What I Liked Best About the Workshop:



• The interactive part because it is helpful to act out what you’re learning to make sure you have a comprehension of what is going on

• Role play consensus; practice in consensus building

• The instructors were very knowledgeable. This helped to reaffirm some of the other leadership skills I have learned.

• The complete reference guide; the information booklet

• I liked the fact that things were explained fully

• Consensus was a foreign experience to me.  This gave a good overview of it along with some practical experience.

• The variance in activities: presentations, overheads, question-asking, small groups, handouts on consensus, vivid worksheets/diagrams in packet.

• The opportunity to learn an entirely different skill set and approach to problem-solving.

• The subject matter was most interesting.  The Quaker’s use of consensus is both simple and complicated at the same time.

• How to behave as a group. Discipline, respecting the other and the other’s idea without nixing the idea and the person--how to dialogue.

• The idea of consensus itself and what it implies on the individual as well as the group scale.  

• Sometimes one can speak loudly just by listening. I enjoyed hearing how another culture views silence--it helped me see how we view our culture.
  
  
• That in a meeting, silence does not necessarily mean that the person isn't listening, there is an active listening which is part of participating.
  
  
• The process gives respect, dignity to all members of the group. The structure gives them an opportunity to listen and be heard.
  
  
• Teaching consensus takes time
  
  
• I learned that consensus truly is about building community and for a "common good" of a group
  
  
• That using consensus building techniques can be an alternative technique to get greater participation and "buy-in" to the decision making process.
  
  
• Reminder about separating position from personality. Reminder about frequent silence.
  
  
• Consensus requires commitment.

* From the midterm external evaluation of our program for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Prepared by Dr. Fran Berry (1998). Evaluation Report of the Earlham-Kellogg Program in Quaker Foundations of Leadership, January 1, 1996-December 1, 1997. Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University.