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We All Agree on This

July 27th, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips

I have never be part of a group that stated the title and time showed that their words were true.

I have facilitated groups of people who were trying to issue a policy or a statement on some matter. Often, the first meeting of the group in my presence begins without someone proclaiming with great certainty,

We all agree on this.

What that statement usually means is,

I think that everyone here agrees with me,
even though I have no evidence of that
A simple test of the unanimous agreement is:
  1. Everyone remain silent
  2. Give everyone a blank piece of paper and a pencil
  3. Everyone, with no looking at anyone else’s paper, write what they all agree on.
  4. Everyone fold their paper and give it to me
Now the fun begins as I read the widely varying statements from the group that was supposed to be in complete agreement.
The result is the same every time. The people in the group don’t agree on this or anything else. A series of meetings ensue in which I try to help the group find something that they hold in common. That part is much more difficult than disproving the title of this post.

Tags: Consulting · Group

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