Consensus is no way to solve a problem

Consensus is a word that entered the American lexicon in the 1970’s.  In simple terms that I understand, it means agreeing on a course of action.  It’s most usually used when a group of friends try to decide where to go to dinner.

Recently the City of Lacey convened a group of citizens and charged them with coming up with some solutions and recommendations to help solve the homeless problem in the city.   After more than a year of meeting and after losing more than half of its members, the group made a series of recommendations that seemed to be the perfect example of consensus.

Those recommendations were general in nature and full of words used in most conversations when you didn’t want to hurt anyone and want everyone to be happy.   Useless.

They say if you want to make an omelet you have to break some eggs.  That’s true.  But, like trying to agree on a place to eat, someone is going away hungry and someone else is going away with a full belly.

The homeless issue calls for leadership.  Next time, set a direction and a goal and convene a group to get there.  At the end, some are going to go away unhappy and some are going to be ecstatic.  But, at least you’ll have something to eat, if you want to.