Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Everyone claims agreement. Great. Let’s just test that statement with a blank sheet of paper.

“We all agree on what we are to do!” claimed a person full of hope and anxious to get to work.

“Wow, great,” said a second person who likes to hear good news, but is skeptical when hearing that, “Everyone is in agreement.”

“Let’s confirm that,” suggests the second person.

The first person, pauses and stops breathing. “Well,” says the first person, “everyone is nodding, so that confirms it.”

“Maybe,” says the second person, “and since you are so confident, let’s take just a couple of minutes to confirm.”

All the persons who were nodding stop nodding and also stop breathing.

“Please,” says the second person, “No one say anything while we confirm this and no one look at what your neighbor will be writing.”

The second person gives all the agree-ers a blank sheet of paper. Each person has a pen or pencil.

“Okay,” says the second person, “everyone write the agreement on their sheet of paper. Please, no talking and no peaking at anyone else’s piece of paper. Just jot the agreement, a few lines or sentences will be fine. And don’t write your name on your paper.”

Two minutes later, the second person collects all the pieces of paper.

You know what happens next. A glance through the pieces of paper show that the group is not in agreement. Even given leeway for wording the same thought differently, the pieces of paper all differ. Maybe there is one small thing on every piece of paper, but the main thoughts vary wildly.

There is, however, a several points of unanimity among the persons in the room. (1) They are all tired of discussing what they were discussing. (2) They all wish the group would agree. (3) They all want to do something else.

Now what? Go home. Take a long break. Come back next week and try again. Try to find some items of agreement other than the three points listed in the prior paragraph.

This isn’t easy. No one said it would be.