Mark Harbeke

Last week I wrote on employee engagement around group decision making. Working off an article by the Wharton School, I surmised that as a company grows, its ability to reap returns from making all major company decisions by consensus worsens. In other words, I asked, Is size the enemy of consensus decision making?

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Bill Witherspoon, CEO of The Sky Factory – an Iowa-based factory-direct product manufacturer and distributor that's one of 40 finalist organizations for our 2010 Top Small Company Workplace award – left a comment. I thought it was so insightful that it deserved its own post. Here's part of Witherspoon's response to the question I posed:

The barrier to consensus is not group size or number of participants. The barrier lies in:

Different levels of information among individuals within the operation (the result of transparency or lack thereof).
Different "political" agendas within the operation (the result of hierarchical management systems).
Lack of uniformly understood goals of the operation.
Lack of history - meaning the longer consensus decision making is practiced, the more efficient it gets as the group becomes familiar with the process and develops a deep understanding of the entire operation to which decisions apply.

I can't deny that Witherspoon's relentless focus on building and relying on consensus decision making – including getting rid of the barriers he mentions above – has produced incredible results for his business: Only 8 years old, The Sky Factory grew revenues in 2008 and 2009, both of which were devastating years for their marketplace peers.

Related: Witherspoon mentioned in his comment that the company posts their workplace culture values on their website. Here's the link to that page and their five "cultural principals." I think they're a fantastic foundation for team engagement activities, whether or not a company leads by consensus.

Photo credit: KRUU 100.1 FM