Full Consensus

In full consensus, the goal is to come up with decisions everyone can live with based on the group's common mission. Consensus in this sense does not mean that everyone likes the idea, or even that anyone is especially happy with the outcome.

Problem Statement

Consensus decisions should start from a clear statement of a problem, and the group should be in agreement that the problem exists and is connected to the group's mission. This step is essential and often omitted. The problem in question can be tiny (I'd like more connection with my coworkers, and we strive to make members of our group happy, so lets schedule a group dinner), or huge (we're wasting half our money on pogo sticks! Pogo sticks have no relationship to our mission of improving the lives of the poor!). It's much easier to negotiate about problems if the scale of the problem is understood.

Proposals

Once a problem has been stated, anyone is welcome to make a proposal. If there's time, most commonly ideas will be brainstormed and a few interested parties will volunteer to write up a proposal out of meeting. If a proposal writer is going to invest more than half an hour in a proposal, they should be sure to solicit input from anyone who might have strong existing opinions (don't waste effort writing a proposal that the group abhors).

Once a proposal is being discussed, the first step is to clarify the proposal to make sure everyone understands it. A lot of bad blood can be avoided by refraining from discussion until everyone understands a proposal.

Concerns

In full consensus, anyone can raise a concern. When a concern is raised, the group has a duty to hear and understand it. In the culture of consensus, raising concerns is encouraged, the idea is that better decisions result from hearing concerns earlier and in greater number. Consequently, it's important for people making proposals not to withdraw them the moment a concern is raised.

Knowing that the group has heard a concern is often sufficient, concerns should be noted but not given undue weight by the group. Changes to a proposal are not automatically necessary. However, if a concern is strong enough, the person raising the concern should say so ("my concern is major", or, "I need my concern to be addressed"), and relate it to the group's mission.

The group should try to work with such concerns. People with strong concerns have a responsibility to (try to) voice strong concerns early in group process, and once voiced, be willing to engage in or out of meeting with people with different opinions.

Frequently, concerns can be accommodated by friendly modifications to a proposal, alternately, occasionally a concern will convince the group that the plan under discussion is not the right plan.

Standing Aside

Once in a while, a group member will choose to "stand aside" from a decision. This means that they have a strong concern, but they acknowledge that their thinking may be clouded by extraneous issues (unrelated to the group's mission) or that while they don't like the plan, they can't think of a better one and agree something must be done.

Occasionally, people will use standing aside to mean they're tired of fighting, or that their concern isn't worth discussing. Neither of these are standing aside. Decision fatigue should be worked with, by adjourning to a later meeting or shifting the group process. Minor concerns should be stated as such, they needn't be spoken aloud.

Standing aside should be considered a big deal, it means some of the wisdom of the group is being lost. Frequently, a 'stand aside' is enough to send a proposal back to the drawing board.

Blocking

Most concerns are not strong enough for a principled objection, or block. People who are serious about full consensus talk about blocking only once or twice in a life time. If someone blocks, they must articulate how their block relates to the group's mission, and they must agree to continue dialog with the group on other ways to address whatever problem the proposal was meant to alleviate.