list is a gold.

not only to PM but also to a programmer which try to convince his team.

re: Building Consensus

BradA — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 03:52:39 GMT

Reposting a comment:

Great advice, I wish I read this last week (ASP to ASP.NET 2.0 migration in an environment with no debuggers when I got there and managers who have to be told why we need them ... for a year). I kinda lost my temper and stormed out, threatened to quit and then had to go over my manager to the VP/founder and vented all this. Now things are moving ... BUT I got a harsh reprimand and recommended anger management. I suppose they're right, why should I be upset?

re: Building Consensus

Michael — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:04:00 GMT

"Now things are moving..." so it worked and i think there is no real BUT.

"It is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission" fits here.

It is no advice to "make friends" or "being the friendly guy".

I'd see the harsh reprimand as an obvious (management) reaction to "contend" the situation, but how anger would your manager be if things are not moving for months?

That's what i meant with "elephant's skin" forgetting those reprimands rather fast (possible if seldom)

The Wisdom of Crowds: Rethinking consensus

Brad Abrams — Tue, 22 May 2007 08:54:04 GMT

I am a HUGE believer in building consensus , but The Wisdom of Crowds is starting to make be rethink