Consultation

Consultation is not to be confused with consultants or with situations where someone is consulted from outside of the group making a decision. What follows is a description of a particular meeting technique called consultation. It provides considerable direction on how to nurture collective thinking in order to gain the best possible understanding on which to base decisions and action.
Not all groups will want to open themselves as fully to a collective process as consultation suggests. The process aims to tap the synergetic wisdom which exists when a number of people come together for common cause.

The vision we need is more likely to arise in a group. Synergy is the tendency of whole things to be greater than the sum of their parts. An example close to home is your body. Bones, muscles, organs, blood and all the other parts, if studied independently, do not provide an understanding of who you are. Similarly, your group has a whole greater than the sum of its parts. There is also a synergy that exists among all people longing for a harmonious relationship with the Earth. Further strength can be gained from knowing that your group's sincerity will make it part of a much greater effort - an effort sufficient in its potential to meet and overcome the difficult challenge of our age. If your group is not comfortable with all the steps suggested here, use as much as you feel is useful.

Come together with confidence that there is a common solution to whatever questions you are going to discuss. As I mentioned earlier, a mental picture of what we want to achieve helps us find a way to get there.

Once the group is assembled, before embarking on the business of the gathering, it helps to take a few moments to focus your attention, to empower the spirit of the gathering. Sometimes holding hands to connect the circle for a few moments of silence is helpful. The mood of the meeting can be further guided by expressing the wish, silently or verbally, for guidance and inspiration from the whole greater than ourselves.

"Help us to make the best possible decisions for the effectiveness of the group, for the well being of the seventh generation and for all life on Earth."

So met, the gathering is ready to proceed. These four rules will guide discussion to more productive ends.

1. When an idea leaves a person's lips, it no longer belongs to the individual but becomes the possession of the circle.

Individuals let go of the ideas they offer, and comments are directed at the ideas and not at the people who happened to introduce them. Ideas can be too important to bear the baggage of individual personalities. Without this precaution good ideas are sometimes neglected for reasons that have no relationship to the ideas content.

Every effort should be made to avoid ridiculing anything that is presented. Intimidation of any sort will discourage people from offering divergent views and the whole group will be poorer for the loss of perspective. The precaution of separating ideas from the people who voice them creates a safe environment that encourages adherence to the second rule.

2. Participants are expected to express everything that comes to heart or mind on the topic being discussed, even if it goes against what they themselves feel or the mood of the meeting.

This is sometimes called brain-storming. The mind in free-association can come up with ideas that have not been considered before. They are worth adding to the process. If any perspective on the topic goes unexpressed, the group will not have a full picture to work with and there is a chance that something important will be missed. If the topic of discussion has been seriously researched elsewhere, an effort should be made to include the research findings for consideration as well.

3. When conflicting views do arise, they are not to be avoided.

Differing opinions must come into contact so that the sparks of their confrontation can illuminate the truth of the matter. At these times, however, it is most important to remember that it is the ideas that are clashing and not the people. There is no harm in this sort of confrontation if the group has been diligent in detaching the ideas from the people; indeed, valuable insights can be gained from the exchange. Recall the wish at the commencement of the meeting for decisions to emerge that are best for all involved. If this wish is sincere, participants can watch the fireworks of the interaction in anticipation that the truth of the matter will emerge when all is said and considered.

4. If total agreement is not reached but a significant majority feel they have identified an appropriate course of action, dissenters are asked to go along with the plan.

The purpose of this is to avoid confusion about the decision when it is being implemented. If there is not total cooperation in implementing a decision, and the action fails, it will not be clear whether the failure was due to a wrong decision or to the lack of cooperation. The distinction is important for guiding future actions.

Since all perspectives are to be given due consideration at the time of the meeting, any shortcoming

arising as the plan unfolds will be viewed in the light of the divergent views. If everyone is trying to make the plan work and it doesn't, it will be clear that something is wrong with the decision, and it can be reconsidered at another meeting.

Attitudes

In the tradition from which consultation arose, a number of attitudes have been identified that, if cultivated, can help people become increasingly effective in the process. These include:

• Courtesy; listening with interest to all ideas expressed and speaking the content of one's own mind fully and with clarity.
  
  
• Aspiration; allowing and encouraging our better selves to dominate our weaknesses.
  
  
• Detachment; allowing equal respect for all views whether they come from our own lips or from someone else's.
  
  
• Humility; to remove the obstacle of one's own importance and thereby enable serious consideration of what others say.
  
  
• Patience; to hear all that is being said before forming judgments.
  
  
• Service; to accept the responsibility of looking for the truth by expressing all that comes to mind related to the topic and in turn listening to all opinions put forward.

We are threatened today by a wide variety of environmental dangers. We need the synergistic strength of working together. By offering the best of our understandings and opening our minds to consider the offerings of others in the spirit of consultation, the collective wisdom of a group can emerge.

Think of our minds as the product of millions of years of development, our languages as a gift from thousands of years of communication and knowledge as the cumulative product of human experience. In this light, it is not so hard to see that what we accomplish with these tools is a part of something far greater than ourselves. By aligning ourselves with this greater whole, we will have the strength to make the future bright again.