The consensus building handbook: a comprehensive guide to reaching agreement

1999. Authors: L. Susskind, McKearnan, S., and Thomas-Larmer, J. Over the past decade, consensus building has emerged as the most practical and effective way for groups of people — be they members of a permanent organization or disputants in a public conflict who come together on an ad hoc basis — to make decisions and solve problems. Consensus building is an agreement-seeking process that enables a group of people to satisfy everyone's primary interests and concerns. Using consensus-based approaches, people can develop solutions and make decisions that are more creative and widely supported than those made by using traditional methods. Agreements made by consensus are often more readily implemented, because people are more likely to support an agreement that they had a hand in shaping. The Consensus Building Handbook is the first-ever comprehensive reference guide to building agreement in groups.