Paw Prints to Learning
Teach young people about animal welfare and how they CAN make a difference in animals' lives.
Activity
At-a-Glance
Time:
60 minutes
Materials:
- Chart paper and markers
- Pencils or pens for everyone in the group
- Copies for each member of the Consensus Building Guidelines and Bylines (Attachment One) Consensus Building Worksheet (Attachment Two)
Physical Setting:
Large room for the group activity
Quiet areas where small groups can meet to reach consensus
Sequence:
- 15 minutes for activity theme
- 10 minutes for individual ranking of community issues
- 20 minutes for facilitating group consensus
- 15 minutes for processing
Youth as Trustees
Age:
- 12-18
Philanthropy is:
- Giving, serving and private citizen action intended for the common good.
Purpose:
- To have participants understand the concept of group consensus decision-making; what it means, how to facilitate it and to experience consensus building around community issues.
Objectives:
The young person will:- learn how to reach a consensus on a particular issue or topic.
- demonstrate the effectiveness of using consensus as a group
process.
Activity Theme:
“If a person of your intelligence and competence and commitments disagrees with me, then there must be something to your disagreement that I don’t understand, and I need to understand it. You have a perspective, a frame of reference I need to look at.”
~Stephen Covey, Author, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Dr. Covey is the Founder of the Covey Leadership Center to empower people and organizations to achieve worthwhile purposes and lead principle-centered lives.
The facilitator explains that they are going to find
out what is meant by “group consensus,” when it is most
effective to use consensus with a group and how to facilitate consensus
with a group.
Review the following with the participants:
To say that consensus has been reached, there must
be a minimum level of agreement among all individuals regarding
a decision. When a group has reached consensus, every member should
be able to honestly agree with the following statement, which reflects
that minimum level:
“I understand what most of you would like to do. I personally
would not do it exactly your way, but I feel that you understand,
yet disagree, with my alternative. I feel I’ve expressed myself
fully and everyone has listened to me with an open mind and taken
my views into account. Therefore, since I trust the judgment of
the members of the group, I’ll fully support what most of
you wish to do.”
Activity Steps:
- Pass out Consensus Building Guidelines and Bylines (Attachment One—scroll to bottom of page to view). Review “What do we mean by group consensus?” with the group.
- Ask the group to share decision-making that they have seen or been part of that was reached by consensus building. Invite the group to consider decisions that cannot or perhaps should not be made by consensus building. (i.e. life or death decisions – this is not a good time to get the group to decide or highly emotional issues with deep values tied to them such as pro-life or pro-choice.)
- Review and discuss some of the other guidelines, factors and details. Ask for questions from the participants before continuing to be sure that everyone clearly understands what we mean by group consensus.
- Pass out the Consensus Building Worksheet (Attachment Two—scroll to bottom of page to view) and instruct each participant to rank the top five issues in their community.
- The facilitator divides the total group into groups of five people. Instruct the groups that they are to now reach consensus on the top five community issues in your community.
- Each person in the group will take a turn at facilitating consensus. Point out the “Facilitating Consensus” part of the Consensus Building Guidelines and Bylines (Attachment One) handout and review the role of facilitator.
- The first person in the group to facilitate will start with the most important issue in the community. While acting as the facilitator, that member of the group is no longer a part of the decision making on that issue. Once the most important issue has been decided, a new member of the group becomes facilitator and facilitates the decision on the second most important community issue. The process continues until every member of the group has facilitated consensus on one of the top five community issues.
- The facilitator asks each group to report about their top five
most important community issues and congratulates groups for their
first try at consensus decision making.
Processing Questions:
- How many of the groups were able to reach consensus and how
did you do it? Does everyone feel that consensus was really reached
by the following guidelines:
1. Agree to support the decision, though it may not be their first choice
2. Agree to support the decision as if it were their first choice
3. Feels as though he/she has had sufficient opportunity to influence the decision
- What was that it like for you to facilitate a consensus decision-making activity?
- If your group decided to do a service project around the community issue you identified, would you be able to support it? Why or why not?
- Where would you now like to try consensus building in your own life? Are there decisions with which consensus building would be helpful?
- Do you think consensus building might be important to groups of philanthropists who are giving their time, talents and treasures for the common good? Why or why not?
