Consensus-Driven Approach for Decision-Making in Diverse Groups

摘要

Building strong, high-functioning teams is a key public health skill, essential to meeting the ambitious goals of Public Health 3.0. This is particularly important as the workforce becomes younger, more diverse, and increasingly interdisciplinary. This year’s student think tank and assistant editor fellow reflected all three trends. Although large differences in backgrounds and perspectives might be expected to contribute to group conflict and gridlock, we did not find this to be the case. In fact, our consensus-driven shared leadership model allowed our team to “form, storm, norm, and perform” more quickly than if we had relied on majority rule or a single leader. Furthermore, our approach maximized the skills and talents of all members, producing a group that was stronger than the sum of its parts.