As any organizational change consultant will tell you, the first step to leadership is that the "core coalition" in power must feel a sense of urgency before it will act collectively in the best interests of the organization. Or a democracy.
Regardless your politics, the decision coming out of Washington tonight serves as a profound reminder of the risks involved when any organization seeks "consensus" when it should be seeking agreement as to how to how to move ahead.
Democrats and Republicans may never achieve consensus. But they can reach agreements, so long as they feel a sense of urgency.
Pursuing consensus is not the purpose of leadership. Consensus means everyone has looked at the facts and come to the same conclusion. People will not do this, because their brains don't work this way. Everyone's opinion is separately arrived at by separate beliefs and experiences, and moreover by mindsets that have been forged by years of unique experiences. Not to mention, people in Washington have especially differing capacities for full or diminished rational thought.
The distinction between consensus and agreement is critical. Whether you are the president of the United States or the president of an industrial manufacturing company, you cannot impose your will on people and expect to achieve the results you are after. Nor can you seek consensus, when it is your job to lead people toward agreements that will move the business forward by way of goals, objectives, activities and tactics.
It's the basic role of management, isn't it? Helping people make decisions. Planning, organizing, directing, leading and controlling an organization, or a country, progressively forward.
jb
www.centrifuge-now.com
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