Listen to part of a lecture in a business class. So when a company wants to make a decision, say they're deciding on a new workplace policy, one type of decision making process they might use is called consensus. With consensus, the benefits and drawbacks of different decisions are discussed until every single member of the group agrees on a particular decision, rather than just taking a vote and going with what the majority wants. Making decisions through consensus takes time. It can be a slow process, but consensus has certain benefits for a company. What are they? Well, for one thing, it can lead to better decisions, since consensus requires that all concerns thoroughly discussed and resolved, only then is a decision that everyone agrees with mate in addressing everyone's concerns, the group is able to consider more potential problems and arrives at a decision that's good for the company overall. For example, say, there's a restaurant chain with locations all over the country, and all of its managers meet to decide on a dress code policy for servers. Some managers think servers should wear black pants, but managers from warmer areas of the country express concern that their servers will be too hot if they have to wear pants. Eventually, everyone agrees to allow servers the option of wearing black shorts and skirts as well. Another benefit of consensus is it encourages leaders involved in making the decision to have a stronger commitment to it. If a decision is made by a majority vote and some group members don't agree with it, they may not feel motivated to enforce the option that's chosen, but when consensus is reached, all members have approved the option and are more likely to put it into action going back to the restaurant chain, since all managers had agreed on the dress code, if servers came to work wearing green, their managers would be more likely to tell them they have to wear black.