Did you ever wonder how people actually decide to vote? People can make many statements before or after, but what do they actually do behind that partition? Voting can become a very personal decision, and that decision process can have a lot of variables.
For example, people can select a candidate because they feel that -
- their gut reaction tells them that candidate is cute, smart, experienced, or safe.
- a particular choice least offends their prejudicial inclination toward age, race, gender, or religion.
- one person is most committed to one particular cause.
- commitment to a particular party is paramount.
- an analysis reveals that a candidate’s positions on issues would be best either for the country or for themselves
Pundits agonize over these variables.
In trying to analyze my own decision process, I strongly suspect that my final choice will be driven by a mixture of factors. I do think that an analysis of the issues is very important, even though their simplicity and limited input can only express an orientation rather than a pragmatic plan of action.
But my gut reaction is probably going to be the most influential. In personnel decisions over the years, I have always deferred to my gut. However, in this selection, my gut is going to be strongly influenced by whom I feel would be the best consensus manager.
In business, you don’t have to be a consensus manager. You can launch a new initiative with the cooperation of just a few key people. Successful government decisions, on the other hand, require the buy-in of a large number of people. Typically, the resulting initiatives only partially reflect the initial intent because of all the compromises that have to be made. But if done in a proper and transparent manner, the final initiative can have added dimensions that improve on the original intent.
A consensus manager can orchestrate that type of initiative. Keeping diverse groups on target, listening to a variety of views, guiding the selection of the possible elements, securing the final consensus, and monitoring the execution of its implementation are all components of any consensus manager’s portfolio.
The current administration, as evidenced by their secrecy and management blunders, simply lacked this capability which is why it is so sorely needed now. The prejudicial soup of influences - age, race, gender, or religion - aren’t really important factors in this election, consensus management is. It is desperately needed, and I hope the best consensus manager wins.