Yesterday during a conversation, a leader said

"Collaboration is necessary, in fact required, but Consensus is not".

This is a key point for ‘Beta’ leaders, (ones who favor a style of connecting, collaborating, and influencing; often in a matrix rather than hierarchy.)

At one point in my career I thought that Collaboration and Consensus were conceptually joined. My own style drove me to want to collaborate around decisions, and I thought consensus would result in a better decision.

But daily difficult decisions must be made, often when the options are very similar (and either side could be ‘right’)

I value of collaboration- bringing together the team to hear the options, opinions and values.

But in the end when we make a decision, (even if it is one that most of the team wouldn’t make) we all agree to support it. When we leave the room, we are unified to support the direction, and decision.

This is using collaboration, without requiring consensus. The team is heard, no one is diminished (we are critical of ideas, not people), we are unified, and all pulling in the same direction.

Collaboration scales and favors speed, consensus doesn’t.

Link to linkedin post: http://bit.ly/2L0sXZJ