In many projects, we lose momentum not because people resist change — but because we wait too long for consensus. We keep discussing until everyone agrees. And then time flies by, costs accelerate and we fail on success criteria’s. Chasing the perfect decision means often results in winning the fight, but loosing the war. Project resources are not endless and most often have constrains we commercially must respect.

But real progress often starts when we shift our goal from consensus to consent, where we move from “everyone says yes” to “no-one says no“.

In any projects, there are a lot to clarify, but we cannot wait for everybody to agree. We need to speed up, and on some cases take a chance on direction. Things get more clear as we move on one direction. Doing something is most often better (and cheaper), than doing nothing. (playing the costly waiting game)

So how do we implement a consent model ?

1. Start with a proposal
2. Establish ownership
3. Set a due date
4. Ask for input
5. Resolve objections
6. Decide and document
7. Revisit if necessary

What you will experience is that decisions accelerate, and the projects starts getting momentum and speed. Try it 🙂