- What’s one thing you want to remember most from this activity?
Supplemental Activity:
Suggest that each member of the group try consensus building with a group within the next week or so and report back to the group how it went. Facilitating consensus is a real skill and takes practice.Activity Source:
This activity has been adapted from:
Community Partnerships with Youth Inc
Youth as Philanthropists
Additional Resources:
Decision
Making Model
Learning to Give Lesson (Grades 6-8) “Which
Shall We Pick?”
Unit “Giving
of Treasure?Heart and Mind”
Using Consensus
Learning to Give Lesson (Grades 3-5) “What
Can We Do To Help Others”
Unit “Just
what is a YAC (Youth Advisory Committee)”
Open Discussion
Learning to Give Lesson Five C (Grades 6-8) : “The
Project?Going to the Round Table”
Unit “The
Role of Philanthropy in an Ever-Changing World”
Attachment
One
Consensus Building Guidelines and Bylines
What do we mean by group consensus?
Group consensus is reached when:
Agree to support the decision, though it may not be their first choice
Agree to support the decision as if it were their first choice
Feels as though he/she has had sufficient opportunity to influence the decision
Yeah, that’s consensus!
PAY ATTENTION TO THESE DETAILS:
1. Try
to bring underlying assumptions about the situation into the open
where they can be discussed.
2. Listen and pay attention to what others have to say. This is
the most important characteristic of successful groups.
3. Be wary of early, quick, easy agreements and compromises. They
are often based on false premises that need to be challenged.
4. Avoid competition and arguments. Maintain a focus on what is
right, not who is right. When using consensus, the right decision
is one that the entire group can support and help implement.
5. Avoid voting. Voting divides the group into winners and losers,
and limits discussion.
6. Encourage everyone; particularly quiet individuals, to offer
their ideas so that everyone’s views are included.
7. Look for the best results to flow from a fusion of information,
logic and emotion.
8. Try to honestly listen to alternative ideas and be flexible
and open-minded enough to change personal views and positions.
9. Don’t get locked into limited alternatives. When there
is an argument between alternatives A and B, maybe the group can
find an alternative C or D that will satisfy everyone.
10. Use a “facilitative” leadership style that encourages
discussion and participation.
11. Record issues, comments and ideas on a chart paper or other
visual aid. Don’t put names by items as this can increase
ownership and sift the focus to “who” is right.
Factors
influencing decision-making methods include:
1. Group size
2. Time
3. Need for buy-in
4. Quality of decision needed
5. Consensus possibility
6. Amount of division on issue
7. Working relations in the group
Consensus
works best when:
1. Group size is small.
2. Time for discussion is plentiful.
3. Need for buy-in is high.
4. Quality of decision must be high
5. Possibility for consensus is high.
6. Expertise on topic exists among group members.
7. Amount of division on issue is not so high that it makes consensus
impossible.
8. Working relations in the group make discussion, creativity,
and flexibility possible.
9. The group is focused on a shared goal that can help individuals
rise above differences.
Note: Decision-making is situational and consensus
is not appropriate in all cases.
Facilitating
Consensus
How Do I Help A Group Reach Consensus?
The facilitator
is
Neutral
Focuses on the group process, not content
Keeps the group focused and moving forward
Helps everyone have equal access to the conversation
Does not offer his or her opinion on the issues
Attachment Two
Consensus Building Worksheet
Assignment: Your group has worked together to form a list of
top issues in the community. Now you are to decide on which
ones to focus personally. First write your selection as an individual.
Select and rank the top five areas with 1 being most important
and 5 being the least important.
Select the top five areas on which you would like to work and
then rank them from 1 to 5 with 1 being your top choice.
First Column: Your Answers
Second Column: Group Answeres
______ ______ Drug abuse in the Community
______ ______ High rate of teen pregnancy
______ ______ No recreation center for youth
______ ______ Isolation of elderly
______ ______ No AIDS education in the school
______ ______ Lack of recycling facilities
______ ______ Major manufacturing layoff
______ ______ Lack of affordable housing
______ ______ Increasing number of homeless
______ ______ Growing dropout rate in middle schools
______ ______ Litter in parks along streams
______ ______ Racism
______ ______ No animal shelter
______ ______ Poverty
Philanthropy Theme Framework :
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