Associations talk a lot about being “consensus-driven,” which is generally a good thing—after all, an organization can’t move forward unless it agrees on its direction. But “consensus-driven” is a problem if consensus is the starting point, not the end goal. Rubber-stamp boards, or organizations meant to echo leadership’s particular vision, may be moving. But not necessarily forward.
What you really want is a “debate-driven” association, one that is open to discussing a variety of ideas with a mindset at arriving at consensus eventually, but not right away. A recent article from MIT Sloan Management Review clarifies this point nicely: “At their core, all great strategies are arguments,” write Stanford Business School professors Jesper B. Sorensen and Glenn R. Carroll.
The trick, of course, is that you want a good argument. Disagreements are valuable, so long as they don’t become exclusionary, paralyzing, or lead to hurt feelings. Indeed, the authors make a distinction between arguing and fighting. To avoid the latter, they lay out a process for what they call “constructive debate,” which is designed to test and explore biases and misunderstandings.
Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.