Concensus

Excerpt from "Web Page Design", by Mary E. S. Morris, and Randy J. Hinrichs.(Chapter 1 -- A Different Multimedia, page 9)

I have always had a problem with the "Consensus Model" in dealing with the decision making process. Primarily I think it is because in my experience I have witnessed as much or more abuse in the use of this system, as I have seen in using the "Democratic" system. I guess maybe the part I have been missing is covered in the last statement here "Investigate conflict management skills". Time to do some homework I guess. Thank you so much Mary and Randy.

Everyone is the author
Each of the designers and developers makes up the "author" for a web site. The collaborative environment of the Web requires several individuals who work together to talk in one voice. You'll have to learn how to work in a collaborative environment, both technically and socially. The more you communicate with each other on-line, over the phone, in real meetings, the more you will mirror each other's attitudes and language into the site. Each member of the team must understand how the other members make their contributions to the overall design of a web page.

Consensus must prevail
Much like the "team meetings" or the "collaborative groups" in education, each individual contributes to the content, form, and design of the web site. Consensus must occur for the decision making and is different than making a democratic decision. In consensus, each individual has the right to repeat a point of view to all the others. Once all sides have been heard and all the parties concerned agree that all the opinions have been heard, then a final decision is made by all. Consensus concedes that there is a right way of designing something and that everyone agrees. In this way, no individual point of view is excluded. This won't always be easy because of all the different backgrounds involved. Investigate conflict management skills.