Teams struggle with consensus decision-making. Consensus is not unanimity or even majority vote; it is substantial agreement to the point that all team members can support the decision in and out of the meeting.

Effective decision-making requires increasing the number of ideas (divergence) before narrowing the number of ideas (convergence). Brainstorming and Nominal Group Technique can be used to increase ideas, while Multiple Voting, Rank Ordering, and Structured Discussion can be used to narrow the ideas down. In combination, the two types of tools will help make a team consensus decision.