making strategic problems concrete

[James Kempf]

Jim,

> I hear you saying if consensus does not work then we may need an
> alternative to decision process?
>

Here is what I'm saying:

1) Concensus works best in small group situations. To the extent we can get
problems defined such that the number of people involved in solving them is
amiable to the concensus process, we should.

2) If concensus should fail, we either need to learn to live with the bad side
effects (delay in reaching agreement, deadlock, designs that are overly
complicated due to the need to accommodate many different view points) or we
need to define some way of dealing with the bad side effects when they occur.

Throwing the burden on the IESG to resolve the bad side effects of a failed
concensus, as we do now, is not a good solution because it makes more work for
them and forces them to play the role of perpetual bad guys.

            jak