Scale
The importance of structural agreements and formalized process become more critical as the group of participants increases. A small organization may be able to afford more flexibility in their process, but a group of several hundred or several thousand participants requires a strict procedural structure to ensure that equal opportunity is given for everyone to voice their opinion.
It is possible for a Formal Consensus model to be employed for decision-making bodies of up to 100,000 participants. However, this requires that much smaller groups be formed, so that real discussion is made possible. Ideally, each individual would be able to discuss topics and proposals among an “affinity group” of 5 or 6 people, and each affinity group would then be able to participate in larger-scale discussions by way of a representative.
Read more about this topic: Formal Consensus
Famous quotes containing the word scale:
“‘Tis very certain that each man carries in his eye the exact indication of his rank in the immense scale of men, and we are always learning to read it. A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God’s will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“The poet is the person in whom these powers are in balance, the man without impediment, who sees and handles that which others dream of, traverses the whole scale of experience, and is representative of man, in virtue of being the largest power to receive and to impart.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)