When I was a manager needing to build consensus—especially with other managers outside my department—I found it much more useful to get one-on-one meetings to feel out people’s needs and negotiate buy-in well before any larger meetings. Trying to get consensus in a big meeting was a big waste of time, except maybe sometimes within my own department. The big meeting is really just an opportunity to show the higher-ups that all the other departments are already on-board with my plan. ;-)
This is an approach I recognize. It works well, except if many one-on-ones are happening in parallel on the same topic. Then you are either in a consensus building race with adversaries and/or constantly re-aligning with allies.
When I was a manager needing to build consensus—especially with other managers outside my department—I found it much more useful to get one-on-one meetings to feel out people’s needs and negotiate buy-in well before any larger meetings. Trying to get consensus in a big meeting was a big waste of time, except maybe sometimes within my own department. The big meeting is really just an opportunity to show the higher-ups that all the other departments are already on-board with my plan. ;-)
This is an approach I recognize. It works well, except if many one-on-ones are happening in parallel on the same topic. Then you are either in a consensus building race with adversaries and/or constantly re-aligning with allies.