Nominal Group Technique/Consensus Decision-Making

DOE-HDBK-1103-96

Concensus Decision-Making (CDM) consists of consolidating the results of NGT

and coming to agreement on those results. Consensus is a general agreement

among several people. It occurs when all team members can accept and

support the decision without compromising important needs or values. In

consensus decision-making, complete unanimity is not the goal--it is rarely

achieved. but each individual should be able to accept the group's decision on

the basis of logic and feasibility. This NGT/CDM technique can be used alone or

combined with document review.

As the team is guided to consensus

on what information to keep and

Guidelines for NGT and CDM

what to delete, circle the item kept

Apply relevant criteria.

Add to your list.

and, with the same color marker,

Help others formulate their

cross through the items deleted

statements.

Present your ideas clearly and

because of the circled items. For the

logically, but don't argue.

Empower yourselves to make

next item chosen to be kept, circle it

this work!

with a different color marker and

cross through the associated items

with that same color marker. This makes it easy to see where each item was

folded into the final choices. If there are not enough different marker colors,

choose some other method to differentiate between different items. For example,

draw clouds around the final choice (rather than a circle) and draw squiggly lines

through the crossed out items (rather than a straight line).

To resolve any consensus deadlocks, first refer to the guidelines for effectively

implementing NGT/CDM to see if the team can reach consensus. If not, ask the

supervisor (prior to the seminar) who should be designated first among experts so

that person can resolve any deadlock decisions. Another idea is to focus the

team's discussion on areas of agreement and work individually on conflicts at a

later time.