Is consensus decision making inefficient?
Authoritarian decision making can be very rapid. In contrast, consensus decision making can take a substantial amount of time, especially if there are well informed but differing opinions. I have observed, however, that discussing the different positions increases the general understanding of the whole team resulting in higher quality decisions and better information. But let us consider the question more closely. What is meant by “efficiency”? If by “efficiency”, we simply mean the time between making a decision and acting upon it, then I believe the answer is clearly “Yes, consensus decision making is more inefficient.” If, however, by efficiency we mean “making well informed decisions based on a wider set of knowledge to best meet the current conditions,” then I believe that the team-based consensus approach is a far more efficient (and robust) model. Summary By introducing Scrum to an organization, principles of team self-organization are also introduced. The consequences of doing
