Group Decision Making
Techniques teams use to reach decisions, such as voting, consensus, or fist-of-five.
Group decision-making encompasses the structured techniques a team uses to evaluate options and reach a shared conclusion. Common approaches include unanimity (full agreement), majority (more than half), plurality (largest block wins when no majority forms), and dictatorship (one person decides). Fist-of-five is a visual voting tool used in Agile contexts to gauge consent quickly. PMI emphasizes these techniques because involving stakeholders produces stronger commitment and reduces resistance to change. The key exam nuance is distinguishing consensus from unanimity: consensus means everyone can live with and support the decision, not that everyone agrees it is best. Facilitation and retrospective scenarios often hinge on this difference — a team can reach consensus without every member holding identical views.
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