The Change Handbook, 2nd Edition

16

TREE BRESSEN

Consensus Decision Making

Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.

—Harry Emerson Fosdick

Real-Life Story

It was 1984 and the Green Party was attempting its first large organizational meeting in the United States. More than one hundred activists had gathered for a weekend in St. Paul, Minnesota, to launch the movement. As the hours lengthened, frustrations grew. Well into the second day, as one participant tells it, the group was a “fractious mess,” and the term “still birth” was being thrown around to describe what was happening. As this final day drew toward a close, ...