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Sam Sloan G.I.F.T.

The Consensus Model of Decision Making as Object Lesson, Speaking Practice, & Classroom Tool

Objectives:

Introduce students to an alternative method of decision making.

Illustrate the difference between representative and direct (or participatory) democracy.

Have a critical discussion about the nature of democracy and who's views & voices are seen

as legitimate.

Serve as an object lesson for nonverbal communication.

Teach a method of critical response to persuasive speaking proposals.

Introduce a collective decision-making tool into the classroom.

Rationale:

Credit for this idea goes to Nichole Nicholson and the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Movement.

Within the OWS Movement, participants began using group public speaking tools in real-worldenvironments, particularly in general assemblies held at regular intervals. The points of these

assemblies were to make decisions for the good of the group, to organize policies for the larger OWSmovement, and to practice direct or participatory democracy (where debates are facilitated and

everyone is encouraged to come to voice about a given topic) as a counterpoint to representative ormajority rules democracy (where majority positions are represented by well-paid majority-elected

officials, whether the needs of everyone are met or not). In a consensus model, the feedback (either

verbal or nonverbal) from every member of a group is required to make a collective decision, anddecisions are moderated in a public discussion forum. Some scholars also believe that the consensus

model has radical democratic and feminist possibilities, in terms of inviting discussion into the decision

making process. By teaching the consensus model, inviting the process into classroom decisions (I usethe model to propose their final speech assignment and other ad-hoc decisions, like bonus points), and

having students use the model to respond to persuasive speeches, the instructor can invite dialogic

discourse and public debate into the classroom.

Directions:

To begin, I explain how the consensus model works, contextualizing the sociocultural issues of

the majority rules democracy with alternative decision making methods, like the consensus model.(This works well in-conjunction with materials from Chapter 9: Mediated Communication.) The

attached PDF sheet includes a sample flowchart for the model I present in class. Essentially, the method

of consensus used is consensus minus one where any given proposal needs the assent of an entiregroup of people, minus one. In a situation where two or more people move to block the proposal, the

speaker must help facilitate a discussion as outlined in the flowchart, where the audience can respond

through verbal and nonverbal communication. For a quick reference to how this is used in the OWS

movement, see the video: The Consensus Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EYslU4HqiIFirst, in the persuasive speaking assignment, after the group finishes their speech, the audience

claps, and the group re-states their official proposal, usually containing some actionable items that the

audience can actually do (Call a local representative, sign this petition, start blogging, etc). Then, thegroup fields questions concerning the proposal, revises the proposal (if necessary), and puts it to an

initial vote (agree, neutral, block). If there are no blocks, the movement passes, but if there is one

block, as manner of courtesy, the facilitators usually hear out the blocker's perspective and inviteconversation to see if the person's reason for blocking. If there are two or more blocks, the facilitators

invite and moderate three people to speak for the proposal and three to speak against, while trying to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EYslU4HqiIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EYslU4HqiI

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remain as neutral as possible in the discussion and inviting other commentary and questions as

necessary. After this, another round of voting occurs, and if two or more blocks persist, the audience

breaks into small groups for a few minutes, comes back as an assembly, and has three members speak

for and speak against. One last vote is held, and if there are still 2+ blocks, the proposal dies.Students are encouraged to propose solutions that are not universally popular, in order to

practice both persuasive speaking (in the speech) and actual persuasion in an audience. The feedback

the model provides is valuable, since students rarely get opportunity to give their peers feedback aboutthe impact of their speechmaking skills. Within these discussions, people who both agree and disagree

with ideas presented are allowed to speak opposing viewpoints and as the class gets more comfortable,

I find that a higher percentage of students speak out than during normal class discussions and debates.Furthermore, the exercise engenders dialogic debate practice, invites any student to come to voice, and

represents the viewpoint of every student through nonverbal hand signals (see OWS video above).

Once introduced, the model can be also be used to make class decisions. I've even had students proposebonus point assignments and classroom activities that went through the model, allowing me to see if a

particular aspect of class is desired or should be amended.