ConsensusPolling:Challenges of Decision-Making
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There are many ways to make decisions, each with its own advantages and disadvantages:
Voting
- Voting silences opposing opinions rather than creating collaboration between the conflicting parties -- instead of uniting people, it can promote division.
- Voters have limited and fixed options to choose from.
- Voting creates a large group of "losers." For instance, if there are three opposing groups, one of them secures 34% votes while both of the other groups receive 33%. The one with the most votes wins but it is far from a consensus as the majority, i.e. 66%, have been excluded from the decision. Even when there are only two camps, nearly half the folks participating can leave unhappy.
- Voting can result in a tyranny of the majority.
- Vote casters do not have a medium or channel for discussions whereby they can effectively express their opinions.
Top-Down Decision-Making
- When the "boss" makes a decision for everyone, others affected by the decision often feel powerless and disenfranchised.
- Decisions can feel like impositions.
- Even when a politician or government agency holds hearings, they are still free to ignore any opinions that they don't agree with, leaving people feeling powerless.
- Lots of potential creative solutions are never discovered.
- People feel alienated from their work
Face to Face Consensus
- The process is too slow.
- The solution does not scale to large groups since each person has to listen to the concerns of each of the other people.
Discussion
Maybe we ought to list some advantages for these as well? Ted Ernst | talk 22:11, 21 August 2007 (PDT)
