In education, a decision-making process in which members of a committee or group vote, then let the principal have the final say

A search for the best decision based on exploring and incorporating everyone's thinking into the final decision. Everyone understands, can explain, and will support the decision.

complete agreement or accord.

a decision making process used by a group, which tries to include all members and reach the best possible decision. The question is initially framed in open terms, all are given an opportunity to contribute ideas, and then an agreement is sought which is acceptable to all persons. Sometimes it has been defined as requiring everyone's agreement, and can then lead to tyranny of the minority.

everyone coming to a decision on an issue through discussion.

A general agreement among the members of a given group or community

general agreement or unanimity; group solidarity in sentiment or belief; a non-formal approach to decision-making

The judgment arrived at through the balloting and review procedures of the STP Process.

an agreement among people

A method of making decisions through which a group strives to reach substantial, though not necessarily unanimous, agreement on matters of overall direction and policy which can be supported by all.

general agreement amongst a group of people

Consensus is used for approval, by X12 members, of ASC X12 DSTU and ANS. Consensus is established when substantial agreement has been reached by directly and materially affected interests. Substantial agreement means much more than a simple majority, but not necessarily unanimity. Consensus requires that all views and objections be considered, and that a concerted effort be made toward their resolution.

A method of seeking the resolution of a multiple-party conflict or dispute, relying upon equal participation of all parties. The end goal is to develop an agreement, usually without voting, that all of the participants can live with. Though the individual parties may find parts of the agreement more or less appealing, they all agree to fully support the end result. The suitability of using consensus in resolving a conflict is usually assessed in a preliminary process (see Assessment).

A process of arriving at a decision after a time of prayer, study, and discussion; characterized by general agreement rather than by voting. It results in a decision that all, or nearly all of the participants agree to accept and support.

Often used to describe a decision-making process in which formal rules or voting are not used. It usually means that everyone who wishes to, has spoken and has been heard, and while the "consensus decision" may not be everyone's first choice, they can agree to it and can support it.

General agreement toward a group decision. It is not the same as total agreement.

Consensus means a general agreement or majority of opinion. Many of today's respected newspapers misspell the word as concensus. Note: The phrase: Concensus of opinion is redundant and should NOT be used.

A resolution on which the committee agrees as a unified whole.

agreement in the judgment or opinion reached by a group as a whole; "the lack of consensus reflected differences in theoretical positions"; "those rights and obligations are based on an unstated consensus"

a collective opinion, one that everyone in the group has

a general agreement amongst a group after discussion and debate

a powerful political pattern that could be applied at ALL levels of our society, in thousands of circumstances, just the way we apply the VOTING AND MAJORITY RULE pattern

a station we arrived at after several rest stops together

k[n5sens[s / n. an opinion that everyone in a group will agree with or accept

The chairman may adopt decisions without a vote when there is a consensus amongst the vast majority of Parties.

A collective opinion or general agreement.

The collective opinion of a group on the discussion of an issue until all agree or everyone is willing to accept the decision.

shared agreement, approval of all parties of descriptions and assessments (scoring)

is a decision-making method, which stresses the co-operative development of a decision with group members working together. The goal of consensus is that decisions are acceptable to all group members.

Member agreement reached through study and discussion of an issue. It describes both the process and the result.

Consensus is not a simple majority, nor is it unanimity, but refers to the overall "sense of the group." The word refers to the collective opinion of League members on a particular issue, and the deliberative process used to reach that opinion.

A decision by consensus is a decision in which all the group members find a common ground. It means that everyone understands the decision and can explain why it is best. It means that everyone can live with the decision.

Decisions can be adopted without a vote when there are no stated objections from Parties.

The mutual feeling that all concerns have been addressed and that everyone has been heard and understood.

The sense of unity about a business matter that emerges after prayerful discussion of the issue. Sometimes, it is called Òthe sense of the meetingÓ (see below). Consensus in Friends business differs from its secular counterpart in that the Holy Spirit brings the group to a sense of discerning God's will rather than finding mere human compromise.

Consensus refers to a decision-making process by which an agreement is made by all members of a group, rather than a majority or a select group of representatives. To reach this agreement, the group goes through a non-hierarchical consensus process with assumptions, methods and results that differ from traditional parliamentary or majority voting procedures. Essential elements include having a degree of trust among members, a common purpose, time to understand the question, problem or proposal carefully, a belief that each person has the right to be heard, and attention to the process used for arriving at decisions. A consensus decision represents a reasonable decision that all members of the group can accept. It is not necessarily the optimal decision for every individual.

The point at which agencies and the public offer their agreement with recommendations or findings. Although unanimous consensus is seldom achieved, continuous coordination throughout the study process is expected to garner support from most agencies and much of the public.

building is a process where parties to a dispute, with the assistance of a facilitator, identify the facts and stakeholders, settle on the issues for discussion and consider options. This allows parties to build rapport, through discussions that assists in developing better communication and relationships.

Consensus is reached when everyone in a group is willing to 'live with' the decision. Some may have other preferences but there is a willingness to accept the decision. This contrasts with a 'majority' decision-making model where several members may be absolutely opposed to the decision adopted.

A type of group decision making. It involves coming to a decision acceptable to all members of the group without a vote being taken.

Consensus decision-making requires that everyone agree with a decision, not just a majority, as occurs in majority-rule processes. In consensus-based processes, people must work together to develop an agreement that is good enough (though not necessarily perfect) that all of the people at the table are willing to agree to it.

