The full question

How can you accelerate workshops and decision-making when conversations get stuck, particularly when people must choose between two bad solutions?

My two cents

In French, we say "You have to choose between pest and cholera" when choosing between two bad solutions. Both suck, but you have to choose. But sometimes you have to choose between chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Both are tasty, but you need to make a choice.

So, how can you avoid conversations going around in circles and accelerate decision-making in such moments?

To do that, it’s useful to define at the start of the workshop how hard decisions will be made. Here three possibles ways to do that:

1. Set a decider role: The group could agree on who the boss or decision maker is, and when conversations get stuck, the decision maker could step in and make the final decision.

2. Use voting: The group could use voting when conversations get stuck, and the majority would win.

3. Define who is the expert for each topic: Another option is to rely on the person with the most expertise in a given topic to make the final decision when conversations get stuck.

Pressure build consensus

When as a facilitator, I announce that we will use one of these three techniques, people often suddenly find ways to build consensus as they don't want to use the technic. And if, even then the consensus doesn't happen, you just use the technics.

Adapt it to your work culture

The important thing is to define at the start of the workshop or discussion what the process will be for getting unstuck in difficult decisions. I showed here three ways of doing that, but there are obviously many more. Just use one that fits your culture.

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