Consent Decision Making

Consent based Decision Making is often confused with Consensus Decision Making. There are similarities, but the key difference is that consent-based decision making seeks solutions which whilst they may not be perfect, they are "good enough for now and safe enough to try" – a liberating ethos which allows for small scale, iterative decisions to be made that lead to continuous improvement over time.

Effective decision-making happens when people have clarity over who is empowered to make which decision, what the process is for making and recording decisions, and how the outcomes of decisions are monitored.

SEE ALSO: Governance operations and processes for co-operatives.

In sociocracy, working groups (known as Circles) actively manage a given area of their organisation and make decisions using the Consent decision-making process. In this way decisions are taken by the people who are most impacted by them i.e. those who will be responsible for implementing and carrying out their work in accordance with the decisions taken.

Circles are empowered to make decisions within clearly-defined Domains setting out the limits to their decision-making authority. Each Circle has an aim or aims to guide its work and decision making.

A Consent decision is reached when Circle members have no objection to the proposal under discussion. Each decision is assigned a review date at which point its outcomes are evaluated. Decisions are recorded to ensure transparency and accountability.

Template

We have developed a consent decision making template.

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