(Latin) agreement

agreement reached by members through study and discussion of an issue. It describes both the process as well as the result.

Consensus means general agreement and accord. For consensus to exist, it is not necessary for every participant to agree in full, but it is necessary for every participant to be heard and, in the end, for no one to believe that the decision violates his or her conviction. It is not necessary that every person consider the decision the best one.- Are we all agreed and how do we know

A class of methods used to estimate the amount of agreement among incongruent or partially congruent trees. Usually represented as a tree that is less resolved than any of the input trees. (There are also consensus statistics.) A consensus tree is not an hypothesis of evolutionary history, and thus must not be confused with a phylogenetic tree. Therefore, it should not be used to trace evolution of characters, areas (biogeography), and so on. Most commonly used is the strict consensus tree, which shows only those clades that are common to all the input trees; a majority-rule consensus tree shows all clades that are found in 50% of the input trees.

consensual. Part of the scientific consensus. "Ideally the general body of scientific knowledge should consist of facts and principles that are firmly established and accepted without serious doubt by an overwhelming majority of competent, well-informed scientists." (John Ziman. 1978. Reliable Knowledge. Cambridge.)

In project team decision-making, full agreement within the group of a course of action including all its details. This approach requires negotiation within the group of all the precise details. While leading to a higher level of ' buy-in', the result tends to be equivalent to the 'lowest common denominator'. Negotiation s may be protracted and the final course not necessarily optimal and in the best interests of the project goals. (See also Consent.) [D00288] RMW

Strictly speaking, a state when all interested parties agree to support an action or decision, even though all of them may not fully agree that it is the best action or decision. (i.e. consensus is not equivalent to unanimous) Many Open Directory Project issues (e.g. reorganizations) strive for consensus among interested editors.

A group reaches consensus when all members agree upon a single alternative and each group member can honestly say: I believe that you understand my point of view and that I understand yours. Whether or not I prefer this decision, I support it because it was reached fairly and openly, and it is the best solution for us at this time

When everyone on the team supports the teams decision without feeling they are compromising any important needs or values.

In general, any agreement. Also generally known as the OECD Censensus or Arrangement, this is an unsigned agreement of February, 1976 between Canada, France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States establishing guidelines for minimum cash down payment and interest rates, maximum repayment terms and procedures for notification when these guidelines are exceeded. The Consensus Arrangement was superseded by the Arrangement on Guidelines for Officially Supported Export Credits in April, 1978, which was subsequently accepted by 22 members of the OECD Export Credit Group.

A mutually acceptable agreement that integrates the interests of all concerned parties. Consensus is different from decisions reached through voting or an individual or body making a unilateral decision. Consensus does not require unanimous consent. An agreement reached through consensus may not satisfy each participant's interests equally or receive a similar level of support from all participants. Once an agreement is reached through consensus, all parties will be committed to its implementation. Back Facilitation A collaborative process used to help parties discuss issues, identify and achieve goals and complete tasks in a mutually-satisfactory manner. This process uses an impartial third party, the facilitator, who focuses on the processes and procedures of dispute resolution and decision-making. The facilitator is impartial to the issues being discussed, rarely contributes substantive ideas and has no decision-making authority. Back

International Agreement signed in 1978 called "Arrangement on Guidelines for Officially Supported Export Credits", later referred to, for brevity's sake, as "Consensus". This agreement is the outcome of the talks about regulating and limiting the various forms of subsidies offered by individual governments to domestic exporting companies. The goal of the discussion was to avoid harmful competition between exporting countries and prevent market distorsions.

An opinion or position reached by a group as a whole or by majority will: The voters' consensus was that the measure should be adopted.

Consensus decision-making requires that everyone agrees to a decision, and not just a majority, as occurs in majority-rule processes. In consensus-based processes, people work together to develop an agreement that is good enough (but not necessarily perfect) for everyone at the table to be willing to accept (Conflict Research Consortium, 1998).

One of the requirements of a legally binding contract is 'consensus ad idem', or agreement on the same thing, being of the same mind.

A result achieved through negotiation whereby a hybrid solution is arrived at between parties to an issue, dispute or disagreement, comprising typically of concessions made by all parties, and to which all parties then subscribe unanimously as an acceptable resolution to the issue or disagreement.

Proper name: Guidelines for Officially Supported Export Credits. An agreement between ECAs governing the terms of their support of export credit guarantees and interest rate subsidies.

Agreement among a substantial number of members, representative of the whole, reached after thorough study and group discussion. Consensus is not reached by a vote or simple majority.

A collective opinion arrived at by a group of individuals working together under conditions that permit communications to be sufficiently open and the group climate to be sufficiently supportive for everyone in the group to feel that he or she has had a fair chance to influence the decision.

A type of decision-making in which the group works on the cooperative development of a decision. Group members work together to reach an agreement they can all live with rather than competing against each other. This process can involve agreeing to disagree on some points.

Medical consensus is a public statement on a particular aspect of medical knowledge available at the time it was written, and that is generally agreed upon as the evidence-based, state-of-the-art (or state-of-science) knowledge by a representative group of experts in that area. Its main objective is to counsel physicians on the best possible and acceptable way to diagnose and treat certain diseases or how to address a particular decision-making area. Therefore, it can be considered an authoritative, community-based consensus decision-making and publication process.

Consensus is a problem in distributed computing that encapsulates the task of group agreement in the presence of faults. In particular, any process in the group may crash at any time. Consensus is fundamental to core techniques in fault tolerance, such as state machine replication.