TransparentChoice Training

Changing the world one decision at a time

Building consensus

What is consensus building?

TransparentChoice helps improve the quality of your decision but, just as importantly, it allows you to build consensus and buy-in to your decision. As this work by Stanford University shows, confidence in a decision can be as important as the decision quality.

In fact, our customers tell us that building consensus and mutual understanding is often the biggest value they get from the whole process… so read on.

What is consensus building?

Consensus building in TransparentChoice is possible because we’ve broken a big, complex (and possibly contentious) decision down into small judgements. Each person fills in a survey and then, when comparing answers, you can instantly see where there is consensus and where you need a little… discussion.

The processFill in individual surveys

Can be done separatelyOr can be done as a group execise

Create a “Review group” – a group of people whose answers you want to compare

Identify areas of consensus and areas of disagreement

Bring the group together and discuss the differences one by one and resolve them

Sit back and enjoy a well-earned cup of tea

Fill in individual surveysThere are 3 ways to collect survey input and to build consensus. Here are some pros and cons of each.

Survey method Pros Cons

Have each survey completed before bringing people together

• Each person answers without influence from others

• Ensures everyone has a voice• You can identify areas of consensus and

disagreement before the meeting, making it more productive

• It can take a little more time chasing people for answers before the meeting

• You need to brief people on criteria and alternatives before launching the survey

Bring the group together and discuss each judgement then vote as individuals

• You can brief people on criteria and alternatives in the meeting

• Everyone has a voice

• Votes can be influenced by pre-vote discussion• No opportunity to ID areas of consensus and

disagreement – means you have to review every judgement with the whole group

Bring the group together and discuss each judgement, come to consensus and vote as a group

• You can brief people on criteria and alternatives in the meeting

• Quickest method

• Open to counter-productive group dynamics (politics, bullying, game-playing)

• No opportunity to ID areas of consensus and disagreement – means you have to review every judgement with the whole group

What is a review group?• A review group is just a group

of people whose votes you want to bring together into a singe consensus opinion

• Review groups can be used to build consensus within a team and then between teams

• The example is for a hospital, where the decision team is broken into nurses, doctors and hospital administrators

• Consensus is built from the bottom up

Nursesreview group

Doctors review group

Admins review group

Clinical review group

Final decision

group

Pause to learn more…

Our customers tell us again and again that the process of building consensus adds massive value. Why? Because this is where you build understanding and alignment between stakeholders.The meeting where you bring everyone together is, therefore, a very important one and it pays to prepare. This document will help you get the most out of every review group meeting.

How to define a review group

There are two ways to create a review group;

1. Go to “Collect input” page

2. Click on “Build consensus with reviews”

Method 1

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1. Go to “Analyse results” page

2. Click on “Add group results”

Method 2

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Then…

How to define a review groupGive your review

group a descriptive name

Choose any individuals you’d

like to include

Select any review group you want to be part of this new group

You can assign different weight to each person in the group

Do you want your group to review alternatives, criteria or

both?

Click on “Create” when you’re finished

Running the review group meetingThere are two ways to open your review group session1. Method 1

a) Navigate to “Collect input”b) Click on “Build consensus with reviews”

2. Method 2a) Navigate to “Analyse results”b) From the drop-down list for the review group you want to open, click “See votes”

1 b)

1 a)

2 b)

2 a)

Running the review group meeting1. It is usually a good idea to hit

“Auto review” before you begin. This simply accepts the average value of all the votes and will speed up the review process.

2. Navigate the same way you did when filling in individual surveys

a) Clicking an answer takes you to the next judgement

b) Use these buttons to move to the previous or next judgements

c) Navigate to a specific “context” / criterion by clicking here

d) Navigate within a context (and check consistency) using these buttons

3. Click on this icon to see notes made by this evaluator

2 a)

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b)2 c)

2 d)

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Running the review group meeting1. The screen shows the votes for

each member of the review group

2. You also see the “average” value (for the math geeks among you, this is a geometric mean for pairwise comparisons and an arithmetic mean for scales and attributes)

3. To record the group’s agreed judgement, simply click on the scale as you did when filling out the initial surveys

4. Note: if you hit auto-review earlier, and if you want to accept the average, you don’t need to enter that judgement – simply move on to the next judgement

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1

4

2

Running the review group meeting1. Don’t invest time in discussing

items with reasonable consensus – move on

2. In this case, there is good consensus among 2 voters…

3. …but the 3rd is not aligned. This could be due to a data entry error, special knowledge, a lack of common language or mis-communication. It could even be a deliberate attempt to “game” the system. Whatever the cause, talk it though and come to consensus on the score.

4. Record the consensus view and move to the next judgement 3

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Due to the fact that TransparentChoice asks the

team to make very contained, specific judgements, these

discussions tend to be very quick. They don’t usually

spiral out of control.

If you prepare well for the meeting, you can avoid spending time on items where there is already

consensus and can move quickly through items that

need discussion, saving hours or executive time.

Let’s take a moment to save you time!

Due to the fact that TransparentChoice asks the team to make very contained, specific

judgements, these discussions tend to be very quick. They don’t usually spiral out of control

(which often happens in less structured discussions, resulting in hours of wasted time

for the whole team).

If you prepare well for the meeting, you can avoid spending time on items where there is

already consensus and then move quickly through items that need discussion, saving

hours or executive time.

Running the review group meeting

Use the exact same process for judgements that are scales1. Two team members are in agreement2. One is not aligned3. Discuss and record the group’s consensus

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Running the review group meeting

1. When you’ve completed the review, simply hit the back button

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Running real-time voting• You can run a meeting where all

participants can vote in real time• Simply click “Start synchronized

evaluation” • Your team members should then click

on the link for their survey• As the moderator navigates from

question to question, all the participants’ screen will automatically stay in synch

• Votes made by participants will show up in the moderator view in real time, allowing discussion of disagreements as they appear

• NOTE: Make sure that data collection is started before opening your review group

Final tips for review groups

You can auto-review or navigate to results directly from the “Build consensus…” screen. This will save you several “clicks” when moving from one place to another.1. Navigate to “Collect input”2. Navigate to “Build

consensus…”3. Click the options “gear” for

the group you’re interested in 4. Select the relevant option

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Final tips for review groupsWhen reviewing a group that is made up of other groups, make sure you have reviewed (or auto-reviewed) the subsidiary groups. If you don’t, you may miss people’s input or not get results due to “missing data”.1. Run review meetings or auto-

review the “bottom” groups2. Review any intermediate

groups3. Review your “top” group –

typically the one that makes the final decision

Nursesreview group

Doctors review group

Admins review group

Clinical review group

Final decision

group

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