CONSENSUS DESIGN PROCESS
CONSENSUS DESIGN: OVERVIEW OF 7-STEP PROCESS
The consensus design process is the result of the collaboration between Dr Margaret Colquhoun and Prof Christopher Day in the 1990’s, bringing together a Goethean scientific method with action research for sustainable development. It builds on insights from natural science, social science and spiritual science, to enable a holistic approach to phenomena as evolving living organisms.
The process can be applied in full and run in cyclical patterns to achieve regenerative sustainability (7-steps on annual or reoccurring cycle), be used project specific for individual outcomes (one-off targeted) or be only applied in parts as auditing tool (steps 1- 4 only).
It can be framed by two further steps, a pre-cognitive, intuitive grasp of the initial situation (whilst not rationalised, this often shows striking resemblance to later methodical findings) and a post completion review (to trace systematically real life performance).
1:Facts: ‘taking stock’, assets, development plans and other strategic documents, i.e. existing assets & resources of the organisation.
2:Processes: life cycles, progress with plans, transitions & time dynamics, i.e. efficiency of strategies and policies in use.
3:Context & culture: sensing the dynamics, motivations or tensions that induce or drive change, i.e. effectiveness of our values in practice.
4:Essential task now, my relationship and responsibility to the whole, connecting to the source from where I become generative,
5:Inspiration/ apprehending new ideas: gesture and direction of renewal, seeing synergies & relationships, emergent future in context.
6:Taking form/ prototyping: growing ideas into matter, expanding the imagination, translating change picture into actions & plans.
7:New Manifestation: new forms in practice, working with and from the new paradigm or newly created situation, acting on the future.
Related practices:
Consensus design found wide resonance with urban phenomenology, eco-architecture, Goetheanism, Anthroposophical medicine, Waldorf pedagogy, Camphill and holistic social sciences at the turn of the millennium.
From there it found entry into organisational management and leadership trainings, pioneered by Otto Scharmer as Theory-U, in collaboration with the Presencing Institute at MIT and since 2012 it is also integral to the programmes of the GNH Institute in Buthan.
The UN adopted it into the global strategy for ‘Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm’ and commissioned a World Happiness Report including a GNH Index, which gets regularly updated.
In the sustainability sector it is often referred to as co-creative practice and viewed as a holistic pathway to systemic change and transformational leadership.
Within the Anthroposophic framework it can be referenced back to Steiner’s concepts of Three-foldness (integrating body, soul and spirit), Four-foldness (four elements and realms) and 12-foldness (wholeness). The seven steps can be related to the seven life processes and some organisations derive from it seven archetypal care qualities.