CONSENSUS
I have
found that on the whole the experience we had over the weeks and weeks
and weeks of discussion produced a realization that in a group
environment the expectation of finding quick and easy answers was
replaced by the perspective that reaching consensus requires patience
and endurance born of the belief that in the end a solution will be
forthcoming. Progress becomes measured by counting individual
successes and not by the velocity of achieving them. Each success
is the product of the sharing and brutal murder of beloved ideas cast
on the alter of negotiation and the subsequent resurrection of the left
over parts Frankensteined together and transformed into a thing of
beauty. Consensus is not the product of an easy birth. I might add that this perspective has been very beneficial several times of late in constructing group agreements.