Consensus Decision-making - Decision Rules

Decision Rules

The level of agreement necessary to finalize a decision is known as a decision rule. Possible decision rules for consensus vary within the following range:

• Unanimous agreement
• Unanimous consent (See agreement vs consent below)
• Unanimous agreement minus one vote or two votes
• Unanimous consent minus one vote or two votes
• Super majority thresholds (90%, 80%, 75%, two-thirds, and 60% are common).
• Simple Majority
• Executive committee decides
• Person-in-charge decides

In groups that require unanimous agreement or consent (unanimity) to approve group decisions, if any participant objects, they can block consensus according to the guidelines described below. These groups use the term consensus to denote both the discussion process and the decision rule. Other groups use a consensus process to generate as much agreement as possible, but allow decisions to be finalized with a decision rule that does not require unanimity. In this case, someone who has a 'block' or strong objection will still have to live with the decision made.