Sense and decide
Sense of the meeting
Find a way forward everyone can stand behind
On a high-stakes decision, finding a way forward the whole group can stand behind rather than a narrow vote that leaves a minority dragging its feet.
Borrowed from the Quaker business method, in which a meeting looks for a decision everyone can support instead of holding a vote. Read the original source.
Changes a rule or role · Minutes to start · Anyone on the team can start it
Try this first
Instead of voting, keep drawing out views until you can name a way forward everyone can stand behind.
Use it when
A decision important enough that a defeated minority would quietly drag its feet.
Skip it when
It suits high-stakes decisions where shared ownership matters and there is time. It is wrong for routine or urgent calls, and it must never be used to pressure a genuine dissenter into agreeing.
How to introduce it
On a high-stakes call, skip the quick vote and work toward a shared way forward the whole group can get behind. The Quaker business method calls it the sense of the meeting, where the group seeks the wisest course and one grounded insight can outweigh several shallow ones. A decision reached this way carries everyone into action.
How to show up
Draw out every view and test whether a common direction has emerged. Do not force it. Tell a real shared sense from people who are tired or under pressure to wrap up.
How long it takes
Longer than a vote. This is for decisions worth the time.
What makes it hard
It is slower than voting and it takes skill to tell shared conviction from exhaustion. The risk is manufactured unity. An unresolved dissent should hold the decision rather than get smoothed over.
What it looks like when it's working
The decision carries the whole group, including those who started elsewhere, and no minority drags its feet afterward. Compliance followed by resistance means you held a vote in disguise.
How long until it sticks
Several high-stakes decisions before the group can reliably reach genuine shared direction.
How you know it stuck
The team seeks a way forward everyone can own on its biggest calls.
The idea behind it
A narrow majority produces a decision half the room does not own. Unity of action beats speed on the calls that matter.
Where it comes from
Quaker business method. A quick vote on a contested AI decision leaves a losing side to drag its feet through the implementation. The group looks for a way forward everyone can stand behind rather than a majority. One grounded objection can outweigh several casual agreements.
Why it matters for senior teams
It shapes direction and consequential decisions
Also fits: Decisions don't close, or nobody knows who decides
Home problem: Big calls are made by too few people, or for too short a time