Consensus to Consent

With consensus everyone must say yes. With consent no one says no.

I remember when we introduced this at Spotify. Leadership felt it took way too long to make decisions - almost like paralysis by analysis. But once understood it was a fairly simple shift to get teams moving faster.

There are very few decisions we can’t reverse if they fail. Consent helps us move quickly toward either failure or success. Continuing to analyze and second guess rarely moves us forward.

One challenge with consent is that someone needs to make a stand. If discussions are endless then it might not be consent that’s lacking. It might be that no one cares strongly enough to put a stake in the ground. Or worse it might be a sign that no one feels psychologically safe to make a mistake.